My kiddo started preschool earlier this month, and I was looking for a way to label her spare clothing because of the occasional wardrobe changes, from potty accidents to sticky/dried slime goo. Lost and found piles are pretty much ubiquitous in school settings, so I think this project is a win-win for teachers and parents! There are two types of Silhouette Printable Heat Transfer, one for light fabrics and one for dark fabrics. I decided to go with the one for dark fabrics because the heat transfer material is less opaque so the ironed-on designs show up well on both light and dark fabrics. The heat transfer material for light fabrics is more transparent, so it shows up best on light fabrics only. This project is so easy to do that you can certainly make a set of labels with each type of printable heat transfer! Follow along with this tutorial below to ensure your children’s clothes don’t get lost at school!

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Create the Clothing Label Design

  1. Create a rounded rectangle shape measuring 1.375 inches by 0.375 inches. Feel free to adjust your dimensions to suit your needs.
  2. Type child’s name with font of your choice and select the fill/line colors of your choice.
  3. For my project, I used the Miss Sallie Dots Font (ID#214540) downloadable from the Silhouette Design Store.
  4. In the Line Style window, I also increased line thickness to create a “bold” font style.
  5. Insert additional designs, if desired. For this project, I added several Print & Cut designs using creatures that my children likes, such as butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, and dinosaurs.
  6. Ungroup the Print & Cut design and delete the cut lines. We only want to keep the printed design.
  7. Resize the printed design to fit inside the rounded rectangular shape.
  8. In the Send tab, be sure to change the text (child’s name) to No Cut.
  9. Group together the rounded rectangle, text, and printed design.

Step Two: Send to the Silhouette

  1. Before printing, ensure that registration marks are turned on and visible.
  2. Copy and paste the grouped object as necessary to fill the entire 8.5-inch-by-11-inch Printable Heat Transfer sheet. NOTE: Do not mirror the label image.
  3. Check that your labels are inside the Print & Cut borders.
  4. Feed the heat transfer sheet into your inkjet printer so that it will print on the blank side (not the lined side) and proceed to print.
  5. Load your printed sheet into the Silhouette cutting machine.
  6. Go to the Send tab in Silhouette Studio®, and make sure you are using the proper cut settings.

Step Three: Apply the Label to the Apparel

  1. Peel the printed image from the backing of the heat transfer sheet and place it print side up on the fabric. TIP: I found it easier to peel back these small labels with an X-ACTO knife.
  2. Cover the image with a sheet of parchment paper that is included in the Printable Heat Transfer package.
  3. Make sure your iron is set to the “Cotton” setting.
  4. Press down directly on the parchment paper covering your image and hold for 60–90 seconds, depending on the size of your labels. For my project, I found that 60 seconds was enough.
  5. Wait for the heat transfer material to cool and then remove the parchment paper to reveal your custom clothing label!

And that’s it! This project is simple, fun to customize, and the last step (ironing) can be easily done one evening while watching your favorite show on Netflix. The Silhouette Design Store has over 8,700 Print & Cut designs and 8,000 fonts, so you can really get creative in creating personalized clothing labels!

What design would your kiddos’ labels have?