Injakster · Guides · School uniform care

School uniform care in Hartlepool: washing, name labels and repairs

By Inga Jakimonyte, owner of Injakster · Updated August 2026

A school uniform has a hard life. It gets worn five days a week, dragged across playgrounds, used as a goalpost, and then it is expected to look presentable again by Monday morning. I wash, press and repair uniforms every week at Injakster, my little home laundry on Wharton Street in Hartlepool, so this guide is everything I have learned about keeping one set of uniform alive through a whole school year — whether you do it all yourself or hand some of it to me.

Washing jumpers without shrinking them

The garment that dies first is almost always the jumper or cardigan. Two things kill it: heat and the tumble dryer. Check the care label, wash cool — a low-temperature cycle is enough for everyday wear — and let it dry flat or on a hanger rather than in the dryer. High heat is what turns a comfortable jumper into one that suddenly fits a teddy bear. Turning jumpers, polo shirts and printed sweatshirts inside out before washing also keeps the colour and any printed logo looking newer for longer.

Polyester trousers and pinafores are far more forgiving, but they hold creases from the machine, so shake them out and hang them as soon as the cycle finishes. In my own workroom every customer's washing goes through as a separate load — never mixed with anyone else's — using a vegan detergent that is kind to skin and still strong on grass, mud and dinner-hall stains. That matters more with children's clothes than with anything else I wash.

Pressing: the ten-minute difference

A pressed uniform honestly looks a class above a clean-but-crumpled one, and shirts are the worst offenders. If ironing is the job you keep putting off, do collars, cuffs and the front placket first — that is 80% of the visible shirt. Or skip the battle entirely: I press five kids' uniform items for £3.40, and a single kids' item is £0.80 press-only. That is the pile of Sunday-night ironing gone for less than the price of a coffee.

Name labels: sewn-in beats iron-on

Every parent knows the mystery of the vanishing jumper. Labels bring them home again — but not all labels are equal. Iron-on labels are quick, and that is their whole advantage: after a term of hot washes and radiators they curl at the corners, peel, and end up stuck to the inside of the washing machine instead of the jumper. A sewn-in label survives everything the washing machine can do, because it is stitched through the fabric, not glued to it.

I sew name labels in at £0.85 per label, or £4.00 for a full uniform set — and I sew school badges onto new jumpers and blazers for £3.50. Bring the labels your school recommends, or plain woven tapes, and I do the fiddly part.

Repairs that are cheaper than replacing

Most "worn out" uniform is actually one small fault away from fine. Before you buy new, price the repair:

• Knee patch on trousers£5.00
• Button replaced£2.50
• Zip replaced — trousers or jeans£14.00
• Zip replaced — coat or jacketfrom £28.00
• Kids' trousers or skirt shortened£6.50
• Waistband elastic replaced£9.00
• Small repair (seams, hems, tears)from £5.50

Knee patches deserve a special mention: a £5.00 patch turns trousers with a blown knee back into school trousers, and it is one of the most common jobs on my sewing table. Shortening is the other one — buying trousers a size up in September and having them taken up for £6.50 means they still fit after the spring growth spurt, when you simply let the hem back down.

What it costs to hand the whole lot over

If you would rather the weekly uniform wash just happened without you, the bundles are priced for exactly that:

• School uniform — 5 items (wash + press)£9.55
• School uniform — 8 items£14.10
• School family bundle — 12 items£19.30
• 5 kids' uniform items pressed only£3.40
• Single kids' uniform item — wash + press£2.55

Collection and delivery is £5.00 within 4 miles of Wharton Street, then £0.60 per extra mile, across roughly a 9-mile radius — and the £5.00 is waived on orders of £25 or more. The minimum order is £15, so a uniform bundle pairs nicely with a basket of towels or the work shirts. Standard turnaround is 48 hours, or next-day on request, and nothing is paid online — you pay when I bring it back. One honest note: I do not do dry cleaning. Blazers labelled dry clean only should go to a dry cleaner; everything washable, I handle.

The September rush — book labels early

Every year the same thing happens: the last week of the summer holidays arrives and everyone needs name labels, badges and hems at once. If you can, bring the new uniform in before term starts — labels sewn in, badge on the jumper, trousers taken up — so the first school morning is calm. Booking takes about two minutes online, with no account and nothing to pay upfront, and I confirm every booking by phone or text. I work Monday to Friday 08:00 to 18:00 and Saturday 09:00 to 14:00.