Revised Luggage Tag Tutorial

Hello everyone! I am ridiculously proud of my little luggage tags I've made for myself. I made up the pattern from looking at pictures and a few tutorials, and combining the best of each. In case any of you would like to make one (or five) I'll put the steps here! They really are very simple, and fairly quick.

Using the measurements here yields a tag 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches.

Disclaimer: I apologize ahead of time if any of the measurements / seam allowances don't add up correctly. My machine's needle is a little offset, so the 3/8" mark doesn't actually give a 3/8" seam, etc. I know the equivalents to get what I need, and I've tried to correct it so the directions here actually make mathematical sense, but I could have missed something. Besides that, the bulkiness of all the layers tends to expand the measurements a little. But none of it is critical in the end!

{Materials}

like my photshopped 3rd piece of Craft Fuse? :)

·         Three pieces of quilting cotton, cut 3 3/4 x 2 3/4"

·         Three pieces of Craft Fuse (Pellon 808), cut 3 1/4 x 2 1/4"

·         One piece of vinyl, cut 3 x 2" (I used 16 gauge)

·         One piece of narrow elastic to match, cut about 10" long

             (I used clear elastic because it's what I had,
             but the regular stuff is probably stronger and better)

·         A Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat will make things so much easier

{Part 1: The Tag Back}

On two pieces of cotton, iron 1/4" of one short side to the wrong side. Sew the two pieces of cotton, right sides together, with a 1/4" seam allowance, around the three unfolded sides. Flip, iron seams, and insert  one piece of Craft Fuse into the pocket. Sew closed along the folded edges. Iron, bonding the Craft Fuse to the fabric and making the whole piece more solid.

Fold the elastic in half and sew to the tag back in the center of one short side.

{Part 2: The Tag Front}

Take the two remaining pieces of Craft Fuse, and mark 3/8" from each side. Cut the center out, along those lines, but leaving the "windowpane" intact (hee hee, finally a post that mentions a window again!).

Place one Craft Fuse windowpane, glue-side down, on wrong side of the last cotton piece. Make sure it is centered or you will have problems in a minute! Fuse the Craft Fuse to the fabric. Carefully, cut the center out of the fabric as you did for the Craft Fuse, but don't cut right next to the Craft Fuse! Leave about 1/4" allowance.

Cut diagonally into the inside corners, and fold the allowance up over the windowpane. Iron in place, and once the fabric goes where you want, then place the second windowpane glue-side up on top of the first, and fuse the allowance to it. Then fold the outside allowance in over the windowpane.

Allow it to cool and firm up, then use a dab of glue to hold the threads on the inside corners to the back-side.

{Part 3: Joining the Layers}

Topstitch across one short edge 1/8" from side of windowpane, to make sure fabric and Craft Fuse don't separate. (I didn't think of this until too late for mine)

Trim all loose threads before joining layers together.

Sandwich the back, vinyl, and windowpane together. Be sure to have arranged them so that the topstitched side is by the elastic, with the cut ends of the elastic inside the sandwich. Center the vinyl so that it does not show on any of the edges, and is covering the entire window-space. Use paper clips to hold the pieces in place as you start to sew.

Sew 1/8" from edge (should be just fabric) and then again, 1/4" from edge (to hold the vinyl in place). Start and stop at the topstitched edge, leaving it open so you can slide your info card in.

As another option, you could choose to sew the vinyl to the windowpane 3/8" from the edge all the way around, and then sew through all three layers just once, 1/8" from edge.

Taaaa - Daaaaa!

Ain't they bea-u-tiful?

May it please the supreme and divine Goodness to give us all abundant grace

ever to know His most holy will and perfectly to fulfill it.

- St. Ignatius of Loyola