Labels For Your Yarnery: A Review And A Discount

For those who’ve never tried it, I have to tell you: blogging is mostly fun. The very best thing about it is that you get to chatter online with likeminded folk. A smaller benefit is that sometimes, you’re offered free things to review. Mostly this is stuff that’s relevant to your readership but you do occasionally have to write emails saying, “Thank you, but I’m not sure your drain clearance products would be of very much interest to readers of my knitting and crochet blog”. (It irks the Stoic Spouse that my blog isn’t about posh cars or suchlike. So on the off-chance that any of you work for Aston Martin, I’d be delighted to review a top-of-the-range DB-11 on my, er, knitting blog…)

A while ago, I was contacted by the Dutch Label Shop, who make customised labels for crafty folks. Now this did sound relevant. This post is a review of the experience, and whilst I was given some labels for free, the company had no say regarding what I wrote about them. It is, in fact, entirely coincidental that a member of their staff appeared on my doorstep a week ago and has been living in my house ever since, drinking my best green tea, and sitting silently behind me as I write this review, frowning…

So let’s take this from the top. Despite its name, the Dutch Label Shop is an American company, but they’re happy to ship worldwide. They make custom labels and tags for knitters, crocheters, and, er, sewers. (Maybe we do need those drain clearance products, after all.) They gave me a generous voucher, so I decided to order a variety of products for myself and for a couple of make-y friends.

You can order card ‘hang-tags’ with customised text and a choice of symbols, or with your own logo. Or you can order woven fabric labels in the same way, which can either be sewn or ironed on to fabric. They also sell labels with washing/care instructions, and various standardised labels, e.g. for garment sizes.

Harrumph, I thought: I don’t have a logo. So with more over-confidence than skill or training, I mocked up my own logo and pinged it off to them by email, requesting that they weave it on to labels and print it on to tags. When I’ve ordered sew-on woven labels in the past, options were fairly limited, so the process was quick, if dull. And you can go for the easy option here, too, by selecting label and text colour and size, picking a relevant symbol, and adding text. That’s what I did when I ordered these pretties for a friend:-

Things get more involved if you want to use your own logo, because the Dutch Label Shop has no control over the kerr-azy proportions of your graphics. I ordered some iron-on woven fabric labels and some pre-strung hang tags, and there was a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing by email over the following week as they asked me whether I was sure that I was happy with the dimensions that I’d specified. (Translation: “You, Twisted, are a blithering fool, and it demeans us to deal with your idiocy. Sort it out.”)

This was a minor faff, and it only happened because they were trying to protect me from my own stupidity, so I can hardly grumble. At least I knew that someone with some design sense had taken a look at my order. The company advertises itself as being very responsive to queries, and this was certainly my experience of them.

The voucher they gave me was generous, so I ordered a range of products, including these hang-tags for a toy-making friend:-

It’s difficult to comment on pricing because their products and prices cover such a large range. They aren’t the cheapest, but their products are of much better quality than the woven labels I’ve ordered elsewhere in the past. Aren’t these iron-on labels pretty?

The four different bundles that I ordered came to approximately £70 ($100), but I didn’t skimp on add-on options, such as cords for the hang-tags and an extra layer of thread to enhance the appearance of the woven labels. Once we’d finalised the fact that I’m stupid my design, they were despatched within a few days and arrived in the UK with impressive haste. The quality is excellent. Seriously.

The iron-on labels didn’t come with any instructions, but I managed to find some information tucked away in the FAQ section of the company website.

But look, they work!

Anyway, if you’d like to order labels of your own, Dutch Label Shop are offering readers of this blog 15% off orders for 60 days from the date of this post! Wa-hey! Just use this code at the checkout (all lower case): thetwistedyarn15

And now, back to the knitting. 🙂

Phil x