DIY Luggage Tag

Told Ed Im making a luggage tag for him so here I go. You will need:

3 rectangle slabs of felt fabric - different colour, 2 for the base and 1 for the lettering. You can use different fabric too but preferably something sturdy since it will be slammed around during check in. Actually felt is a little fragile for this purpose but i wasnt gonna get 2 yards worth of new fabric just to make this tiny luggage tag. 

One string. Use something sturdy too. I dont know what mine is called but Ive been using it for a lot of my DIY projects. 

Stuffings. Mine is polyester. The kind they used for stuffed toys. I dont really like this. It goes all over the place when I try to pry them apart but I havent researched on other stuffings I can use. Ive had this pack of stuffing forever. It lasts very long. 

Cut out 2 base rectangle pieces to the size that you want. Allow extra 1cm on every sides. This is to allow space for the inner sewings. 

Also cut out one square of the other colour for the letterings. Make sure size fits and is proportionate to the base. 

I wrote out the letters and then cut them out individually. Would be easier to further cut them into the letter shapes this way. 

This is what it looks like after every letter is cut. Was planning to make one for myself too but my name has 8 letters so that sounds tiring already hahha. 

When everything looks good, start glueing the letters on the base fabric. Do not use the mini super glue type. They dry up too fast, stiffen up the fabric and you wont be able to poke your needle through it. After the glueing, start sewing the sides of the letter or any kind of sewing you want to keep the letters stitched tight. I guess you can skip this part but I want it to look good and be more durable. The letters look a little poofed up once sewn. I like this effect. 

Align both rectangles, outer part facing out and insert the string in the middle portion. Id suggest you do a mock measurement on your luggage to see if the length of the string will be ok. 

Pin all sides together once aligned. I usually use paper clips. When i use needles they keep poking me. This will help with the sewing. They will usually shift around if you dont. Allow a good excess length for the string to be sewn inside. 

You need to sew all around the fabric and allow a small open space at the bottom or anywhere is also ok. This is for you to flip everything inside out once you are done sewing. 

I prefer to use sewing machine. Much faster and sturdier and also neater. If you dont have one, handsewn is fine. 

Pull out the string slowly through the open space. Use scissors or chopsticks or whatever thin and long to help to push out the inner part. Be careful with the poking. Felt will stretch if you are too rough. And the stretched look is not pretty. 

This is after the reversal. Starting to look good! 

Grab your stuffing. I prefer to use stuffing since I wanna make it look fat and poofy. If you want to stop here and not use stuffing you can also do that. 

Squeeze a little into the opening. If its not poofy enough just squeeze more till your desired poof. 

Once done, sew the bottom part up. This part wont look very nice hence I usually try to keep the area as small as possible but if its too small usually  i have problem squeezing the inner part out. 

Ta daaa. Not too bad. Colour doesnt match my luggage but Ed's luggage is white so I think it will pop out nicely.