DIY Ribbon "Handmade By" Personalized Labels

I wanted to share my recent experience with trying to make labels for my children's crocheted hats.

It started out with a simple idea that I've seen before: Take a cute stamp and stamp it onto some fabric to make a label and sew it onto your garment (in my case a crocheted hat.)

Simple enough right?

<Insert big sigh.>

I had at my disposal an arsenal of stamps and stamp accessories, including multiple colors of ink, fabric pens, different kinds of stamps (meaning pre-inked vs. un-inked,) etc. (It's a crazy crafting lady thing if you don't understand so just go with it.)

Anyway, I took my rubber stamp, stamped it in ink, and tried creating my own label like I've seen on Pinterest.

It was a failure, to say the least. The ink spread in the ribbon-fabric, much more than I was expecting, and the fabric pen, well, that was a complete and total joke on the ribbon as well.

I did notice one thing though ~ the pre-inked stamp I had used came out pretty clear on all of my attempts to make my own labels, even though the rest of the work was not what I was expecting.

After a few tries of different types of ribbon, and at one point actual fabric to see what happened, I bring you my findings in this Instructable of How to Make your own Ribbon Labels.

Materials & Tools to Create Labels

• 7/8-inch wide grosgrain ribbon ribbon (color of your choice)
• pre-inked rubber "handmade by" stamp*
• iron, ironing board & ironing cloth

Note:

* I ordered my stamp from here: XStamperOnline.com. The type of stamp is called N04 and it's a 1/2-inch by 1-1/16 inch size with two lines. The site shows you your stamp prior to ordering, and I picked the following features: Top line-exotic font 350 size 14, 2nd line-script font size 16 and 3rd line blank.

What I did to Create the Labels

Take your pre-inked stamp and stamp it onto paper about three times to get an even ink print.

Make sure the ribbon is on a hard surface. Stamp the impression onto the ribbon and let it sit for about a minute.

On an ironing board, cover the ribbon with an ironing cloth and press the iron into the cloth for about 15 seconds tops. There's no need rub the iron around, just press down. I found the ironing cloth helpful to keep the ribbon white, as my iron is dirty.

That's pretty much it. Cut the ribbon with enough room on each side (at least 1/4-inch) of the impression to fold it over to sew it on your garment.

Sew the label onto your work.

I folded the label about 1/8-inch under the label before sewing it on for a cleaner showing edge.

I am not fond of sewing so I'm not really good at it. I should have used just regular weight thread, but I was lazy and used what was close by. I will use sewing thread on future projects.

Other Notes

I washed the hat with the label and it came out looking like when I first placed it on there. I know stamp ink sticks from previous "stamping and ink accidents," especially when it's ironed.

The grosgrain ribbon I used was 100% polyester.

Satin ribbon did not work at all as far as I could tell. Just a head's up if you try it.

Of course with a stamp like this, you could make many more label types than just the ribbon label as it's primary purpose is for paper. I hope you let your imagination run wild with the possibilities. Please let me know and show me what you use it for!