diff --git a/src/libgraphviz/lib.rs b/src/libgraphviz/lib.rs
index fa048346e99..9e4b7a6a4cc 100644
--- a/src/libgraphviz/lib.rs
+++ b/src/libgraphviz/lib.rs
@@ -421,6 +421,14 @@ pub trait Labeller<'a,N,E> {
 }
 
 impl<'a> LabelText<'a> {
+    pub fn label<S:IntoCow<'a, String, str>>(s: S) -> LabelText<'a> {
+        LabelStr(s.into_cow())
+    }
+
+    pub fn escaped<S:IntoCow<'a, String, str>>(s: S) -> LabelText<'a> {
+        EscStr(s.into_cow())
+    }
+
     fn escape_char<F>(c: char, mut f: F) where F: FnMut(char) {
         match c {
             // not escaping \\, since Graphviz escString needs to