Purpose:

     This is a guide to consistently getting the school uniforms to be in the ideal conditions for inspections every week. The reader will need:

• Their uniforms
• Bates shoes
• An iron
• Ironing board
• A washer and dryer
• Detergent
• Dryer sheets
• Clothes rack
• Hangers
• Spray bottle full of water
• Can of spray starch
• Shoe polishing kit
• Lighter
• Terrycloth rag
• Two clean rags.

Overview:

 Washing uniforms
 Ironing uniforms
 Making military creases on the shirts
 Final preparation of uniforms
 Shining Bates shoes

Washing Clothes:

1) Remove all pins, ribbons and nametags along with ensuring that all pockets have been emptied.
2) Place your uniforms in the washing machine.

     a. Add one cup of detergent
     b. Set the washer for TIMED COLD WASH.
          i. Washing the uniforms in cold will ensure that any stains that may be present will not set into the fabric
3) Remove the uniforms from the washer and transfer them into the dryer after the washer has finished.
     a. Insert a single dryer sheet.
     b. Set the machine for timed PERM PRESS
4) Hang your uniforms as soon as they are pulled out from the dryer in order to keep them from wrinkling.
     a. Button up all shirts and zip up all pants for stability in the following steps
     b. Have iron ready
          i. The following steps will work best if your clothes are slightly damp, so it may be beneficial to remove the uniforms from the dryer about ten minutes early.

Ironing Uniforms:

1) Take the first article and lay it across your ironing board
          a. To make sure it is a little damp, spray lightly with water, covering the entire front
2) Iron out all visible creases and wrinkles
          a. Try to keep the spot being ironed in the center of the board as you move over the article of clothing in order to avoid any slipping of the iron
3) Flip the article over and repeat steps four and five
4) Rehang the ironed article of clothing and take down the next one, repeating steps 4-6 until all articles are both dry and unwrinkled

Military Creases:

     1)  Remove a shirt from its hanger and lay the shirt across the ironing board.
     2)  Lay the shirt face down on your ironing board, and take one sleeve and fold it over the back so that a fold forms along the front, marking 1/3 of the shirt
          a. The fold must line up over the breast-pocket button
          b. Dampen article again by lightly going over it with a spray bottle filled with water
     3)  Using your fingertips, pull the backside of your shirt out of the newly created fold so that only the front side will be ironed during this step
     4)  Iron along the fold until it forms a crease along the front of the shirt which lines up over breast pocket
          a. If a mistake has been made, simply wet crease with water and iron it smooth, then start back at step two
     5)  Repeat steps 2 – 4 using the opposite sleeve to create the other crease on the front section of the shirt
     6)  Flip the shirt over so that the buttons are now facing up
     7)  Take one sleeve and fold it over the front so that a fold forms along the back, thus marking 1/3 of the shirt
          a. The fold will line up over the breast-pocket button
          b. Dampen the fold by lightly going over it with a spray bottle filled with water.
     8) Take your fingertips and pull the front side of the shirt out of the newly created fold so that only the front side will be ironed during this step
     9)  Iron along the fold until it forms a crease on the front of the shirt which lines up over the breast pocket button
          a. If a mistake has been made, wet crease with water and iron it smooth, then start back at step seven
     10)  Repeat steps 7 – 9 using the other sleeve in order to create the other crease on the back side of the shirt
     11)  Lay the shirt on its side onto your ironing board while making sure that the fold formed over where the spine will be is evenly in the middle between the shoulders
     12)  Using your fingertips, pull the button-up side completely away from the back of the shirt so that only the back portion will be ironed in this step.
     13)  Iron along the fold in order to create the center crease on the back of your shirt
          a. Iron the surrounding area to remove any wrinkles formed during the process
     14)  Hang the shirt
     15)  Starch the creases you just made to preserve them for the week
     16)  Repeat steps 1 - 15 for all other uniform shirts

Final Uniform Preparation:

     1)  If shoulder boards need to be inserted, say for dress uniforms, place them so that if the diagonal lines on the  boards were to continue indefinitely, they would intersect behind the back and make an “X”
     2)  Place nametag on left side of shirt 1/8inch above the top of the breast pocket
          a. The left side of the shirt while looking at it from the front
     3)  Place ribbons and pins on right side of shirt in descending order of importance starting at top left, leaving 1/8inch clearance above breast pocket.
          a. The right side of the shirt when looking at it from the front

Shining Shoes:

     The first thing that needs to be done before the shoes can be shined is removing the factory coating. This can be done by pouring a liberal, but not excessive amount of liquid dish soap onto a clean rag and scrubbing the shoes thoroughly.

     1) Take your shoes and wipe them down with a clean, damp rag to remove any dirt, dust or grime.
          a. If you just got done removing that factory coating, scrub off any soap residue that may be on the show.
     2) Using a clean dry rag, thoroughly dry off shoes
     3) Take the tin of BLACK shoe polish
     4) Add a few drops of water to the polish which will ease the process of applying the shoe polish onto your Bates
     5) Pour out the excess water from the tin
     6) Rub the sponge included in the shoe polishing kit into the polish
     7) Massage the shoe polish vigorously into all leather surfaces of the shoe in circular motions using your sponge applicator
     8) Lightly run a flame over the freshly polished area on the shoe
          a. Be careful not to keep the flame directly against the leather for any longer than two seconds at a time so that you do not inadvertently burn your shoe
     9) Using a clean terrycloth rag, rub down the shoe to remove any excess shoe polish
     10)  Repeat for the second shoe
     11)  Rinse out all used sponges and rags to remove any loose dirt and shoe polish
     12)  Throw the polish covered rags into the washing machine, and add ¼ of a cup of detergent
     13)  Set washer to timed WARM wash
     14)  Remove the rags from the washer and place them in the dryer on PERM PRESS

Conclusion:

     Your uniforms are now ready to pass inspection. This process can be done every other week since you are provided with two sets of khaki uniforms, so do not be intimidated by the amount that goes into making your uniforms look clean, professional, and able to pass inspection.