Removing Scratchy Tags

March 13, 2008 10:54 AM

Is there a good way to remove scratchy clothing tags?

I'm talking about the tags that are sewn into the neck seams or side seams of shirts. If you cut out the tag, you are left with a remnant that is still pretty scratchy. If you try to take it out at the seam, you wind up with a hole in the seam. Is there a clever way to do this that I'm not thinking of?

posted by yarrow to clothing, beauty, & fashion (11 comments total)

Cut the tag, then rub the remains with a steel wool pad to fray and soften it.
posted by headspace at 11:09 AM on March 13, 2008

Go to a fabric store and get yourself a seam ripper. The tag seam is usually separate from the clothing seam, so you can use the ripper to pop the stitches holding the tag in place and yank it out. This is what I do with all mine--works great, but make sure you look closely and make sure that the seams are distinct from one another. (They almost always are, as it's more work to place the tag before sewing together, say, a neck-seam.)
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 11:14 AM on March 13, 2008 [2 favorites]

My solution is to go around the problem. Wear the new fancy tagless undershirts, which protect you from all but the worst outer shirt tags.
posted by grumpy at 11:28 AM on March 13, 2008

Some manufacturers are starting to print the label information on the inside of the shirt rather than have a tag. Here in Canada, much of the clothing at the Mark's Work Wearhouse chain is labelled this way (including many styles of T-shirt, dress shirt, etc.). Perhaps you can find someplace near you that sells shirts labelled this way.

(You can buy from Mark's online at marks.com but I don't think they specify on the web site what type of label the item has. They usually have great customer service -- maybe you can get someone to tell you which is which)
posted by winston at 11:31 AM on March 13, 2008

Sometimes you can cut the tag and then pick at the tag remnants with a needle to un-weave the remaining bit of tag until it's just thread.
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:58 AM on March 13, 2008

I second the seam ripper suggestion...
posted by Echidna882003 at 12:14 PM on March 13, 2008

If you don't mind leaving the tags on, but want them to stop irritating your skin, this product claims to cover up clothing tags with a smooth, non-irritating surface. I've never tried them, but it seems like a good idea--you can still read the cleaning instructions and you don't have to risk slipping with scissors/seam ripper and making a hole in your clothes.

Personally, I really like the new trend that winston mentioned of companies printing the info directly on the fabric. I will actually go out of my way to choose clothes that are tagless.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:28 PM on March 13, 2008

Sometimes you can cut the tag and then pick at the tag remnants with a needle to un-weave the remaining bit of tag until it's just thread.

This is what I do. I find that most tags are actually sewn into the seam, so a seam ripper would not work.

And the new "tagless" shirts usually have the tag on the side, just above the waist, which is just as annoying to me as a neck tag.
posted by peep at 1:03 PM on March 13, 2008

Nthing seam ripper, although sometimes the tag is sewn into the main seam, so you'll sometimes also need a small sewing kit to repair that.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:20 PM on March 13, 2008

I pop the stitches and then just re-sew the seam.
posted by nax at 3:38 PM on March 13, 2008

Thanks all. I'll examine my tags more closely and see if they are really sewn separately from the shirt seam. And it never occurred to me to cover the scratchy tags with something non-scratchy. Tagless shirts are great when you can get them but lots of them do still have side tags, as peep says.
posted by yarrow at 6:42 AM on March 14, 2008