Name Labels for Grandkids clothes
 

Hi, I am trying to find out the best way to make name labels for the grandkids clothes-they start kindergarten in the fall and all clothes need to be marked with name. I do not want to mark on the clothing itself as that ruins any resale value-we all know kids grow out of clothes too fast so their clothes are like new and go to resale shop then. I am thinking of making label and then whipstitch in clothes, easy enough to remove label later.
What should I use to make label--twill, cotton, etc? Also what type of pen should I use that will last during the laundry cycle? I would appreciate any help in this matter, thanks, Annievee

I have never heard of needing to label all clothe for kindergarten! Coats, mats, and lunch boxes make sense, but clothes seems a bit too much. What a pain in the rear!

I'd say you could use any light colored, prewashed cotton or twill and a good pigma pen. Pigma pens have stood up to much washing around here.

I bought some lables in stationary at Walmart. Don`t rember the name was 9.99 in Canada.The ones I got were for the water bottles and things. They go through the dishwasher! They did have ones for clothes but I didn`t get them THe ones I bought were great!
Hope you can find them.
Gale

You probably want to use a Pigma pen; Sharpies tend to bleed a lot. I would probably look for a smooth cotton ribbon (if such a thing exists) because the long sides wouldn't ravel; you would just need to tuck the cut ends under when you whipstitch. It's much easier to write legibly on fabric that is smooth.

Is this a private kindergarten? I've heard of marking clothes that are going with a child off to camp, but not to a day kindergarten -- except maybe outerwear and mittens.

When my GD was in Kindergarden, it was requested that we labeled sweater and coats as well as backpack so things went home with the right students. Used pigma pen on a tiny scraps of muslin and whip stitch inside of the items.

To clarify, grandkids will be in Pre-K (4 years old ) in public school program. They will wear uniform clothing. Per school rules, they have to have at least 2 changes of clothes in backpack. Sounds to me to be a lot of clothing that is identical. Thanks for all the helpful tips !

clothing labels
 

Several years ago I purchased pre-printed labels for my mother's clothing when she went into a nursing home. These were available at JoAnn's. Don't know if they still offer those or not. Since your child is just beginning school, you may have need of a lot of these in the coming years and would be cost-effective plus the benefit that they will not fade with laundering.

A suggestion from a parent with kids in private school.

Buy professional labels, they are inexpensive, are not scratchy and look good. You can buy sew in or iron on ones.

If the kids have a unique last name, just use the last name. No point if buying labels from Johnny, Susie and Kimmy, if no one else in the school will have the same last name.

Two changes of clothes per child per day is nuts. My kids only have two uniform bottoms, no way I would pay for an extra set of clothes that will never be worn.

Does your machine do any embroidery? My Janome does numbers and letters - my daughter uses wash cloths for the white boards her students use and she wanted them labeled so they would get back to the right student. I used the ribbed ribbon and stitched it to each one. They are holding up very well. They have survived the first year and still look good.

Under those circumstances, labeling makes sense. There is a laundry pen, works good, not sure where you can buy them. Ok, LOL, I found it. If their clothing has a label, perhaps you can put their name on it, instead of a separate label? Further down the page, they, also, have labels.

http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-31101-.../dp/B001D707CU