To expect M&S to make school uniforms in a sensible fabric?

[GrimmaTheNome]

DDs school stipulates blue striped dress for summer. A bit of a PITA since theres lots more choice of checks, but it hasn't been a problem in the past - various stores stocked them and we were happy with M&S easycare polycotton which came out of the tumbedryer hardly needing an iron.

This year... none in store. Only 100% cotton available on internet. Couldn't find anywhere else doing stripes (woolies used to) - other than ridiculously overpriced official uniform shop which are horrid style and dont fit well. So, ordered the M&S ones - after all, they do easy-iron cotton shirts so I didn't expect them to be too bad.

Until I'd spent over 15 minutes trying to get one of them reasonably uncreased after its first wash. It still looked bad, and simply dreadful by the end of the day.

Urghh. Anyone know of a source of decent blue striped dresses this year?

Just iron them with a very hot iron when they are dry - we always buy DD proper 100% cotton as they are better for her skin than crappy man made fabrics.

Asda have always done stipes in the past.

However my dd has to have a red striped dress and it can't be the M& S one as it is slightly the wrong shade. I would love to be able to buy 100% cotton rather than horrible polycotton.

Maybe M&S are catering to demand as more parents are looking for natural fibres.

gosh there are normally tons of threads demanding someone does 100% cotton!

Grimma, I've just looked at the M&S dress online and it looks different thn last years.

Can you tell me is the stripe solid. By that I mean not flecked with the white showing inthe background like last years dresses from both M&S & Wollies were.

If so (getting excited here as it could be the difference between £7 and £28) do you reckon the white trimming could be removed.

Of course I tried ironing it with a very hot iron. Didn't shift the creases much, and began to stick to the (synthetic) ric-rac. It seems to be cotton specially treated to crease and stay creased. Not easy-iron cotton or even bog-standard normal cotton.

Gosh you give me hope. I have just listed all my dd's old school dresses on ebay (checks, sorry, no stripes) and I was a bit dismayed to realise that none of them carried the magic words "100% cotton" as I know that is what people pay more for.

But, the honest truth of it is, I like fabrics which are a mix of polyester and cotton, or 100% acrylic. They are lovely to touch, easy to wash, dry very quickly and mainly do not need ironing - and that from a freak who irons loads every week.

I do appreciate that some people need to wear cotton for skin conditions, but really manmade fibres are great!

island... the stripes look solid to me (but so do the ones from 2 years ago). I suppose you could unpick the ric-rac. Would take some time and patience, but obviously that's not an issue if you're contemplating these articles which are going to take an hour a week to get vaguely acceptable (thank god DD wears PE kit all of one day so its only 4 pw).

H ( ex RN so knows about ironing!).. says.. get a white hanky.. damp it down , lay it flat on dress and iron full heat.. and really press down.

I'm with you on this one - I bought a normal M&S easy iron yellow checked summer dress and it just doesn't look ironed. I'm not adverse to ironing but dh's non-iron shirts come out immaculate but dd's dress looks like I really haven't bothered.

Returning with slightly aching arm after dealing with monday's dress - extracted from dryer while still quite damp, ironed, or more accurately, pressed, on full heat on the reverse to avoid the ric-rac. Not too bad, and the ric-rac on the sleeves only slightly bonded to itself. Way too much palaver to do every day.

I really don't understand it - DDs gi (karate suit) is heavy pure cotton and irons beautifully - almost a pleasure. Why is this thin stuff so obstreperous?

YANBU M&S has been using crap fabrics on some of its clothing ranges for a while it looks and washes ok the first couple of times then turns into creased limp lettuce leaves.
M&S is trying too hard to compete with cheapo makes like Primark and they need to be pulled up about this. We do not buy from M& S for cheapest but because they are better quality than the rest at reasonable prices
I'm going to mail their crap clothes back to them with an explaination letter to their complaints dept. I suggest you do the same thing and if they've got any shame they'll refund your money

I agree, they have actually changed the girls' striped school dress fabric, as the ones I bought last year are non-iron, so I bought them this year thinking they'd be the same, but no - they most def need ironing. Cost-cutting I reckon.

I also, purchased x 2 new dresses from Marks and Spencer - Even if you take the item straight out of the washing machine you can't get the creases out. Today I have taken them both back and got my refund,you do not need a receipt. Even an industrial iron would not get the creases out round the arms and hems. Also on the internet you can purchase an easy iron, but, different style ie zip up, if you want red, green or blue. No thank you I think its going to have to be the schools own, at what cost though! and I will check that its the easy solution - they clean up better and look tidy.