Adding Labels to Knitting with Dutch Label Shop

Hello again!  I was approached by the company Dutch Label Shop to try their labels and offer a product review back, sharing my experience. My order was a combination of labels that they sent to me to review and labels that I purchased, within the same order.  I personally selected the items that I received (and purchased).

I have a Discount code to share with you today.  You will find the discount code at the end of this post.

I’m going to share today a second post in the Dutch Label Shop product review series (here is a link to the first post, a Product Review).

The application that I’m sharing about today is adding labels to knitwear items.  The outfit above includes:

• A hand knit cardigan (the Mazzy Cardigan by the Elizabeth Smith with Swan’s Island All American Worsted yarn in the Lichen color way)
• A hand sewn top
• Hand knit socks
• And a pair of Keen Mary Jane style shoes, picked intentionally to wear with hand knit socks.

I recently finished this cardigan for myself.  This was a special project as it took a few years for me to knit (I worked on other items, of course, in between starting and finishing the cardigan).  I also picked the special woolen spun yarn in an American blend of alpaca and Rambouillet fibers for this project.

When you spend time hand knitting an item (for a gift, for yourself, or for your family), it’s more then worth the extra time to add labels to the item.

I hand sewed each of the following labels into the cardigan.  I spent time sewing these in while watching television shows with my husband in the evening (so the process of hand sewing them in really didn’t take long, comparatively).

1. Brand label
2. Size Label
3. Care Label
4. Address Label

The first label that I added was a brand label.  For the brand label I made a Custom Woven Label on the Dutch Label Shop website.  I’ll share more about the process of creating a custom brand label in a future post.  As I shared previously, I don’t currently sell handmade garments or accessories.  I thought making and utilizing my own brand labels (just for fun) would be a special detail to add to my hand knitted items.

I chose to fold the top edges of the brand label down, as I hand sewed it in. I chose a large size of a Custom Woven Label (1″ wide by 4″ long).  When I’ve used up the labels from my order I would probably order a smaller brand label the next go around (but that is just personal preference).  I wanted to make a brand label that was large enough to see.  We’ll see, I may find after wearing the brand labels on different applications (hats, garments, etc.) that I may like to stick with the size that I picked for a future order.

I also added a size label.  This detail, although not necessary for me to know the size, it a nice touch to add to make your knitted garment look more professional.  It’s also nice if your garment is an heirloom piece, that the future recipient may enjoy knowing the size as well.

The next label that I added was a Care Label.  Although I hand wash my own wool garments, this detail is also nice to add a professional touch.  A label like this is REALLY handy when you’re giving hand knit items as gifts and you want to make sure the recipient knows that they can’t throw this item in the washing machine (or it may felt and be ruined).  The care label is also handy if some else is doing your laundry and they need this gentle reminder that the item needs to be hand washed.

Typically I would sew a Care Label into the seam of a garment.  This cardigan was knit seamless so I knit the label into the seam of one of the front pockets.  The following pictures show the front and back sides of the Care Label.

The final label that I added is an address label.  To make the address label on the Dutch Label Shop website, I picked the Custom Woven label option and then customized this label with my personal information.  Of all the labels, I felt that this one is the most necessary.  What horror to spend hours of time and a chunk of money on a special hand knit item only to forget it somewhere and never get it back.  I added my address and phone number to the label (but I’m covering this information with my hand, for privacy purposes).

Dutch Lable Shop allows you to add a custom image to this label as well.  I picked a spool of thread for my address labels (but there are MANY options to chose from including knitting, yarn, and sewing themed images).

I’ve also added brand and address labels to my favorite hand knit hat.  The following photo shows the brand label as I was in process of hand sewing it to the brim.

If you’re interested in trying Dutch Label Shop and would like to receive 15% off your order, you may use the discount code [oakbluedesigns15], valid through December 4, 2018.

Thanks so much!  I’ll be back soon with the next post, sharing how I’m adding labels to my hand sewn garments.