Labels are for Cans not Crafters

“It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.”
~Margaret Mead

CPSIA vs FTC labels, what goes on what? What needs to be on the front? What HAS to be included? What is exempt? For every product it is different, and while yarn is exempt for some things, I must still label my items with the basics.
And from my reading the basics between the labels are:

CPSIA label

- Your company, shop name, or RN#
-The city, state/territory, & country where the item was completed
-The date of manufacture of the product
-If you make many of the same design then you may also need a batch number, but only if the pieces are identical looking and made of the same exact raw materials as each other and were made or completed on the same day (think hair bows and such)

FTC label

-Your company, shop name, or RN# (sound familiar?)
- Fiber content by %
- Fiber country of origin
- Care instructions

And apparently the Washington brilliants who came up with these tags both want their tag to be important and they cannot share space and they both need to be on the front. This is the only reason I can see for two tags. But hat sellers? If you don't use wool? You don't need a FTC label, don't ask, don't complain.

So I am on a mission to find sellers of labels and good examples of labels. Here are my findings:

Etsy Sellers:

Cherry Hill Designs custom printed iron on clothing and fabric labels CPSIA certified safe

Custom Couture Label a variety of labels including fabulous-looking iron-ons

Green Beans n Strings custom made eco fabric tags

JennifersJewels custom printed fabric or satin labels

Miss Label custom printed satin labels

World Wide Label large order custom woven labels


Web Retail:

Name Maker custom woven and size labels, quantities start at 20 for basic labels with their design, 50 for two printed lines no design, 200 for larger custom designed labels

NameLabels.com for the smallest label, it is more like camp labels, but it can work

Sterling Name Tape you can chose a wide variety of custom woven or fabric in batches of 100

Northwest Tag and Label custom woven and satin labels, batches start at 125

Fancyweaver custom woven and satin labels, batches start at 200

Everest Label custom labels, you have to request a quote and the minimum is 1200!


Organic Lables
Avery Dennison offers organic woven labels, minimums and prices are at request

Cruzlabel offers organic twill labels, minimums and prices are at request

BCI very nice, and eco friendly, but they are expensive and require large minimum quantities

Make your own lables:

German Doll's Tutoral about making her own stamp for her items. As a member of NaturalKids, these are all natural labels, way to go!

CurlyQDesign's Tutorial on how she made a template and printed her own label.

Jennadesigns Tutorial on how she made a template in PhotoShop and printed her label

DuhBe's Tutorial on how to make your own label, even one at a time, and what needs to be on your label

TamisCozies Tutorial on how to make ribbon labels with transfer sheets.

Jo-Ann fabrics has these printer fabric sheets for printing

Rubber Stamp Champ you can upload your label, pick your stamp size and use fabric ink to stamp you label in clothes

_______________________________________________________

FTC Official Website very confusing, but if you take the time, information is there on what is needed on your labels

CPSIA Official Website on tracking labels. Really does not offer too much help though.

EtsyBaby and EtsyKids fight for Handmade

graphic copyright Goldtone Designs http://goldtonedesigns.etsy.com

EtsyBaby Shops are now offering sales to help promote the shops that will be hurt by this new law. Check out the store here: http://shopetsybaby.com/CPSC

CPSIA Changes?

Well, there is hope.

My cotton yarn and organic cotton yarn hats have been deemed lead free by the government.

Duh.
And now resellers, such as thrift stores, and consignment shops have some reprieve from this strict law. http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html

Or do they? Read it carefully, it says that they can sell it, but at their own risk if it contains any lead. I'm not sure how many consignment shops and thrift shops are going to take this news. Exempt should be exempt, and that's that. These are not individually recalled items.

But like I said "The two-member commission, reacting to complaints from manufacturers, also agreed to exempt natural products such as gems and cotton from mandatory testing for lead. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a0Xr2Iw1Vi_8&refer=us

So this is good news for now.

And read this wonderful blog post from Rick Woldenberg , I especially love the title, but the entire post is dead on.

http://learningresourcesinc.blogspot.com/2009/01/cpsia-emperor-has-no-clothes.html

SAVE HANDMADE!

Right now there is a law that will end hand made as we know it for children starting February 10, 2009. This is terrible news for handcrafters and others who demand handmade natural toys and goods for their children.

Essentially, the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act written by congress, would put many handcrafters, like myself out of business. In short, no product that is intended for child use in any way is to be sold without being tested for lead. Now handcrafters are not against the idea of eliminating lead in children's products, but we are not the cause of this legislation. The real purpose of this legislation is to prevent unsafe imports for children. But what it will do is that every hat that I make with one skein of yarn needs to be sent out for testing. Every shade, equals a new test. Even if I have proof from the manufactor that my yarn is lead-free, this as the law is currently written, is not good enough.

How thoughtless were the writers of this document?

In essence, if this were to relate to the food industry, it would allow Kraft and Dole to stay in business, but would destroy local farmer's markets.

I say put the burdon of proof on the manufactors who are selling the pieces and importing products to sell. They can afford the costly (thousands) it would take to test the items because it could be done on a larger scale. It would be more streamlined while still ensuring safety for America's children.

Small business, I sell less than 500 items a year, should not be shut down because of a thoughtless and poorly written legislation. This country is run on a symbiotic relationship within each other, do legislators not realize this yet? When peple couldn't pay mortgages, banks began to fail, and now the auto industry is in crisis. If they brush off handcrafters, what do they think will happen to the millions of crafters who buy supplies to make and sell their wares in this country alone? Those stores will fail, more jobs will be lost, thus plundging our economy into more of a tailspin.

Good intentions, bad legislation.

Want to get the word out? Make some noise! Write your congressman and senator!