Back to School Sewing Notions

Today’s post is not about fabrics, but the super cute notions you can use to jazz up your back to school projects. As you know, there must be hundreds of tapes, name labels, fabrics with popular characters from Disney, Sanrio, San-x etc. So today I will not talk about those but show you some of the interesting ones that I like.

Printed cotton/linen and acrylic tapes.  These come in various widths and thickness. The printed linen tapes (top photo) are more like ribbons, and can be used for decoration, labels, and sometimes even hiding ugly seamlines. 😛

I bought this le sucre acrylic tape! It was kind of expensive but I just couldn’t resist the pink one.

Printed Linen Tapes – Top / Bottom

If you don’t like cutesy character themes, there are also lots of prints and colors to choose from. Printed linen tape is lighter and less bulky compared to acrylic tape. So if you can’t get hold of the thick printed ones, why not just jazz up a plain color strap by sewing on some pretty printed linen tape?

Next we move on to Name label tapes. These are a necessity even if you don’t do your own sewing, you will still need to label everything the kids bring to school because they lose stuff so easily. These are iron on tapes that come in a roll for you to cut off base on the length you need. There are even matching ワッペン (Wappen) which are embroidered patches.

Isn’t the robot adorable? I can imagine lots of little boys who will love this one.

For cat lovers. 🙂 The eyes are too cute!

I was really tempted to get this. Each set contains 1 patch, 1 strip of name label tape, large and small name labels. Each set cost 1260 yen! I thought it was pretty expensive so I didn’t buy it in the end 🙁

I found these online and thought it was really cute. I like how it is used on plain fabrics without a character theme. Just by adding on the patch it creates a totally different look. (imagine how plain and grown-up the bags and pouches will look without the patches)

I don’t remember coming across this series at all in the stores. I really like the colors on these. Not bright and cheery but more of a pastel palette. Don’t you just love the butterflies and bees?

This character series is called Rururu Friends. Other than the rabbit, there are other animal characters and lots of matching patches. You can use a combination of the patches to create a picture on the plain tote.

Last but not least, the hardware. In Singapore it is really hard to find D-rings and bag adjusters in the appropriate colors. If you want to get something that is not the usual standard sizes, more often than not you will need to stick to black or white. There are some basic color options available at the $2 shop but even then the selection is quite limited. So when I go to Japan I will usually stock up on D-rings, bag adjusters.

 

But why didn’t I see this one?? Polka dotted!

They also sell a kit with all the basic notions you need for making a complete set of school bags.

Color matching done for you. No thinkin required 😛

I think this is the last post on back to school sewing supplies. I will be back next Monday with a sewing video and tutorial. Guess what I will be making? See you guys on Monday!