Name tags? Forget ordering them! Make your own with your Janome sewing machine!

I have had the pleasure of hosting my disabled brother for a vacation here in Canada recently. While with us, we purchased a good deal of new clothing for him so that he could return to South Africa with the new garments he needed. I needed to sew name tags with his name and laundry number onto several dozen items. I did not have time to order printed name tags so I did even better: I used the alphabet program on my Janome sewing machine to stitch out name tags. All you need is a Janome sewing machine with alphabets included as stitches. It does not matter if the stitches are 7 or 9mm wide. Both sizes will work. Many of our Janome  models from the 4120QDC and up have alphabets.

Possibly  you are thinking it would take a very long time to do this?  Actually it did not. I simply combined the letters of his name, his 2 digit laundry number with a couple of spaces between these.

I then used up scraps of ribbon and tape I had in my stash to stitch his name and # repeatedly along the length of the ribbon/tapes. It really did not take long – maybe 40 minutes or so?

All I then had to do was cut them apart and sew them onto his clothing in the inside neck or waistband. You should have seen his happy smile knowing his new clothes will find their way back to him on laundry days! I will admit I hand sewed the name tags onto his clothing…..it was a worthwhile task to do while watching TV, was a labour  of love and left no stitching on the outside of necks and waistbands.

Instead of name tags, why not stitch out your own designer labels to sew into the garments you create?

What about combining more than just the letters  you need for a name tag …….go a few steps further and add a pretty decorative stitch or 2 to your designer label. OR make a quilt label with a couple of rows of stitching with your name, name of the quilt, date and a brief description of techniques used? In this case, program or combine each line separately and then stitch along lines marked with an erasable fabric marking pen.

Expand your skills……use the features on your Janome sewing machine that you possibly do not often think about.