Vinyl gift tags - in downloads
Tips for sewing with vinyl in this tute.
This tutorial is for making gift tags with vinyl. These could also be used as luggage tags, or tags for a back pack. For this tutorial I am using vinyl because I have a lot of it, but you could also use oil cloth or a laminated cotton.
1.) You will need vinyl, card stock, and some ribbon, string, twill tape, ric rac or even hair elastics (basically whatever you want to use to hang your tags). There are other supplies that I will list throughout the tutorial in bold type.
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2 & 3) Mark your designs on the wrong side of the vinyl (remember if your design has a direction to trace it the wrong way since you are tracing on the wrong side of the fabric. In my picture, I am tracing the 1 backwards, so that it is facing the right way on the right side of the fabric) and cut them out with an exacto knife or scissors. For patterns you could use cookie cutters, clip art, free hand draw, or trace your child's hand &/or foot. You could use a number for a birthday present. A letter would be a nice personalized tag too.
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4-6) Now you might want to add some extra embellishments to your tags before attaching them to the card stock. You could use decorative hole punches to create a design on your cut out like. I punched stars on the Christmas tree below. You could also sew some designs on your tag. I wanted to sew veins on my leaf, so I marked the veins first with chalk then sewed them.
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7.) Now you will attach your designs to the card stock to get ready to sew them. I roughly cut the card stock to the shape of my tag. You will trim it nicely after you sew it. I like to use a glue stick to hold them in place while I sew them. I find the glue stick holds better if I give it a bit of time to try first. *You could use a picture rather than card stock to back the tags in order to make them more like ornaments. If you do this, you need to be a bit more careful about placement to make sure your picture shows up correctly.
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8) There are 3 ways you can attach your ribbon, and I will show you each one. You can add an eyelet to the tag after it is sewn, you can punch a hole in it after it is sewn, or you can sew the ribbon to the tag when you attach the card stock. If you are going to sew the ribbon to the tag, you want to add it now. Cut a length of ribbon, fold it in half, and insert the ends between the vinyl and card stock. This way your ends will be sewing between the two layers.
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9.) Sew the vinyl to the card stock with an edge stitch. I use the edge of my foot as a guide.
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10.) Now all your tags are sewn. Notice some of my tags have the ribbon attached and some do not.
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11.) Now you need to trim the card stock to match the vinyl. You can use either an exacto knife or scissors. If your tags have the ribbon attached you want to fold the ribbon out of the way as you trim your card stock.
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12.) If you didn't sew a ribbon in when you attached your tag to card stock you have a few options. You can punch a small hole and thread some embroidery floss through the hole with an embroidery needle and then knot the string. I have a small hole punch that I use, but you could probably also use an awl to make a small hole.
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13.) Another option is to add an eyelet and thread some ribbon through the eyelet.
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14.) Now all your tags are done and ready to use. Just write whatever message you want on the card stock. If you use a permanent pen you can also write on the vinyl. For my ds's hand prints I plan to write the date on the vinyl with a sharpie.
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*If you want to make these into luggage tags, I would cover the card stock with clear vinyl so they will last longer. I would first sew the vinyl to the card stock and trim it. Then I would write all my information on the card stock. Lastly, I would put clear vinyl over the card stock and sew that down. Alternatively, you could cover the card stock with contact paper. I would think that an eyelet might be the strongest way to attach your string for a luggage tag as well.
Re: Vinyl gift tags - in downloads
Can't wait to make some up with my boys :)
