Every parade night, cadets are expected to wear
some kind of uniform, and as such, the care of it becomes an
important aspect of life in the cadets. Regular inspections
are undertaken by the senior adult SNCO. Looking after your
uniform and generally keeping smart and tidy will show pride in
yourself and the uniform you wear and the organisation that you
are a part of.
In order to keep your uniform smart and tidy it
is essential to regularly wash the uniform as per the instructions
on the garment. Also before every parade night it is essential
that you iron your uniform and polish your shoes.
Ironing your uniform
Shirts
Shirts are easy to iron and take no time at all
when you know how. If your shirt is dry, lightly spray it with
water use a water sprayer available form garden stores set to
produce a mist.
Iron the inside of the collar
Place one of the shoulders into the end of the ironing board
so that the yoke lies along it and iron that.
Take your shirt off the board and place one of the sides on
so that the neck is at the end of the board.
Place the back of the shirt on the board next (you will have
to do this in two parts)
Now place the other front panel on the board and iron that.
Undo the epaulettes and iron them
Now the hard part. Sleeves. Place the sleeve along the
length of the ironing board. Use a good water sprayer and soak
the crease - not too much though. Place the iron at the cuff end
of the sleeve while pulling the crease to keep it tight. Press
firmly on the iron and steadily move up to the shoulder end of
the sleeve. Repeat for the other sleeve and you should have a
perfect pair of creases.
Now don't just throw the shirt on the bed otherwise all that
hard work you have just done will be wasted. Place the shirt on a
hanger until its time to put it on.
Trousers
Take care ironing trousers as you can make the
material shine if you don't follow this simple guide.
Place front crease of one leg onto the ironing board.
Pull both ends of the crease and make sure no material is
ruflled up underneath.
Spray the crease with your water sprayer.
Place a plain white cotton cloth (a handkerchief is perfect
for this) over the crease and spray this too.
Now place your iron on the cloth over the crease and press
firmly, and slowly move the iron up to the crease taking care
not to go off the cloth and onto your trousers. Repeat as many
times as necessary to do the entire crease.
repeat the process in the following order: next front
crease, then rear creases.
The use of a cloth prevents shining of the
material when the iron is placed directly on to the material. You
end up with razor sharp creases with a shiny patch down one side
which looks pretty daft.
Once you have ironed your trousers, you will need
to keep the creases pin sharp. Use a purpose made trouser hanger -
available from all good military surplus stores and hardware
stores or you could try this essential tip:
Use a standard coat hangar, but instead over laying the
trousers over the hangar, use two or three strong pegs and clip
the bottom of your trousers to the hangar so that they hang
straight.
Jumper
All that is needed is the occasional iron
specifically the elbow pads, shoulder pads and epaulettes. If it
starts to get 'fluffy' then give it a trim with a small pair of
scissors. Be careful not to cut the jumper, just remove any
sticking out fibres. Do not cut off threads, instead pull them
through from the inside using a needle or pin.
Ensure the jumper is also kept on a hanger while
not in use.
Tying a Windsor Knot
It may sound complicated and certainly describing
how to do it makes it even more complicated but once learnt you
will remark to yourself how easy it is! Use the following as
guidance. Indeed you can print this and place it to the side of
your mirror while you tie the knot. When you are looking in the
mirror you will see the images as below.
Step 1
To tie a windsor knot, you should start with wide end of your
tie on your right and have it hanging roughly a foot lower than
the narrow end of your tie does.
Step 2 and Step 3
The next stage of tying a windsor knot is to cross the wide end
of your tie over the narrow end and bring the wide end of your tie
up through loop.
Step 4
Once again, cross the wide end of your tie over the narrow end
and bring the wide end of your tie up through loop.The Windsor
knot is now taking shape.
Step 5
Put the wide end of your tie down through the loop and across
the narrow end as shown.
Step 6
Turn the wide end of your tie and pass up through the loop
Step 7
To complete your windsor knot, slip the wide end of your tie
down through the knot in front. Tighten the knot and draw your tie
up so that the knot sits snugly against your collar.
Check out the video below that shows you how to
tie the Windsor knot.
Polishing your shoes
Many people have many ways of polishing or 'bulling' shoes. A
lot of these methods involve a quick fix by using oils or
furniture polish to get an instant shine. Don't be tempted to do
this yourself, this will only serve to dull polish and you will
have to strip all polish off the shoe and start again. The 'quick'
way to polish is the wrong way. Here are some tips to polish your
shoes: -
Clean off any surface dust with a piece of cotton wool or
soft cloth. Polishing over dust will only mean that you engrain
foreign matter into your shoe and will stop you from getting a
good shine.
Dip a separate (don't use the dirty cotton wool) piece of
cotton wool/soft cloth into some water soaking the cotton
wool/cloth, squeeze out the excess water.
When the cotton wool/cloth is wet, dip it into some
polish.
Apply shoe polish in a circular motion (small circles) onto
the shoes.
Applying more more water when the cotton wool.cloth starts
to become dry.
When the shine starts to appear dip a fresh piece of cotton
wool/cloth ito water then into the polish and build up the
layers of polish on the shoes by repeating this until a deep
shine appears.
Don't overshine your shoes once you obtain the initial shine
as you will lose the best finish.
