Make Your Own Fabric CLOTHING LABELS: 6 Methods

Clothing labels give that final professional finishing touch to your sewn garment. They are a necessity if you are selling the sewn articles to others. I make these labels with my kids’ names as a sort of identification on their clothes. They also proudly mark the clothes I sew as my own.

With the methods described in this post, you can easily make these labels (Neck labels, hem tags, and care labels ) at a minimal cost. It would help if you had an inkjet printer which I assume you have. (Do not worry if you don’t have an inkjet printer; there are other options like stamping, embroidering the letters as a beautiful (but labor intensive) way of personalizing your clothes)

How to make your own easy clothing labels

The different methods you can use to make clothing labels are:

Using a freezer paper
Using a heat transfer paper
Using a personalized stamp on fabric or ribbon
Printing on Ribbon
Printing on Paper Backed Fabric Sheets
Using a Fabric Marker on Linen

The first step to making the clothing labels is to design the artwork.

Designing the artwork

Common size range for most clothing labels is:

Width: 1/2 inch to 2 inches (1.27 cm to 5.08 cm)
Length: 1 inch to 3 inches (2.54 cm to 7.62 cm)

PowerPoint is my preferred program for creating logos and wordings for clothing labels, name tags, and embroidering letters and initials. The steps involved in creating the wordings are as follows:

Create a new Powerpoint file.
Go to the insert tab and select the text box or word art under the format tab. Refer picture below.
Type in the wording you want on the clothing label; style it the way you want. The program has readymade shapes like a circle, rectangles, etc., into which you can insert your wordings. You can insert your logo as a picture as well. Initially, make this big, then you can reduce the size so that it does not pixelate and lose clarity. A 300 PPI (pixels per inch) is a good standard resolution.
Save the final image as a picture. Now you can use it for printing.

If you are using a word program – Go to insert; make the shape of outline you want; go to format and add other design elements. You can fill the shape with the color you want; Add texture. You can add a picture also. Then add your logo inside, or you can type any sayings or your business name in the font you want.

If you are planning to make a lot of clothing labels or name tags, it makes sense to print the whole page with your designs closely together and cut them out one by one.

To print directly onto the fabric using method 1 using freezer paper, you should design the logo above and print it as it is.

But if you are using the second method you will have to flip the design ( for a mirror image) horizontally so that when you press it onto the fabric, it will look straight rather than reversed. This is a very important step to consider.

Reverse wordings

To reverse the wordings do the following.

In some printers, this property is inbuilt. Check out the Printer Properties link; you are lucky if you find a mirror image or rotation option.

In word, select the text box and choose Format Shape.You will have to adjust the 3-D rotation setting to 180. You will get a mirror image of the text.

If it is a picture, go to Format, then select Rotate , the picture will Flip horizontal.

By using the program Paint you can reverse images.

Copy the formatted text to Windows Paint. Select the text in Paint.

Choose Flip/Rotate from the Image menu. Select Flip Horizontal. Now you can copy this reversed text to your word or Powerpoint document. You may have to adjust the image size.

Method 1. Using the Freezer paper to make the clothing labels

Freezer paper is used as a stencil for painting or printing on fabric. It can be ironed onto the fabric to provide a temporary adhesive surface for applying designs manually.

This method uses an inkjet printer to print on your fabric with the printed words. You need the following things for this method of making clothing labels.

Freezer paper
sew in Interfacing cloth or plain muslin cloth
Good sharp scissors
Printer paper A4 size
Inkjet printer ( Some inkjet printers may not be suitable for this. Check the manual)
Iron (Do not use steam setting)
Glue

Step 1

Apply glue on the non-shiny side of the freezer paper. Keep the freezer paper on the printer paper so that the shiny side is facing you. Attach it to the paper on the middle.

Step 2

Keep the fabric on which you want to print your label on a pressing surface.
Keep the freezer paper on it, shiny side down (touching the cloth), and press. Press with a mildly hot iron gently for 15- 20 seconds. Now, the fabric will stick to the paper.

Step 3

Keep the prepared fabric on the printer so that the cloth is on the face where your printer will print (this is different for different printers so make sure that it is correctly placed on your printer. The fabric side is to be printed)

Step 4

Print out the design; Take out and press on the back side with the mildly hot iron to set the ink.

Now you can attach it anywhere you need your own clothing label.

Method 2 – Using heat transfer paper

Heat transfer paper method involves printing a design onto special paper and then transferring it onto fabric using heat (like an iron or a heat press). The label looks more polished look than the one made with freezer paper stenciling.

Materials needed for this method

Iron on transfer paper / heat transfer paper
Plain muslin cloth or ribbon ( 1/2 inch works well)
Good sharp scissors
Printer paper A4 size
Inkjet printer ( Some inkjet printers maynot be suitable for this. Check the manual)
Iron (Do not use steam setting)
Ironing surface – better not to use the regular ironing board. You need a hard, smooth, and heat-resistant surface for pressing.

The general idea of iron on heat transfer paper is that when you iron it on a fabric face down, it will transfer the print onto the fabric.

You can use muslin cloth or ribbon to make clothing labels with this method. I prefer using ribbon for this work, but you can also use a regular muslin cloth. With muslin cloth, you will have to finish the 4 edges, whereas for a ribbon you will have to finish the two edges only.

When using ribbon, ensure that the height of the design is smaller than the width of the ribbon.It may be a prudent step to try a test printing to ensure that the design fits your ribbon.

Step 1

Print the design on the heat transfer paper/ iron on the transfer paper.
Check which is the right side and wrong side of the paper. Your printer may have different settings for loading the paper, so be aware of that. Your printer’s settings may have options to print on heat-resistant paper. Select that.

Cut out the design to the appropriate size. Trim the design so that you have a 1/4-inch edge around the image. Cut off everything other than the image you want on the clothing label.

If you are using ribbon, you need individual cutouts transferred one at a time, but if you are using a big piece of muslin, you can transfer the whole sheet at a time and then cut each one out individually.

Step 2
Keep the design on the ribbon/ fabric face on your heat-resistant surface—Preheat the iron, so it is sufficiently hot. Press with the hot iron for 15-20 seconds, hardly. You will have to press hard to transfer the image onto the fabric. Press hard as well as evenly so that the edges also get the image.

Cut your label with some 1-inch on either side. You will need to leave 1/4 -1/2 inches if it is a woven fabric. You can topstitch the edges by turning under the sides or using a fray preventer. You will have professional-looking clothing labels.

If you use a wide ribbon and cut out the label such that you can fold it in half, the long edges can be inserted into the seam thus taking care of the frayed ends.

The cheap ink in your inkjet printer may not be reliable to last a long time on your fabric; the print will eventually wash out, especially if you are sewing it on to a frequently washed garment. Watch out for dye-based ink; pigment ink is the apt choice as they are best suited for printing on fabric.

The cheap ink in your inkjet printer may not be reliable to last a long time on your fabric; the print will eventually wash out, especially if you are sewing it onto a frequently washed garment. Watch out for dye-based ink; pigment ink is the apt choice as they are best suited for printing on fabric.

A permanent option is to screen print it like this lady at lilblueboo.com who teaches us to do it beautifully.

Method 3 – Using a personalized stamp on fabric or ribbon

This method is all about using a stamp to apply ink directly onto fabric or ribbon materials.

Using twill tape and an ink pad ( with fabric ink) is another easy way to make clothing labels. You will also need the stamp in your design. Letter stamps in the initials you want also work great for an informal label.

Materials needed

Fabric Ink (ink suitable for fabric that will become permanent when heat set) and pad
Twill tape or twill ribbon or another ribbon ( 3/4 inch and wider)
Rubber stamps (Get a custom rubber stamp in your logo or name of the shop or whatever you want on that will fit your ribbon)
Iron

How to make the clothing label with this method

You can order a custom stamp (with your logo or your brand name) from a supplier who specializes in crafting stamps. The ink used in these stamps must be fabric-safe, permanent, and ideally, water-resistant after drying.

Step 1
Cut the twill tape to the label length about 2 – 4 inches.
Step 2
Get ink on the stamp from the pad and press on the tape
Step 3
Press the label for about 30 seconds with a hot iron.

Method 4 & 5 – Printing on Ribbons or Paper Backed Fabric Sheets

This method involves using sheets of fabric that are backed with paper, allowing them to go through a printer. After printing, the paper is removed, and the fabric retains the printed design.

Method 6 – Using a Fabric Marker on Linen

This is a method where you manually draw the designs or text directly onto the fabric using fabric markers. The ink of the fabric markers do not wash off. It is more labor intensive as you will be writing on each label.

Alternative : Use hangtags. Printing hang tags on card to use on any product as an alternative to fabric labels.

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