Thursday, June 1, 2017

I hate brand name tags...



I hate brand name tags in clothing. They give me problems because they are scratchy and unpleasant. When I had ruined the new T-Shirt the other day and then peppedit up with a few sew-on-sew-off squares,  I thought I would be done with this topic for a little while at least. But I bought a new summer dress last week, and that, too, had tags in a very uncomfortable location.


And although I was particularly careful this time, the tag was so severely attached to the inner lining that despite my ability with the thread picker I could not remove it without again doing damage. 


That made me really mad. It’s on the inside, and I haven’t bothered to fix it - but am thinking about how to go about. Iron on something from the back of the inner layer, then lightly stitch around it, but it must not be too noticeable, because otherwise I might just as well have left the original tag there.What's the use of attaching these stupid tags - on the inside to begin with, so severely that they cannot be removed without doing damage - wouldn't it make much more sense to give the poor people who have to sew these in some Far East factory a good job...?

We still haven’t heard from District administration about the work permits for the students from Senegal… having to wait is getting unbearable. And although summer is here, the sun is shining, teaching is fun and rewarding, and I see how impressively their improvements in language skills are showing, my mood is a bit on the down side. Germany’s performance with deportations is appalling, our treatment of people as unwanted aliens is unworthy of a nation that once prided itself on being ‘a nation of thinkers and poets’. More and more am I feeling ashamed about being German.

2 comments:

  1. Part of the scratchiness is because the tags are cut out with a heated stencil (or whatever you might call it) the heat seals the tag and keeps it from fraying. But at the same time, because it is synthetic, creates a hard edge.
    For some things, you can take an emery board or fine sandpaper and 'rough up' the edge, which actually makes it a bit fluffy and less scratchy.
    I do this with bra fastenings. The edges on those are not nice. :-(
    But I don't like these tags either and have random holes in the backs of things! I can hide it with my hair, but you have a shorter cut.
    I thought some t-shirts now with the label info screen printed was a good change. But you wash it a couple times and the printing gets rough because it is a little dimensional. and that you can't get off the fabric!
    Sandy
    Hope the teaching situation gets sorted very soon!

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  2. Sandy, it's not only the tags - a commercially sewn seam can be as much trouble, because they sometimes uses synthetic stabilizing threads. That's one reason why I have virtually stopped wearing T-Shirts, at least I do a very careful check of the seams for the shoulders. I have put lots of shirts back on the rack without even trying them on because I could tell from mere touch that this would be a very problematic item that I would not be comfortable in!

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