Personalized Lingerie Bags

Did everyone grow up chanting this rhyme?

I see London,

I see France,

I see so-and-so's underpants.

Not too big, 

Not too small,

Just the size of Montreal.

The Montreal reference had me wondering if it is just a Canadian thing (we're just so cultured here).   If you have never heard of this rhyme or don't call what you wear under your pants or skirts, underpants, then the project I just did won't make any sense.   

Now that we have that out of the way, read on... and see what I just made.

I've had the idea to make these lingerie travel bags for several years, but have never got myself organized to do it, until now that is.  It helped that my friend Kim recently gave me an ink jet printer, which is what you need to to use with the specialty paper for transferring an image onto fabric. Thanks Kim!

Here are the steps I did to make the bags (and the things that I did wrong, so you can learn from my mistakes - so good of me isn't it):

The first thing I did was sew the drawstring bag.  I looked for a thin cotton material and happened to find this white one, with little bubbles on it, on clearance, but a fine weave linen-type fabric would be pretty too.  The bags are fairly simple to make, just make sure you pre-wash the fabric and, when you are sewing the top part, leave a space to thread the string through.  (in looking back at the pictures I see that I need to poke the material out at the bottom corners of the bag - oops).

After I wrote the text and added the clipart on the computer, I had to reverse it so that the image would show up the right way round when printed.  This might sound easy, but it took some fiddling around and eventually involved getting my husband to sort it out.  If you are interested in doing the project and can't figure out how to rotate the text, then I can fill you in on what I did.  

Then I printed the image onto special paper designed to transfer an image onto fabric.  This is the one I used:

You can see that I made images for two bags on one sheet of specialty paper - I did this because the bags are not that big and also to save money as the paper is almost $3 a sheet.  I've since slightly enlarged the text (you can see lots of white space around the edges of the paper so there was some room to expand it) so that it fills more of the lingerie bag.

Then I cut as close as I could to the image in a nice neat rectangle.  This is important as you can see the material used to put the image on to the fabric slightly when you are finished.  You need to follow the directions very precisely on how long to iron for.  Although I thought I had timed it correctly, I obviously ironed a little too long because you can see the area is a little bit brown on the finished bag (oops - sorry Jenni).

Then you wait until it is cool and carefully peel off the backing.

And there you have it - your own personalized lingerie travel bag to give as a gift.  Now I just have to make the rest of them.

(I do apologize to all the women in my life as they now know what they are getting for Christmas)

Linked to Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville
Get your Craft on Thursday at Life as Lori 
Fabric Fun Thursday at Cheap Chic Home
Handmade Holidays Hooplah at Just a Girl 
Inspiration Friday Party at Southern In My Heart 
Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest 
Air Your Laundry Friday at Freckled Laundry
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia