washing school uniform - help please!

[shelley72]

so DS started reception last week, half days only. i am not having much luck with his uniform .

i machined washed his polo shirts on a 40 delicate wash - they shrank up about an inch. i have taken to handwashing his other pack, but i am sure that i shouldnt have to do this every time. i have also handwashed his school (logoed) sweatshirt twice. it is now very bobbly indeed and looks ancient. how can i get rid of the bobbles? we have to have the logoed jumper and so am a bit stuck supplier wise. but the quality is shocking - considering that they weren't that cheap.

has anyone else had problems with uniform or is it just my bad washing skills?

He's 4.
He's going to get yogurt glue dust snot and unidentified God-Knows-What on his shirts daily.
Do not sweat a few bobbles or a bit of mis-sizing.
Do they say "hand-wash only"?

Complain to the school or supplier if quality is that bad (sounds it). If you get an exchange, get the next sizes up to allow for likely shrinkage. Everything shrinks after many washes, but shouldn't shrink that much that quick, unless they advise you to plan for shrinkage. That's just bizarre (I wash mine at 40 or 30 on regular wash, speaking of which, load to hang out...)

thanks for the reply. hes only been there a week and so i still want him to look nice .

i took the shirts back to M&S on saturday and they refunded me so that was ok - only all school shirts seem to have disappeared from shop already! i dont mind about staining (well i do) but its only to be expected. i do mind about crap quality school jumpers though, that we can only buy from one place and that look that bad after a hand wash - they are supposed to be machine washable at 40! i think i may take your advice and complain to the school

I find BHS polo shirts much better than M & S and you shouldn't need to do them on a delicates wash, they won't shrink.

Wash the school jumper inside out.

I had the M&S stain guard type polo shirts for my son once - they shrank. Now I get the Matalan shirts which seem a much softer fabric. Stains are are a fact of kids - ds has severe disabilities and is a messy tyke so I soak his shirts overnight if he has had a busy painting day but overall try not to worry too much. I'd be more concerned if he came back clean as I would wonder what he had been doing all day!

I've had so many polo shirts from different outlets, and they all seem to shrink after the first was, so now I tend to buy a size bigger to allow for the shrinkage.

My DCs (Asda and tesco) polo shirts haven't shrunk, and the spag bol ones have gone on a 'heavy soiled' 60* wash with DHs work shirts, and come out OK.

Wash the school sweathshirts inside out?

I think they're meant to come home from school looking like the 'Before' kid on the Persil advert, aren't they?

I've always had Asda and Tesco too and just chucked them in the machine. They've been fine.

School sweatshirts seem to lose their nice shiny look quite quickly, but then don't get any worse. Which is why, apart from the first day sweatshirt. I bought from the second hand shop when I could.

I wash white school polos at 40 degrees on low spin. I use powder rather than washing liquid and add a scoop of Oxy Vanish whitening stuff.

I do find that most polos shrink the first wash, but if you iron them they are probably still okay.

School jumpers and cardigans, I wash at 40 degrees low spin as well (again combination of powder and the Oxy vanish in pink tub to kill of germs and get rid of more persistent stains). I find that the ironing reduces the bobbling but quality is often poor.

As timetosmile mentions, do wash them all inside out.

More replies thank you. Yes I do wash inside out and with powder.
We are on asda polos this week so will see how they wash. Sweatshirt is getting worse and worse - wish we had second hand uniform shop then I could have saved some money!

I do all mine on a normal 40 degree wash. I bought Next polo shirts but bought as large as i could possibly get away with, so it is easier for them to get them on and off. The school logo sweaters again i put in a normal 40 degree wash and they were fine.

Trutex washes very well - worth the investment if you are unhappy with your current supplier.

Hi you are not the only one with these sort of problems, our uniform supplier claims that washing with fabric softner causes the bobbling, worth checking with yours. Shrinkage, just remember next time to buy a size bigger I shrunk my firsts ones last year, luckily had only bought 2 at the time to see what they washed like.

I would take the jumper back to the supplier and complain, if that gets you nowhere buy plain ones from the supermarket not logo ones, primary school/academy have no legal ability to force you to buy logo uniforms. I no longer do whilst I'm challenging my twins school uniform policy and on a national level, check out my petition to have logo free option made available throughout the uk schools copy this link into your browser chn.ge/1OnfsAQ

Another option find out who the PTA are in your DS school and ask them about setting up a 2nd hand uniform shop.

This uniform situation is just getting ridiculous the plain stuff from the supermarkets washes up so much better than the stuff from the dedicated uniform suppliers. I get very frustrated with the attitude of some schools over a logo.

Good luck with the jumper.

That's crap about the jumper, I imagine you won't be the only parent to complain

As for Polo's both my school ages dc are fairly short and I size up atleast one of not two sizes

Not sure who the jumper supplier is, but there have been a lot of complaints locally about a new supplier of school jumpers. Everyone is complaining they aren't washing well and going bobbly.

Complain to the school, to the supplier, ask other parents to complain too.