Sixty school uniforms, four per cent shrinkage and a colour that bleeds
A women's cooperative in Jodhpur has accepted an order for 60 school uniforms - 36 shirts and 24 pinafores - in cotton poplin, to be delivered in three weeks. The approved trial shirt took 1.50 m of 90 cm-wide fabric and the pinafore 1.80 m of 110 cm-wide fabric. The cooperative bought 90 m for the shirts and 50 m for the pinafores. The tailor has already cut 30 shirts from unwashed fabric. A wash test then showed the poplin shrinking 4% in the warp and 2% in the weft, and the dark blue fabric bled colour onto the white collars of four finished shirts that were washed with it. The school's approved sample has a 22 cm sleeve and a 60 cm shirt length. The tailor argues that the remaining fabric will still be enough and that pre-washing 50 metres is a waste of time and water.
1. Recalculate the fabric requirement allowing for shrinkage and cutting waste, judge whether the purchase is sufficient, and state what should be done about the 30 shirts already cut.
Read the worked answer
Shirts. Shrinkage in the warp acts on length, so the cut length must be inflated by 4%: 1.50 × 1.04 = 1.56 m per shirt. For 36 shirts that is 56.2 m; add about 5% for end loss and matching, giving ≈59 m. On paper 90 m is ample - which is why the tailor thinks he is right.
But the 30 shirts already cut were cut unshrunk. After washing, a 60 cm body becomes 57.6 cm and the 22 cm sleeve becomes 21.1 cm: roughly 2.4 cm and 0.9 cm short of the approved sample. That is a rejection risk, not a rounding error. If the school rejects those 30, the remaining 45 m must produce 30 shirts: 30 × 1.56 = 46.8 m, plus 5% waste ≈ 49 m. The cooperative is then about 4–5 m short and must buy more poplin of the same dye lot.
Pinafores. 1.80 × 1.04 = 1.87 m; × 24 = 44.9 m; plus 5% ≈ 47.2 m, within the 50 m bought - but only if the fabric is shrunk before cutting.
Action: decatise or soak-and-dry all remaining fabric before any further cutting; build a shrinkage allowance into the pattern as well as the purchase; buy roughly 5 m extra shirt fabric; and re-cut the rejected shirts rather than sending out undersized garments. The tailor's objection about water is answered by a single 50-metre pre-wash against the cost of remaking 30 shirts.
2. Analyse why the blue fabric bled onto the white collars, describe the tests that should have been run, and decide what to do with the four stained shirts.
Read the worked answer
Diagnosis. Bleeding of this kind is a colour-fastness failure in the dyed fabric, not a laundering accident. It usually means the dye was poorly fixed or inadequately washed off after dyeing - common in cheap direct dyes - and it is made worse by hot water, long soaking, detergent without a colour catcher, and, above all, by washing dark blue with white in the same load. Cotton poplin takes up dye unevenly at low cost, and the risk was knowable before bulk cutting.
Tests that should have preceded the bulk order:
- Wash fastness: stitch a blue swatch to a white swatch, wash at 40 °C with detergent, and grade the staining of the white.
- Rubbing (crocking) test: rub the dry and wet fabric against white cloth.
- Water spotting and perspiration fastness, since school shirts are washed often and worn in heat.
- Ask the supplier for a wash-fastness certificate and check the dye lot number on delivery.
The four stained shirts. Collar staining will not lift reliably. The defensible options are to replace the collars from white stock if the fabric is available and the seam can be re-finished invisibly, or to remake those four shirts and absorb the cost internally. Sending them to the school with a promise that the marks will fade is the worst option: it converts a small internal cost into a reputational one with an institutional buyer.
Prevention for the rest: pre-wash the blue in cold water with salt and rinse until the water runs clear, dye-lot the fabric, and attach a care label instructing separate washing.
3. Draft the quality control check the cooperative should run before delivery, and the communication it should send to the school now.
Read the worked answer
Inspection check, applied to every garment:
- Measurements against the approved sample - chest, shoulder, length 60 cm, sleeve 22 cm, collar, pinafore bib and hem - with a stated tolerance of ±0.5 cm.
- Shrinkage check: wash one garment from each batch and confirm residual shrinkage is not more than about 2%.
- Colour: shade matching across the batch and no staining after a test wash.
- Construction: stitch density (10–12 stitches per inch), seam strength and neatened edges, even hemming, correctly attached buttons, no loose thread or needle damage.
- Trims and labelling: care label, size label, name tag position as specified.
- Count and packing: 36 shirts and 24 pinafores sorted by size, packed size-wise with a packing list.
- A signed inspection sheet with date and inspector's name, so responsibility is traceable.
Communication to the school, sent now rather than at delivery: State plainly that the wash test showed 4% warp shrinkage and some colour bleeding in the blue, that this was detected after 30 shirts had been cut, and that the cooperative is pre-shrinking the remaining fabric and will not supply undersized garments. Attach the wash test result, give the re-measured sample for inspection if the school wishes, and confirm the delivery date or propose a revised one with a reason. Offer the corrected 30 shirts only if the school accepts the measurements after seeing a re-washed sample; otherwise replace them.
Why this order of events matters: a school can absorb a delay that is disclosed in week one; it cannot absorb discovering short sleeves and blue collars on 60 children on sports day.