Naming Your Child's School Uniform Tips & Hacks
Image Credit: ©eParenting
Is naming all your child’s belongings for school giving you a headache? Yet it is so important. When the kids head back to school with their shiny new shoes and pristine school uniform, the last thing that you want is for them to get lost.
And your kids school will really appreciuate it if all your kiddo's clothing, bags and PE kit are clearly named.
Here are some top tips for naming you kids clothes, whether you like sewn in woven name tapes, iron on name tapes or stickers.
Tips For Sewn In and Iron-On Name Tapes
- When Should I Order My Name Tapes?
Order name tapes early. The summer is the busiest time and they can take up to 4 weeks to manufacture.
One really good idea is to order name tapes as soon as your child is born, that way they are in your sewing box when you need them - the time that you need them will sneak up on you I promise.
- How Many Name Tapes/Stickers Will I Need?
For a child who is going to an regular day school, about 70-80 woven nametapes will probably be enough for their whole school career, unless your child loses a lot of clothing.
Remember that sewn in nametapes can be removed and re-used, but iron on ones cannot.
- Boarding School Rules
If your child is going to a boarding school you will need to order around 150, as you will need to name all their non-uniform clothes, socks, underwear, towels and bedding as well as school uniform and PE Kit.
- How On Earth Do I Name Socks?
If you need to put a name tape into gloves or socks, apply it down the ribbing, not across. This allows the ribbing to stretch so that your child can still get their hand in! This applies whether you are sewing in or ironing on your nametape.
However to be honest it is much easier with socks to write on them in waterproof pen if you can. I just use a Sharpie for sports socks.
- Where To Place The Name
When trying to decide where to put a nametape, try to imagine where a busy teacher will look first. Usually it will be in the back of the neck for tops and coats or the back of the waistband for skirts and trousers.
Hide the label discreetly on a hem or seam and it may not be found.
- My Child Has Sensitivity Issues - What Can I Do?
If your child has particularly sensitive skin and finds that a name tape rubs the back of their neck, you will have to sew it somewhere else.
A good place is at the bottom of the front opening of shirts and coats. Remember to tell their teacher where the tape is sewn.
- Use White Sewing Thread
Ideally name tapes should be sewn into clothing with thread the same colour as the nametape, so it is a good idea to buy a reel of white thread at the same time as you order your tapes.
- Start Sewing Early
If you are using sew-in tapes, start sewing as soon as you buy the uniform, it’s much easier on your eyes and your fingers done a few at a time rather than finding you have dozens to sew on in the two days before the start of term!
- Where To Buy Nametapes in the UK
- Cash's are probably the best known and longest established manufacturers of woven nametapes in the UK. They also make iron on tapes and packs of personalised stickers too. This is where I bought all my woven name tapes from for my kids - as did my mother before me!.
- My Name Tags are a long established UK manufacturer of printed stickers which can be applied to anything from clothing and school bags to lunch boxes and notebooks. I have ordered several sets and can confirm that they will survive many, many trips through the dishwasher. They even named my kid's plastic recorder and came off afterwards without leaving a sticky mess.
- Woven Labels UK also make personalised woven name tapes, identification labels and iron-on name tapes.
Both woven and iron-on name tapes can be bought online in the UK from many places.
And finally a slightly nerdy fact about woven name tapes.
Have you ever wondered why woven sew-in name tapes are sold in multiples of 12, while iron-on tapes are sold in multiples of 10?
Well, the equipment to make woven name tapes was designed many years ago in the days of imperial measurements. Iron-on name tapes are a more modern phenomenon and so machines are designed in metric!