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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to consider offering a badge sewing service?

98 replies

Hippee · 08/12/2018 23:36

Just spent an evening sewing badges on DS's Cub uniform and I really don't mind it. I hear so many people moaning about doing it, so I wondered whether I should offer to do it and, if so, how much I should charge. It takes 3-5 minutes to sew a badge on, depending on size. I am a SAHM and do loads of voluntary work, but was actually thinking of keeping the money in this case - and perhaps donating a percentage to the Cubs. If you hate sewing, how much would you pay?

OP posts:
dUHcknotdOOk · 09/12/2018 11:47

I made an absolute fortune one summer sewing nametapes and badges on school uniform. So yes, the demand is actually out there and it's relatively easy to do.

I'm one of those people who enjoy sewing nametapes on and thanks to year 9 home economics I can do it with invisible stitching as well.

NualaCassia · 09/12/2018 11:48

Do it.

One of the first things my ds’s learned to do at cubs was sew because they are supposed to be responsible for doing their own badges. So very happy about that I was, I can see but I just find it so tedious doing badges.

I’m sure you’d get loads of parents taking you up on it.

TooStressyForMyOwnGood · 09/12/2018 11:51

YES! I hate, hate, hate doing it.

drspouse · 09/12/2018 12:10

If you use badge glue, you may have to throw the top away rather than hand it down. I sometimes buy second hand tops with badges for our Brownies/Rainbows and I've found it hellish to get them off.

babysharkah · 09/12/2018 12:16

Please do! Days have about 30 each they got a batch kit moving up from rainbows to brownies and I keep forgetting to do it!

TooStressyForMyOwnGood · 09/12/2018 12:39

YY drspouse, I thought badge glue sounded great until I realised that.

Taytotots · 09/12/2018 12:49

5foot5 our scout troop just spent a meeting doing badge sewing. I'm sure it was part of a brownie skills badge I did in the dim distant past too. Not sure the beavers would manage it though.

Anyone tried badge glue? Or the badge magic stuff?

OP I think it is a great idea and would definitely pay if you were in my area. As said above the transfer of badges to camp blankets would be a nice service, plus you could consider making fleece poncho type camp camp blankets.

Becles · 09/12/2018 12:52

@BWatchWatcher Since you're talking about badge glue, I'm assuming you don't know that much about badges or that you don't intend to have the badges as a log term momento.

Anyone thinking of badge glue - stay far far away as they damage both badge and material glued to. Try using invisible thread as a compromise solution - means that (while not optomal) you can use the same thread for each badge and don't have to colour match and change with each badge sewn.

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 09/12/2018 12:53

Wow. Our Brownies and Guides are taught to sew their own badges on, same as when I was one.

TooStressyForMyOwnGood · 09/12/2018 13:01

WhyDont, I can only think of two 7 year olds that I know who could sew a badge on. Even they would still require supervision and a little help. Their mums are both extremely keen on sewing and they have been sewing since they were tiny. Most parents I know despise sewing and it is (sadly) certainly not taught in Brownies round here. Would be great if it was. We also have gymnastics, swimming, etc. badges that need sewing.

Never heard of invisible thread *, that sounds brilliant!

TooStressyForMyOwnGood · 09/12/2018 13:02

Sorry meant to bold you Becles. Also, by 7 year olds I just put that as that is the age when they start Brownies and seem to get the most badges as they are all enthusiastic and excited!

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 09/12/2018 13:03

That's a shame. I teach 7 year olds too and we do sewing in class, as well as knitting and crochet. I've been in Guiding for 35 years and have never known a pack/company not to do some sewing.

TooStressyForMyOwnGood · 09/12/2018 13:06

Our Brownie group is critically short of leaders (before anyone suggests it, I am not a leader but do help at some meetings to try to plug the gaps) so maybe they just don’t have the people or time. Sadly I certainly can’t volunteer to teach them sewing Grin.

minniemoll · 09/12/2018 13:08

When I was in Brownies/Guides (late 70s/early 80s) I sewed my own badges on - the first ones might have been a bit wobbly, but they stayed on, and I got better at it with practice!

Racecardriver · 09/12/2018 13:15

I wouldn’t bother. Dry cleaners already do this. When I was at school we would collect our ‘ribbons’ and ‘pockets’ until the next dry cleaning appointment and gave them stitch them onto our blazers all in one go. Some people also paid them to do name labels at the beginning of the year.

BWatchWatcher · 09/12/2018 13:44

@Becles I’m afraid that no, when my children are grown I think they are unlikely to want their beaver/cub tops.
Badge glue meant I was no longer sewing badges in my lunch hour.
Join me on the dark side. ;)

BWatchWatcher · 09/12/2018 13:45

By the way, you can stamp names into clothes too or write them in with laundry markers.
Harder to remove and takes seconds.

drspouse · 09/12/2018 14:20

BWatch would you not pass on your DCs outgrown uniform? Rather than send it to landfill?

BWatchWatcher · 09/12/2018 15:56

@drspouse I have two boys. By the time the uniform has been through both of them it’s usually finished. Anything salvageable is passed on. People cross over the name or apply their own stickers/labels.

BWatchWatcher · 09/12/2018 15:58

Stikins
www.stikins.co.uk

BWatchWatcher · 09/12/2018 15:59

Name stamp
stamptastic.co.uk

BackforGood · 09/12/2018 19:40

5foot5 that is nothing to do with the organisation. That is one particularly idiotic person who has somehow managed to hold an appointment against all the organisation's policies.

Badge Glue is a nightmare when you have to take the badges off. There are often badges that you wear for an event or occasion, and they come off the uniform at the end of the year.

Actually sewing badges isn't that easy. My dc have sewn the odd ones (swimming ones) on to their towels, but it is difficult to get the badges sewn neatly on to uniforms when you are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11 etc.

BikeRunSki · 10/12/2018 09:44

^I enjoy sewing badges.
It’s the unpicking and reseeding when they grow. And then camp blanket sewing which they don’t even use^

Mine sleep with their camp blankets year round!

This thread reminds me of a Cub whose mother sadly passed away, His dad came to pick him up a few weeks later to be greeted by a handful of badges. I told them I'd sew them on if he wanted (I know the family out of Cubs) - whereupon he gave me a withering look and pointed at the beautifully straight and perfectly stitched badges on his son's jumper and said - see them, his mum right a mess of them. I had sort them out!

Original poster
Hippee · 10/12/2018 20:50

BikeRunSki - that's so lovely!

I think I may give it a go in the New Year - if it's not needed, I'll soon find out!

OP posts:
Menolly · 10/12/2018 22:12

Those mentioning badge glue, it damages the material and the badge, and means you can't move it on to bigger uniform or a camp blanket later on. It often spreads out the edges, seeps through some materials , sometimes the badges start peeling and in the case of occasional badges, or things like six/patrol emblems which might change, it means you can't remove them without ruining the top. If you really can't sew or get anyone else to wonder web makes far less mess and can be removed (with some effort)