How to make a luggage tag

After my last trip (to the festival of quilts in Birmingham in early august this year) I ended up waiting for my luggage at Bologna airport and ended up having to put two (!) suitcases back onto the conveyor belt, because even though they were identical to my suitcase, they weren't mine. So I decided to make a big and resistant luggage tag that would make it easy to identify my suitcase in the future.

Here's how I made it:

The tag measure 10x12 cm. For the front I prepared a quilted sandwich of that size folding the fabric over on the top (the other three sides will go into the binding).

 For the backside I cut a rectangle of transparent plastic (the variety that you buy in sheets sa cover for folders etc.). I then took three pieces of fabric folded in half (right side out) that I sewed onto the plastic. I placed the fold over the plastic from the right side and sewed it in place. Like that the double raw edges face outside and will go into the binding).

 For the upper edge (where there will be no binding) I folded the piece in half wrong side out and closed the one long side. 

Then I turned the right side out and added it to the top o the backside just as I did with the previous three pieces (the seam upwards).

 

For the binding I prepared a long strip (at least double the three side lengths with raw edges). I joined the two short sides to prepare a loop and then ironed the raw egdes  for the seam allowance towards the wrong side of the fabric on both sides.

For binding, I placed the front and back sides on top of each other, right sides out and clipped the binding in place all areound the three raw edges, folding mitered corners in the two angles.

I started sewing just above the tag, attaching the binding all the way around the rectangle and then continuing on around the loop, closing the strip all the way round.

Now all it takes is a cardboard rectangle where to write your information.

And this is how it lookes on the suitcase:

 Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
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