Wednesday

Making Fabric Labels

Iron-On transfers
I am a whiz with a word processing program. I took the time to make some templates in MS Word so I could easily print out fabric labels at my convenience.  As it turned out, it wasn't as easy as I thought.

Making the square fabric labels is pretty easy. First, I insert a table in Word, then enter the text for my label and add a little graphic.  In the cell of the table, I then manipulate the text to the desired font and font size then center the text and graphic at the same time.  After that, I copy and paste the cell into all the other cells. Using the borders and shading option, I make a cute little frame around them, then made the cell borders invisible and then they were ready to print.

In order to print them on fabric, I use a laminated sheet of eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper.  Since I am too frugal to actually buy it, I made the laminated sheet by putting strips of packing tape on the paper.  It was nice and stiff and slippery. I then cut a piece of muslin a little smaller than the fake laminated paper and using masking tape, I secured it to the sheet.  Then I just ran it through the printer. I did have to give it a little shove since it was somewhat thick.  After I let it dry for a few minutes, I took the muslin off the sheet and applied Heat N Bond lite to the back and cut the labels out.

I use my old rotary cutter for all these paper cutting projects, so I don't ruin the blade on the rotary cutter I use for fabric. Ok, so this was much more putzy than I thought it would be.

I then attempted something new.  Iron-on t-shirt transfer sheets. Again, with the Word program, I made a table and added my name and logo and saved the file. All I had to do then is use the mirror setting on my advanced printer settings to print out the labels on the t-shirt transfer sheet.  Only one problem...my Canon ip4200 does not have a mirror image setting. Crap! I thought I would try using my husband's all-purpose printer.  Since we are all networked together, this would be easy to accomplish.  I just had to choose his printer from my list of available printers and open the advanced settings and viola! - there it was, the mirror image setting. Hooray - progress.

Of course, I would print out a sample sheet on plain paper to make sure it was going to work before using up a sheet of expensive t-shirt transfer stuff.  But wouldn't you know it - his printer was out of ink. Grrrrr! So he generously ran out to Sam's Club and bought more ink confessing that he should have done this quite a while ago.

I admit it's a little frustrating when I'm gung-ho on getting a specific task done. Even though I can fill my time with plenty of other little projects, I really wanted to get this one done. Once the ink cartridge was replaced, it worked like a charm.  I printed my page of mirror image labels and ironed a few on the twill tape I bought just for this project.

They turned out great!

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