A sewVery Simple Luggage Tag Tutorial

Today I'm showing you step-by-step instructions on how to make A sewVery Simple Luggage Tag. These tags are great for a number of bags and not just luggage, so you'll want to make a few to keep on hand. Plus, they don't require much fabric which makes this an ideal project to use up all those fabric scraps!

I meant to put together this tutorial months ago when I made my daughter this Gingercake Getaway Duffle Bag.  I had all the tutorial photos taken, but then the holidays came and I didn't get them edited right away!  You'll see what I'm talking about in a minute!

These luggage tags use a piece of clear vinyl on the front side so you can slip a business card or piece of paper in it and still have your information visible.  You can buy the clear vinyl at fabric stores in varying thicknesses.  The one I used is a medium grade vinyl.  Since you will be covering the edges of the vinyl and not sewing directly on top of it, you won't need a special sewing machine foot to sew these together.

Are you ready to get started?  

* If you'd like a tag that doesn't hang down as far, you can simply shorten the strap by 2 or 3" before folding it in half and sewing it as shown above.

If you want, topstitch this seam before moving on to the next step.

See how sewVery simple that was?!

Here are some examples of the first three that I made while developing this tutorial.  At first, I tried to use a continuous piece of bias to go around the corners (see the two out of the deer fabrics below), but that produced some pretty wonky results especially from the back side of the luggage tag (not shown).

I then decided to use separate pieces of binding for all the edges as I describe in the tutorial above and make the overall tag a bit smaller.  This size is nice because it holds a business card.

In the luggage tag below, you can see the front (with the raccoon) and the back (with the moose).

My kids love using them on their duffle bags, backpacks, and sports bags. Plus, my heart melts seeing their little handwritten names inside the cute tags.

They serve double duty on suitcases when you are at the airport by not only providing a place for your personal information, but they also help to easily identify your bag among a sea of mostly black suitcases!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have fun sewing!