School uniforms - Which Reports in assocation with Tiscali

WHICH? REVIEWS: School uniforms

We’ve washed, stretched and rubbed the cheaper school uniforms from leading supermarkets to see how they might stand up to the daily wear and tear of classrooms and playgrounds.

If you’re feeling the credit crunch pinch and dreading kitting out your children for the new school term, there are ways to save. We’ve found that you can buy affordable school clothes that should last through months of classroom science projects and playground antics.

We’ll help you find low-cost, long-lasting schoolwear for your children.

You can find out our conclusions by taking out a trial to which.co.uk.  Below, we explain more about how we tested the uniforms.

We tested the cheapest available school jumpers, shirts, skirts and trousers that were on sale at the beginning of August 2008 at Asda, Marks and Spencer (M&S), Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Seam strength

We apply a force equal to 25kg horizontally on seams, to see whether they split, and vertically, to test whether they slip.

Pilling

For knitted fabrics, we test how resistant the school clothes are to pilling – the fuzzing or bobbling you get after repeat wearing. This is tested in a machine that rotates and allows the fabric samples to rub against each other causing pilling. We see how well the garments have fared after 500 revolutions.

Shrinkage

We also look at how much the uniforms shrink in the wash. We measure the school uniforms before and after washing and measure the change in the length and width. We assess the change after one wash and after five wash and dry cycles.

Colour fastness

These tests indicate how well colour is kept after rubbing, washing and general exposure to water.

Washing

We measure the change in colour before and after a standard wash cycle with a standard detergent. We also add a multi-fibre strip to the wash to see if any dye has leached out of the garment. We also check fading by measuring the colour before testing and at the end of a five-wash-and-dry cycle.

Water

We drench each school uniform item with water and use a multi-fibre strip to see if colour leaches.

Rubbing

We use a machine that rubs a cloth against the garment for a number of cycles. We check whether the colour fades or transfers to the test cloth, in both wet and dry conditions.

Abrasion test

For certain school clothes, we look at abrasion resistance, by using an abrasive cloth and a machine to rub this against the each item for up to 30,000 cycles. At intervals, we check to see if the garment is starting to wear.