Sewing on Girl Guide badges, aaargh!!

FranP, the Guide jacket is NOT normal fabric, so please don’t tell me Gdd should sew them herself! I am hardly a novice at sewing anything by hand, but sewing the badges on to this jacket really was a nightmare!

I have a curved needle, and thread goes through the stitching on the edge, not through the badge itself.

Yes, she should sew them herself, and I have run sewing on sessions during meetings. Many girls sew them to a camp blanket instead of their uniform. I am guessing that she is asking for them on her hoodie, not her polo.

Do have a word with mum though - the uniform change is being announced in June and if she is of an age to grow, then she may be changing after September. (hoping that the sash or gilet will return which makes badges easier to keep)

PamelaJ1

Sounds like your granddaughter takes after her mother.😂
I take after my father, his family were tailors, he wasn’t but it must have been there in the genes! I sewed mine on myself, no use asking mum!

Dd always loathed sewing. I ended up doing most of her cookery apron at school when she was 11 or 12, and was rewarded with ‘C+. Neatness and accuracy are 2 skills which you must practice.’*

*fellow pedants will know why this cracked me up!

I used wonderweb.
Might need to reapply after a lot of washing though.

Would bonding tape work?
It seems to work on the hems of trousers which are washed frequently.

Witzend I'm a Rainbow, Guide and Ranger leader - the guide jackets are a different material to all other sections and horrendous to sew badges on to. Our girls sew theirs onto either the polo shirts or camp blankets. This summer uniform is changing for all sections - current uniform will still be able to be worn until outgrown.

My mother used to sew mine on very artistically with blanket stitches. She did the same with my school badges. It made me stick out like a sore thumb and I hated it.

Hi from the US, and a long term Girl Scout patch sewer.

We have available a product here called Badge Magic. I do not believe that it is sold in the UK, though there has to be some similar product there I would think. Here is what it is if you want to dig and find some there?

www.badgemagic.com/

I sew everything with a clear top thread and a vest matching bobbin on my machine, swearing when the badges are not round or circular.

Allira

Isn't there a Sewing Expert badge which can be earned by sewing on badges?

I also thought of this straight away.
There certainly should be. Sewing on badges is a nightmare.

Perhaps TEMU could invent a micro machine you could insert into the garment to sew the badges on from the inside.

Think.l.shoukd try and sell this idea to Dragons Den. Mr Touker Souleyman may be interested.

🦹🪡 🧞

Allira - way back in the ‘60s a friend had the idea of ordering the name tapes with daughter - surname - son as you suggest. The Cash’s assistant said she could not do that. My friend said she was going to, after being very firm she got what she wanted. As she said, her daughter could have had a family surname as middle name and ‘David’ could have been her actual surname.

My grandaughter asked me to sew badges on her school blazer when 8 had a broken wrist! I took them to a school outfitters and they sewed them beautifully for a few ££

I got thoroughly told off by Brown Owl (or Brown Ale, as my daughter called her) when I used wondaweb to put the badges onto her Brownie sash. I've never quite recovered!

With my GC in Brownies and Cubs, I used a thick denim needle on my sewing machine and slowed the speed right down - one stich at a time. Seemed to work ok. At least I haven't been called to account yet!!

What IS the jacket fabric?
Ours were sewn on shirts I think...

Witzend

eddiecat78

I had this problem a little while ago sewing on Beavers badges - which seem to be designed to be as awkward to sew as possible. I resorted to fabric glue which is sold by The Scout Store online - as far as I know, the badges are still in place

Fabric glue sounds good! Will investigate. Younger Gdd has recently started Beavers, so I dare say there will be more badge-sewing wanted soon.

A daunting task which I detest. Thank you for the tip.

One Christmas when staying at our daughters I sewed over a dozen badges into my granddaughters Brownie uniform. Such hard work and she packed up going to Brownies soon after!

I hated sewing on badges but when my son left home I sewed them all around the edge of a fleece blanket that he took with him.

Witzend

Gdd asked me the other day (no use asking her mum - dd is allergic to any sort of sewing).
Yes, I dare say Guides should sew them on themselves, but oh goodness, the jacket fabric is so thick, I had the devil of a job to get a needle through it! And even to find a needle to go through the fabric at all.
I just hope there won’t be any more….🙏
Is there a product for sticking such things on, I wonder? Does anyone know?

Witzend ,
Well I can’t talk as I have previously seen on my gd’s gg badges , though I did show her how to do so herself .
Also I did them by not actually going the whole way through the material but & I am sure I learnt this at school , I can’t even explain the stitch but ℹ literally do the same thing if I see a hem .
Take the needle through part of the material without going the whole way through way through or when sewing a hem no stitches are seen on the outside .
If that makes sense ?
I just applied the same to the badges even when I was a GG

If you think Girl Guide badges are bad, be thankful your GD isn’t in Sea Cadets (or probably any other Service cadet units) -the precision with which they have to be placed is a nightmare! I gave up trying to help and now only do removal of badges (so that the jackets can be passed on) 😂

Nanny27

DD was a brownie and then a Guide until mid teens. All badges were sewn (by her) on to a sash when in brownies and then on to her camp blanket in guides. Do they no longer do this?

Mine had cotton dresses as Brownies and the badges were sewn on to the sleeve.

DS's Cub and Scout badges were sewn on to his blanket.

Glad my daughters were in Girl Guiding when they still had sashes. So much easier.

DD was a brownie and then a Guide until mid teens. All badges were sewn (by her) on to a sash when in brownies and then on to her camp blanket in guides. Do they no longer do this?

I do this for GSs who are now in Scouts. I have it down to a fine art - there is a way of doing it where the thread is completely invisible.

I did do a bit of a double take when I realised I was sewing on the child's Sewing Badge ..... hmmm.....

Sago

When our son started boarding school, I sewed about 100 tapes on his uniform, home clothes, sports kit etc.

It was not my favourite task.

ȚBH I found sewing dozens of Cash’s name tapes on DDs’ school uniform a doddle, compared to sewing badges on the apparently bombproof Guides’ jacket!

I have sewn those beavers badges on my grandson’s top and it’s a terrible job trying to get them straight down the arm, my son in law does a better job than me, but he works away a lot and my daughter would just give up.

Sago

When our son started boarding school, I sewed about 100 tapes on his uniform, home clothes, sports kit etc.

It was not my favourite task.

I had to do this recently when my mother went into a care home. Absolutely everything needed to be labelled.

Then I discovered that if I hadn't bothered, they would simply have put numbered 'tags' on everything (button-sized disks). In fact, I discovered that just before I dealt with her socks ,so those all have the tags on instead. That saved me a good few hours' work!

I have had a lot of experienced of hand sewing over the years, but even I found the woven labels a nightmare to sew through, even though they don't feel particularly thick.