Quilted Luggage Tag tutorial

So last week I made myself a couple luggage tags, attached them to my bags-full-of-quilts, and flew to Houston sans children to go to quilt market.

I just spent an hour trying to write up my experience of quilt market and I give up. The following words apply: fast, chatter, awkward, blisters, flattering, industry, thrilling, uncertain, lucky, powerful, big, touching, grateful, realization.

How about something concrete to offer you instead? Like how I made these luggage tags in about 30 minutes just a few hours before my flight? I personally think these would make great gifts because they are fast and likely to actually be used. You're not freaking out about the holidays yet are you? Yeah, me neither.

So you need a quilted piece, a backing piece, a 5 1/2" piece of elastic and a bit of clear vinyl. Yep, that's my fabric from Spoonflower, but you could stitch some actual selvages onto batting if you wanted to. Or use any scrap quilted piece (maybe a good looking section of a FMQ practice piece?)

You cut quilted and backing pieces 4 1/2" x 3" and then cut off the corners 1 1/2" x 1/2".

Fold the elastic in half and lay it centered on the top of the quilted piece.

Then the backing piece face down over that. Stitch around the outside leaving a hole in the far end.

Trim the corners and flip it right side out. Tuck the open end under and press.

Cut a piece of vinyl 2 1/2" x 2 1/4" trim if necessary to fit your tag.

Topstitch around the edge of the tag. This attaches your vinyl and closes up the hole at the bottom of the tag at the same time. I start stitching on the open edge and I used a piece of paper under the presser foot (but not so far under that the needle actually stitched through the paper)

And there you have it! Cut a piece of card about 2 1/4" x 2" to put in the pocket. Trim smaller if needed.

Whenever I saw one of these on my bag it made me feel happy. So do those knee socks from Sweet Marcel!

So there you are! Maybe these tags will go with me to another quilt market someday. Or maybe this was a one-time thing. Either way, I'm happy. Hope things are good out there, quilters!