Week 2 : Labels
In this blog I will share pictures of my new labels, the story behind them and show you my first two sewing projects where I sewed them in!
The image shown is a photo I have had pinned on pinterest for a while now, to encourage me to make my own tags.
I’ve been sewing clothing consistently for nearly four years now, my typical label, if any, has been a white cotton iron on rectangle that says “morthunder” in black. Its decent, it does the job, but since I ordered them in early 2021, I’ve made some really incredible garments that felt far too fabulous to have such a vanilla label on them.
“what did you do instead, mOrGan?”
Great question, I opted to not label my makes in 2025 at all…. which is a bit sad. SO MOVING FORWARD to the new year, EVERY GOSH DARN THING IS GETTING LABELED with my NEWWWW custom, me-made, sewing label.
The new tags arrived a week or so ago and I’m in love with them. They’re very me. I drew the image on my iPad using Procreate.
When you flip the label up it says:
“Does not play well with dryers*
Authentic Morthunder apparel
Handmade in Australia
2026”
*contributed by my sister Brittany. 🥰
My sister's reaction to my new label was so wholesome, encouraging, and SOBERING. Which is an amusing combination.
I ordered 30 tags and the fabulous people at Dutch Labels* sent me 43, which I imagine was just the remnant from the sheet they printed. Which I feel is incredibly generous and also reassuring to know that there aren’t any of my precious tags sitting in a textile dump somewhere. 10/10
You will notice my tag has a tiger on it.
I've always been drawn to tigers and large cats. Whether it's art, a zoo exhibit, tattoos, etc.
I find it hard not to appreciate the art style that tattoo artists use to draw jungle cats, where the arms are contorted in a way that looks less than natural.
I have this memory of being a kid and bringing a disposable camera to my kindergarten zoo trip (mom, please message me if it wasn't kindergarten and I'll fix it, thx) and capturing a VERY fuzzy photo of a barely visible front half of a walking tiger covered by part of it's enclosure and being PSYCHED about it. I remember my mom being so happy for me because the tigers are hard to photograph.
The printed copy I got back from my disposable camera was a treasure for years. No matter how many deep cleans my room went through, that picture always made the cut.
At the age of eleven one of my gymnastics coaches pulled me aside and told me that I have an INTENSITY about me, like a tiger. And I needed to learn how to control it so I could harness it towards something productive.
Fast forward to my mid twenties there was another trusted friend (who I looked up to massively) who addressed that this same intensity (a lion-like intensity) would come out when I lead worship.
The bathroom door in our first house (a tiny house we built together) was a repurposed front door- turned barn door with a magnificent hand carved lion on the front that we sourced from the Rebuilding Center in Portland, Oregon. In it’s original forest green paint, it looked nice, but after we color matched it to the hanging lights, it fit our home perfectly.
Large jungle cats are very silly but they also demand respect. They are elegant, capable, talented, defend their family and have really sharp teeth, like me! I'm kidding. But I will defend my family, and I have really sharp canine teeth.
Here's a moment I'll never forget from a trip to Taronga zoo in August of 2024:
I was looking at a distant lioness through the glass (not my reflection) and whispering "come here" and from 30 feet away she turned toward me, walked right up to the glass where I was standing and looked me in the eyes. It felt very.... Narnia.
Then she did something insane, she jumped up and started pawing at the glass gently.
I witnessed the whole thing from the screen of my phone as I snapped selfie after selfie in equal parts honor and horror as this giant jungle cat was pawing in my peripheral vision.
And that concludes story time about my label, thank you for reading.
This Week's Creations
〰️
This Week's Creations 〰️
I first endeavored to make this project because I have a brief in my 2026 project binder to make a cute matching set like this image shown (copyright Syd Graham), but I wanted to practice the pattern first using fabric I didn’t care too deeply about.
Considering I had so much extra material I changed the peplum into a skirt just for fun because the most important pieces I was testing were the front and back bottom pieces which fit perfectly. Nice work Syd.
The really neat thing about this tester dress turning out so well is that I was able to simultaneously fulfill another brief in my binder for a “chuck on dress”.
This vintage gardening material was sourced in the GREAT STASH ACQUISITION OF 2024 when I visited my family in Vancouver Washington October of 2024 and came back to Sydney with an entire check-bag sized suitcase full of vintage fabric I found at an antique store in Battle Ground. I have a confession… that suitcase still sits in my house full of fabric.
I got this fabric for $5 per yard.
This micro checkerboard cotton fabric was a Remnant Warehouse find. Even though it was almost unbearable to stare at, because of the optical illusion it made, I bought it anyway…? I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I was just too attached to leave it in the store because I knew I’d probably never see it again. Obviously I have a problem with collecting fabric, which is why I didn’t allow myself to buy fabric in 2025… kind of.
Okay, I was a really good girl and only bought fabric twice.
The first time I was at Spotlight and found some brown sherpa fabric in the remnant bin and thought it would make a smashing sweatshirt for Iggy. (which it did, and I sewed it that day, which is why I felt ok about it)
The second time… well…. I found a listing on Marketplace for some white silk that was $5 AUD per roll. So I drove 40 minutes to check it out…and it was dingy and smelly… so after becoming fast friends with the 80 year old lady who owned it, she lured me (okay I went willingly, and I was likely whistling) into her sewing room and picked out a shopping bag full of fabric for $80. She was happy, I was happy and I’ve already made some things using the fabric I bought. In a way, it was a rescue. Right? Right?? I got home and thought, “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” as I was trying to find a spot to put my new fabric.
Anyway, I made two dresses this week, this is the second one. I am so fond of the way the tag looks with both fabrics.
I also found myself at the pottery studio a couple times to make some of the forms I will use for another project coming up this year.
*I ordered them from Dutch Labels and they turned out exactly as I envisioned them. The print is clear, the material is soft and flexible, the crease is very well done.
I'm 100% satisfied. There is also an option that I took advantage of where you can have them email you a test run of the label and give manual approval of it. ☺️
