How do you name clothing?

[lavent]

Just wondering how others name school uniform / coats / water bottles etc?

Ideally I'd buy the labels but cannot afford it x 3.

I've tried a sharpie but it washes off plastics after a few days and bleeds into fabrics so you can't read it anyway!

Also - is it acceptable to just write your surname as all our uniform will be handed down ( 4 boys) or "Lavent Boys"?

What do others do?

I use black Sharpie and just write the boys' surname in as big letters as fit on the label to make up for the bleeding. I keep the pen in the kitchen and redo bottles etc as required. I believe Sharpie and a layer of clear mail polish works but never got round to trying.

My friend labelled all her stuff "Surname Boys". Why not?

I use our surname only when I buy labels. It's going to find its way back to me one way or another isn't it?! I also sew or iron them inside the sleeve because at our school some parents will cut the labels out in order to keep them.

at cutting the labels out!!!!!!

Maybe I need to perfect my sharpie skills

I just do our surname and telephone number.

I find a good old biro works just fine

if you have an unusual surname, the only one in the school, just go for surname only labels. they aren't too expensive. unfortunately my kids surname (my maiden name) is quite common so i cant do that. i find pen washes off and sharpies bleed so i just end up with black mess on labels. they are not really designed for writing in small letters.
I invested in iron on labels for each of the kids. its a one off expensive as you can usually get enough to last a few years x

We got labels printed like this:

J Smith L

Where J & L are initials of two of the DCs. Then sew them on covering the younger child's initial. When the older one grows out of it, you cut off their initial and unfold the younger one. So J Smith becomes Smith L with only a couple of stitches.

Can you get a set of these with just surname on (if your not a smith or Jones) I'd think 75 clothes and 75 shoes/water bottles should be OK. Can you manage £13?