I’m still rotating my six winter sweaters because April won’t just go ahead and act like April. It must have been inspired to misbehave by January’s unseasonal warmth. But that’s not the point of this post. The point is that I’ve been wearing these six sweaters in perpetuity, and each one has a specific tee-shirt that goes under it. The maroon turtleneck goes with the thin Urban Outfitters tee, the brown J.Crew knit goes with my brown tunic from Macy’s, and the completely stretched out but still so comfortable black sweater goes with the black v-neck. Thusly, in the rare moment I get warm enough to remove the sweater I have something cute underneath.
All of these under-sweater shirts have annoying tags sewn into the hem on the left side, which have been boring into my tender skin. Rashly, I cut the tag out of the brown tee from Macy’s a few months ago. The tag felt like it was made from a cardboard/plastic polymer and when it was cut, the leftover edges rubbed at my side like the cilice on the leg of an Opus Dei nut. The tag of the Urban Outfitters shirt, while less cardboardy, was just as much of a reminder of my voluntary offering of discomfort to the god of fashion.
Last night I set out to remove the last remnants of these tags from the tee shirts once and for all. Using a seam-ripper I found in my grandmother’s old sewing kit and my tiny fingernail scissors, I plopped on the couch and went to work. The removal of the tags was not as easy as I hoped. Someone had decided that those tags were meant to stay, and affixed them to the hems with the utmost care and tightness. I’m sure you know what I mean. I spent the first half hour trying to meticulously cut the tag around the tiny stitches to as to not rip the hem, but I got nothing but a fringy tag remnant that wouldn’t budge. Finally, I gave in and cut the hem on both shirts, submitting to the realization that re-sewing it will take less time than trying to not cut the hem.
It makes me angry, and the bummer is that I’m not sure where to direct this anger. The clerk at the Urban Outfitters store who didn’t warn me about the tag? The team of people who designed the shirt? The laborer in goodness knows what country who sewed the tag shut? Me, for buying the shirt in the first place? I pay a premium to own shirts that are already sewn, so I don’t want to have to do it at home, and I’m not trendy enough to start a “small hole in the left hem of my tee” fad. So seriously, to whom do I direct my angry letter? I guess the answer is: You. Person of the year. Reader of blogs. You can receive my anger. Sorry about that, because I do appreciate you being here, it’s just that I’ve wasted 30 minutes writing about this problem, and I don’t feel like spending any more time on it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, this tag on my pink tee shirt under the blue sweater is scratching at my neck.
Posted by lizgwiz on April 11, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I love, love, love the silkscreened tags some manufacturers are coming out with–you know, the manufacturers who actually love us, and our delicate flesh.
Posted by NancyPearlWannabe on April 11, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Yep- the Banana Republic and J.Crew tshirts with the silkscreened tags are the way to go. I hate scratchy tags on my neck, but surprisingly, I hate them on the bottom corner even more. (Urban Outfitters is notorious for that.)
Posted by mermu on April 11, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Tags suck but we are all slaves to branding in one way or another. I like those tagless tags that aren’t tags at all but tattoed reminders of who and what the shirt came from.
I think you have to let go of your anger and revel in the truth that in 1 short evening you beat the evils of this world by doing it yourself. Down with tyranny and torturous tags by the simple subversive act of ripping them out and sewing the holes.
I still get a kick out of defeating the evil ShowerMonster that stopped up my shower. All it took was 19.95 for my “sword”, a little elbow grease and BAAM! That ShowerMonster is back in the pits of hell (or perhaps the neighbors pipes?) where it belongs.
Posted by Mary Sheehan Winn on April 11, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Oh I laughed. Thanks for tackling this issue.
The seam ripper is so familiar and I have a few ‘trendy’ pieces, all black, of course
The whole tag thing is a scourge and the new tatoo type is great
We’re all victims of the manufacturers one way or another.
Posted by Noelle on April 12, 2007 at 11:36 am
lizgwiz – I bought a pack of those tees for working out. They are brilliant.
NPW – The other thing is that I always just throw my tees in the wash on the same cycle. I never check the tags. I’m becoming a big B.R. fan.
mermu – today, I take out the tags, tomorrow I take out Bin Laden. Evils be gone!
MSW – Welcome! The seam ripper is indeedy a wonderful tool until all shirts become tattooed.
Posted by rdl on April 12, 2007 at 11:48 am
You have way more patients than me – 30 min! I can’t even get myself to sew back the button on my peacoat (that I’m still wearing
that’s been off since last year.
Posted by stefanie on April 12, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Wow. I have been annoyed by tags, but have never gone so far as to re-sew a shirt to remove them!
With the sort of stiff plasticy tags that I know are going to be a bitch to remove, I sometimes try trimming them in a rounded shape but leaving them intact. The rounded edges don’t irritate as much as the pointy square ones. I haven’t tried this enough times to guarantee it will work in all situations, however.