mark
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making school uniforms??Recently the headmaster of a Kenyan School was visiting the UK talking about the training they give their students .
he was plased to explain how they taught needlework so people could make their own clothes.
A teacher explained to him that in the UK it was usually cheaper to buy new clothes made abroad than to make them yourself.
He was shocked "What? Don't you even teach them so they can make their own school uniforms!!"
It set me thinking. So I just thought i'd ask here - how many of you either make your offspring school uniforms or encourage them to make them themselves - or do we relay on stuff manufactured abroad and shipped here..
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sally_in_wales
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I remember making a couple of school skirts under mum's instruction when I was in my early teens, can't imagine its very common these days though
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Sherbs
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The only way I could afford to make school uniforms for the Sherbling would be if I bought items of suitable material from a charity shop and cut them up for fabric.
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BahamaMama
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I had home-made skirts (by my mother - not me). I can't imagine many teenagers would be seen dead in something home-made these days, image is everything 
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Fee
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The last thing I remember my Mum making for me for school was an awful pinafore (pinafores were in fashion, dontcha know). Fortunately I really didn't give a hoot, but it does make me chuckle when I look at pictures of me in it. I must have been about 11, we moved to Redditch after that and things were available much cheaper.
We always had knitted cardies at primary school, with lovely flowers and bobbles on them and everything 
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Jamanda
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Lots of of our girls wear home made (or at least school made) dresses for special occasions. Many make their own prom dresses as part of their GCSE in what-ever-it's-called-these-days, and very good they are too. I don't think uniform really lends itself. None of them wear skirts and trousers are trickier to make I think.
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mark
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it interesting though isn't it.
I guess the economics of mass distributi mean its cheaper for us to buy material already made into clothes - we havee to pay a premium for unmade material hrough special shops and hobby outlets.
I think we are also losing the skills to "make to do and mend!" When did you last darn a sock? or patch an elbow in a jumper?
we'd rather chuck stuff out and keep our fingers crossed it might be recycled.
School uniform is interesting though - cos i guess the kenyans have found that they can buy in the material in bulk cos its all the same!
mark
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Sherbs
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I darn, patch, mend, take-up and take-down stuff quite frequently. I'm currently making my daughter's costume for the school christmas play. In the past when I have had more time I have routinely bought potentially useful and/or interesting materials as remnants or existing garments from charity shops and stached them.
Mark is right though, there is something very screwy about the economics of a system that makes it cheaper to buy the finished article than the component parts.
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colour it green
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when my son did go to school - he went to a non uniform one, so would have to apply this to all his clothes.. and i guess that goes for me and you too.
one of the problems with uniforms is specific colours. quite often you can only buy them from a few specialised outlets or.. surprise surprise.. the school itself. they often sell the material too.
most primary schools round here have sweatshirts with the logo embroidered on.. so that would stuff up any attempts at homemade.
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Jamanda
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I'm puzzled by the last comment. Do you think schools shouldn't keep the uniforms? I think it makes it much easier for many parents, especially in rural areas.
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Sherbs
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Round here the local primary schools all work on a similar principle for uniforms and the component pieces are all easily available from supermarkets and other shops at ridiculously cheap prices. I think there is a specific policy which doesn't allow them to have a monopoly on the supply of school uniforms in order that they will be affordable by everyone. The only thing you can only get from the school is a coat with a school badge on it, or a sweatshirt with the school badge on it, but neither of these are compulsory.
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Jamanda
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I think every where does that. My school and my son's use generic supermarket stuff for shirts trousers PE stuff etc, and you buy the sweat shirts either from the school or a shop in town. As there is only one clothes shop in our town I doubt any other outlets elsewhere would be interested.
Personally as a parent I like uniform - makes deciding what to wear in a morning easy. As a teacher I could live with out it, but it doesn't bother me too much either way.
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sally_in_wales
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as a wrangler of kiddies I like uniform, makes it so much easier to match lost kids back to their groups when the museum is heaving and there are children zooming round everywhere, I also think its a good equalizer in areas where you get the whole range of social backgrounds, if all the kids dress the same, then whilst they will still point score on phones, shoes and accessories, at least they can't wind each other up about whose clothes are the most up to date.
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Sherbs
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I find school uniforms depressing, boring, but time saving. A bit like oven chips really. No degree of individuality or flair possible but they perform a function quickly, simply and with minimal messing about.
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dee61
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Used to make clothes for mine when they were at primary [ no uniform] thought about knitting v necks and cardi's when they moved up but it worked out more costly than buying them and that was with cheap acrylic 
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vanessa
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My mum ... and later I ... made all my school clothes apart from blouses.
I made my daughter's school clothes up to secondary school, where the uniform was SO precise, it was impossible to do home-made.
As for "wouldn't be seen dead in home-made" ... nothing could be further from the truth for my daughter and her chums. They'd all be so envious of her things that I'd have long waiting lists to make similar for them!!!! That continued into Uni, where I made her ball-gowns for her ... and her friends there were queuing up at my door!!
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ros
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We HAD to make our school summer dresses in needlework class at school.
The material for the winter skirts was available too and I think it was cheaper to make your own - the bought skirt was more like a kilt, but if you made your own it could be a nice simple A-line.
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toggle
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| BahamaMama wrote: | | I had home-made skirts (by my mother - not me). I can't imagine many teenagers would be seen dead in something home-made these days, image is everything |
depends, I've seen kids in some pretty strange kit, stuff they have made themselves, sometimes stuff as simple as sarong skirts or made by mother. they Frankenstein a lot of clothes as well, skirts made from cutting old jeans up seemed common
home-made stuff is fine as long as it fits their image
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Jamanda
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Our next door neighbour has customised her bought school sweatshirt by ripping holes in it and fastening them up with safety pins. I know it's been done before, but, not in her lifetime and it still looks pretty funky . And her Mum a teacher too  (Not at the same school).
See I'm not really fit to enforce uniform rules at all 
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dpack
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my mum earned her living doing that
i can almost sow
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colour it green
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| Jamanda wrote: | | I'm puzzled by the last comment. Do you think schools shouldn't keep the uniforms? I think it makes it much easier for many parents, especially in rural areas. |
i assume you mean me.. not sure which bit is puzzling you.
The local schools in this area (and presumably across the uk?) opt for sweatshirts for the kids (good idea) with the school logo embroidered on it. the embroidered bit is the bit you could not hope to do at home.. and thus it could not be homemade. It does not appear to be optional, as all the kids have it. (so even if it is technically optional, effectively it isn't)
as for my personal thoughts on uniforms... well I hated wearing one as a kid.. and the notion that a school can decide what my child wears is odd, if you think about it. It makes life easier in some ways... no decision in the morning etc, uniforms do bring a sense of belonging, yet also division (I can remenber identifying kids from a 'rival' school,). I can see the arguments for and against (although I am sure this applies to all parents.. not just the rural ones)
As it happens, my son went to a primary school that did not have a uniform, and we began home ed after that (we don't have a uniform at home!), and I am very thankful, as he would have had to have slightly different clothes as his disabillities would have made buttons and zips impossible, so wearing different clothes would have made him stand out even more. They did have a dress code though, which kept out extremes.
So on a personal level a no uniform system suited me.. however I don't know what side I come down on in general, but I do object to specific, difficult to obtain colour schemes or logos. - they are just not needed.
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Jamanda
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We just have black sweat shirts. They are meant to have a logo, and 90% do. But I don't think anyone ever took any notice of a plain black one. They are a bit boring, but customisable. 
I'd hate a dress code. That would surely get very subjective. At least you can't show much cleavage in a polo shirt or sweat shirt.
Not that I've anything against cleavage in principle, but it can cause testosterone based issues.
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colour it green
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black is good - easy to get everywhere.
the dress code is the sort of thing you would have within a uniform system - ie no very high heels, no bellies hanging out...
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Fee
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I used to prefer uniform, as Sally says, means there are less social differences, I remember debating on it too. But girls will always find a way around them, won't they? Even if it is just a case of rolling the skirt up or wearing a more trendy styled skirt, or whatever
Ahh, memories of being told to kneel on the floor to make sure your skirt touched the ground come flooding back
Only by one teacher though, Miss McGuire, evil woman that she was, she really needed a ****.
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vanessa
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| Fee wrote: | I Even if it is just a case of rolling the skirt up or wearing a more trendy styled skirt, or whatever
Ahh, memories of being told to kneel on the floor to make sure your skirt touched the ground come flooding back
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Hmmm ... vivid memories! Start of secondary school short skirts were "in". Mine wasn't particularly, so I used to roll it up. Once I'd left home, of course ... and then rolled it back down when I got home!!
Then, horror of horrors, LONG skirts came in. I hadn't out-grown my old skirt  so couldn't have a new one So new tactics came into play. At school, wear skirt as low down on hips as I dared, to make it seem longer than it really was. At home, roll it up to be obscenely short!! After a whole term of this, my father noticed how much of my (rather long) legs were showing, and suggested to my mother it was time I had a new school skirt!!
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ros
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| Fee wrote: | Ahh, memories of being told to kneel on the floor to make sure your skirt touched the ground come flooding back
Only by one teacher though, Miss McGuire, evil woman that she was, she really needed a ****. |
oh yes, forgot about that- and having to stand on a 10p piece to make sure your shoe heel was broad enough!
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Chez
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| Fee wrote: | | The last thing I remember my Mum making for me for school was an awful pinafore ... we moved to Redditch after that .... |
Because of the shame? 
Ma made all our primary school stuff and our skirts for senior school. Ours secondary school's was a pretty prescriptive uniform though - you had to buy most of it at the school shop.
I think making your own stuff in needlework classes would be great experience. I fully intend to dress ours in the full-whack knitted-bobble-cardigans until they are old enough to leave home. In fact, if I make them ghastly enough, perhaps it will encourage that to happen
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