ironing on Brother TZ Fabric tape to clothes

Brother make iron-on fabric tape for their TZ label printers.  These are mainly intended for clotheses.

I have TZe-FA53, which is 12mm dark blue on light blue.  And TZe-FAE3, which is dark blue on pastel pink.

The narrowest TZ tape where one can print a barcode, along with its text underneath, is 9mm.  Therefore, it would be nice if Brother also made 9mm iron-on fabric tape.

I'm currently adding asset ids to possessions.  I am going to need a lot of help with this in due course, if it's going to become really comprehensive and useful.  But it's already a bit useful.  The barcodes are scannable with barcode scanners that emulate keyboards.  And searching Trello for the id brings up any cards where the id is mentioned.  That's a decent start.  I allocate and print a range at a time, in several different prefix series.

When it comes to applying the fabric labels to fabrics, the Brother manual [1]  says:

  • prepare iron to 160-180C
    • note: I have an infrared thermometer. It's basically on max for my iron.
  • prepare extra piece of cloth
    • note: I have a Leifheit fine mesh ironing cloth designed for this purpose
  • press down firmly for 15-30 seconds
    • note: it's better to do it for more like 30 seconds. These things will fall off in the wash sometimes, anyway
  • remove ironing cloth
  • if it didn't work, try again
It then says the following materials are suitable if smooth:
  • cotton 100%
  • linen 100%
  • polyester 100%
  • poyester + cotton
and that the following are unsuitable:
  • wool, rayon, chemical fiber
    • note: I've applied it to merino wool socks and it seems to work fine. I guess one wouldn't want to apply it to a visible part of a nice jumper
    • I don't know what rayon is. 
  • pile (towels) and other thick material
  • denim and other rough-surfaced materials
  • waterproof materials
  • non-heatproof materials
  • elastic (stretch) type materials
Most items have a factory label, made out of whatever, to which it is fine to apply the fabric label, so the material of the item itself does not matter.  Socks tend not to have their own labels.


To clarify: one presses, one does not move the iron around.

No transfer of ink takes place.  Instead, the fabric label is attached in its entirety to the material.

I started by putting on a podcast, printing a series of 10, and starting to pack slowly for a ski trip, applying the labels.

My Leifheit ironing cloth:


Asset id applied to a Merino Wool sock, on the inside at the top back.  This was one of the first Merino socks I bought, from classic Oxford shop SS20.  I couldn't believe it, the first time I wore a pair for multiple days snowboarding, and they didn't pong.  I no longer wear them for multiple days, but it's nice to know there's the option to wear a pair for a second day if I run out.  This is not possible with other "technical" socks.



A "technical" sock, with the label applied on the outside, at the back top.  No factory label in these.  Applying with the hot iron through the ironing cloth does not appear to have damaged the material.  Since I didn't record it properly at the time, I don't know what material what they are.  "Technical" socks made of silly materials can even pong a bit at the end of a single day.  The big problem with this is: if one makes one's snowboard boots pong, the boots can not be rescued from this condition.  This has not happened to me, but has happened to a friend, and I had to share a room with him and his boots:




Here, a label is applied directly to a cotton T-shirt:




This infrared thermometer is great.  The iron is around 170C.  Here I took the reading by pointing it at the hot plate of the iron, then photographed it in front of the iron's dial.  It's almost on max, in the middle of the three spots at the high end:



A fabric label applied to the factory label of a pair of pants.  Most garments have these:





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