Using WayTags on your clothing is one of the most popular ways to use WayAround. Our WayTag buttons are completely waterproof. They can go through the washer, dryer, and they can go to the dry cleaner. Two styles of WayTag buttons let you choose whether you attach by sewing or with a safety pin.
Jaz from Insight4 Blind walks you through how to attach the WayTags to lots of different types of garments. She offers ideas for both styles of buttons and talks through the differences between the two styles of buttons. Check out her video for great info about tagging everything from dress shirts to yoga pants. She even throws in tips for accessories like scarves, socks, and shoes.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Jaz from the Insight4 blind channel on YouTube. I’m a blind occupational therapist and I’m here today to show you how WayAround can give you access to all the information you need to match, wash, and even replace all of your favorite clothes. So let’s get started!
So you can put whatever kind of information you want on a WayTag, but when you’re dealing with clothes you really want to think about appearance, washing instructions, and of course information if you want to replace that item later on. So I’m going to give you some ideas on the type of information you can put on your WayTags for clothing management. We’re going to read a tag.
[phone] Ready to scan. Ready to scan. Peach.
[Jaz] It said peach because that’s what I have in the description. When you’re creating your tags anything you put in the description is what you’re going to hear if you’re using voiceover. But after that, there’s all kinds of information that you can put. So for your detail type, I suggest using clothing care because that’s going to allow you to put information about sorting, washing, drying.
[phone] Sorting. Darks. List start. Washing. Machine wash cold. Drying. Line dry.
[Jaz] And these are from a picker item, so it makes it really quick and easy. All you have to do is choose what you want. Now there’s also a field for when you purchase your clothing, and if you can’t see it’s good to know how old your clothes are because after a few years you’re going to want to ask someone, “Hey is this looking a little shabby?”
After you fill out the fields that you want that WayAround provides, you can choose to create your own detail types. And so for me with my clothes, I like to have the brand and the style.
[phone] Brand. Talbots. Style. Scoop neck with three-quarter length sleeves.
[Jaz] And this is one of my favorite custom details. I have created a custom detail that allows me to put the link to this item on the web, so when I want to buy another one and see what’s out there, all I have to do to order more in this style is double click.
[phone] Link. Safari. WayAround. Skip. End of season clearance
[Jaz] And it takes me right to the website. Isn’t that cool? This is what makes WayAround so unique. Now I’m going to go back to WayAround
[phone] Button. Status bar. Item. Return to null order
[Jaz] I’m back at my at my WayTag screen, and there’s one other unique custom detail that I like to create that I suggest you do if you have difficulty seeing, and that is to create a field that allows you to put in information on what matches with this item.
[phone] Matches with. Navy blue pants with peach and white flowers. List end.
[Jaz] So I have these pants hanging in my closet and the WayTag on the pants. When I hear it say navy blue with peach and white flowers, I know that those are the pants that go with this top. So you can put as much or as little information on your WayTags as you choose.
Types of WayTag Buttons
WayAround offers two different types of buttons. They’re both black plastic and they’re waterproof, and they both can withstand extreme temperatures. So you can toss them in the wash. They can also tolerate being dry cleaned. The only difference between them is actually the size and the way that you attach them to your clothes. I’m going to start with the two-hole button here. This is the type of button that you would sew into your clothes. Now you don’t need to replace the buttons that already come on your clothes. You’d put them somewhere tucked away and so you can sew them on with thread or you can attach them to other things with with pipe cleaners. Now it’s about the size of a nickel. The larger button is about the size of a quarter and it’s called the oval hole button, because you would attach this differently. For example, you can use the rust resistant safety pins or you can use rubber bands. I tell you with clothing I love to use hair bands because they can easily go through the wash. And what I do is stick the hair band through the oval hole because it’s a nice size hole and then you do a slip knot. You put one end of the loop through the other and then tighten it up against the band and you’re good to go!
Luckily WayAround offers a laundry starter kit where you get 25 of the two hole buttons, six easy thread needles, some thread, and a piece of cork to help you with the needles. If you’re not sure how the easy thread needles work or how to sew on these two hole buttons without depending on sight, Go to my Insight4 Blind channel on YouTube and check out the video on threading a needle and sewing on these magical buttons.
Attaching WayTag Buttons to your Clothes
So where do you place your WayTags? Well most of the time you’re going to want to sew the two-hole button into the garment. You’re going to want to choose a spot that’s out of sight but easy to find. Here are a few helpful tips to help you get started. So let’s start with loose fitting clothing. The obvious place to consider first is always going to be to sew the two-hole button into the tag inside the garment. I have a sweater here with the tag that’s up by the collar and the button is sewn right onto it. Nowadays not everything comes with a tag right by the collar. For example my favorite t-shirt has the information printed where the tag would normally go. But when that happens usually there’s still a tag, it’s just sewn into the side seam inside of the shirt so you can still put your button right there. It’s a great spot.
Now if you are dealing with a button down or dress shirts, usually the spot where the manufacturer puts extra buttons is a great spot to put your WayTags. If you follow the buttons down to the bottom of the shirt and flip it over into the inner hem if it’s not stitched down that is the perfect spot for you to sew your WayTag button.
So let’s talk about more delicate fabrics, because sometimes there are things you’re not going to want to sew a button into and you’re certainly not going to want to pin anything into it. So I have here one of my absolute favorite blouses and instead of sewing a button into it, what I have here is an oval hole button on a rust-resistant safety pin and I’ve got it pinned into the tag by the collar. Now when I wear this I’m going to take the pin off, but when it goes back onto the hanger that’s when you put the pin back on. Now with your delicate fabrics, you can put the pin on and throw it in the wash if you have to, but if you can identify this without the pin when it comes out of the wash leave it off just to be safe. But wash your stuff on gentle and hang it up if it’s a delicate fabric, and you’re putting a pin in it. Now ladies, this trick actually works really well with your delicate garments, your undergarments as well. So for your bras or your camisoles, you can easily put a pin with a WayTag on it when you’re not wearing it so you can tell the style and the color you need.
Now there’s always going to be at least one or two outfits in your closet that you just don’t want a pin going anywhere near, because it’s a special outfit or a really fine fabric like this dress. This dress doesn’t have a tag here that makes it easy to sew into, and I really don’t want to put a pin into this dress. So what I’ve done is I’ve actually taken a WayTag clip or a WayClip with a pipe cleaner and I’ve tagged the hanger. So that means when I’m done wearing this dress and it’s ready to be hung back up, it’s got to go on the same hanger. So that’s the key. This one’s tricky. If you take something off of a hanger and the hanger’s where the tag is, you’ve got to be sure when it’s clean and ready to be hung back up you put it on the right hanger.
With tighter fitting garments you’re going to want to really be careful about where you put the buttons because you don’t want them to irritate your skin or or bug you when you’re moving around. So pants are a perfect example of this. Now this pair of pants, these aren’t real tight. These are kind of loose fitting so I still have my two hole buttons sewn into the waistband. But for my nicer pants that I wear to work, I don’t like to have the button in the waistband. They’re a little more form-fitting so I prefer to sew them into the pocket like this. Actually anytime I have pants with pockets, that’s my preferred place because it just gets them out of the way and I don’t have to worry about them rubbing on me while i’m moving around. So if you have other things that are tight fitting and you don’t want to be able to feel the button when you’re moving around like yoga pants or leggings, I suggest that you roll them up and use the oval button with the hair tie around it to label them. Now if you have lots of colors or patterns and you want to keep them separated in the wash so you’ll know which is what, I suggest that you use laundry bags to keep them separated. The beauty of laundry bags is they’re designed to go through the wash. You throw your dirties in there and you can even toss the WayTag in with it, so when it comes out of the dryer you know what you’re working with.
Lastly, jeans. Jeans definitely tend to be a little more form-fitting, but they’re also very tough. So with jeans what I do is the same trick that we used with the delicate fabrics. Take your rust resistant safety pin and your oval hole button and take it off when you go to wear the jeans, but then when it’s time to throw them in the wash put them on the belt loop or clip them to the pin it to the tag inside and toss them in the laundry. These buttons do beautifully in the wash!
Here are a few extra tips. The trick I showed you for your leggings or your yoga pants is great for anything you can bundle like scarves or socks or even stockings. In the wintertime I like to wear knee-high stockings and so it’s hard for me to sort through them and match them because I can’t see what color they are. So what I’ve done is with the WayTags I’ve bundled them and as I use them, I pull them from the little bundle with the hair tie and the oval button here. Then when I put them in the dirty clothes instead of throwing them in with all my laundry, I actually keep a small laundry bag in the same box as this bundle. So they go in this laundry bag and when it’s time to go in the wash I take the WayTag, toss it in the bag, throw it all in the wash, and when they come out the other side everything’s already sorted.
Lastly WayTag stickers are fantastic on shoe boxes and it’s a big time saver so you don’t have to go through your closet and digging through all of your shoe boxes to find the shoes you want. All you have to do is put a sticker on the corner and you are good to go. Cuts the time in half!
An Easy Way to Tag Different Versions of the Same Garment
One of the reasons I love WayAround is they put a lot of thought into making sure that their products are quick and easy to use whether you’re creating a tag or reading a tag. For example, if you’re like me and you find a style of something that you love you tend to buy more than one, right? Well if you can’t see the color pattern, it’s hard to tell them apart because they all feel the same. So what WayAround has done is they created an edit feature that allows you to essentially copy all of the same information on one tag so you can quickly put it onto another one. I’m going to show you how it works. I have three pairs of pants here that are identical in style but they all have different color patterns on them. Check it out! So I begin by reading the first tag that I’ve already created with all the same type of information that you saw at the beginning of this video. And remember, your scanner can read through fabric so you just need to get it close.
[phone] Black and white check pattern.
[Jaz] Perfect! So now thanks to WayAround, instead of having to redo everything all I need to do is hit the edit button
[phone] Edit button. Edit WayTag. Heading level one.
[Jaz] And it pulls up that same WayTag and all the information is already in there. So now all I need to do is change the one thing that needs to change and that’s the description. So I’m going to go to description field.
[phone] Description. Heading. Black and white check pattern. Multi-line text field.
[Jaz] I’m gonna delete what’s in there and record new information. Navy blue with white dots.
[phone] Inserted navy blue with white dots. Toolbar. Done button.
[Jaz] There we go. Click done and now all I have to do is write it to right button. Get the right tag.
[phone] Ready to scan. Ready to scan. Success WayTag written. Navy blue with white dots.
[Jaz] So for the third pair of pants I do the same exact same thing. Lastly WayAround makes it quick and easy to read tags. Especially when you have to go through a lot of tags at one time, you don’t want to be fidgeting with your phone. So they created the WayLink. The WayLink is a little bit bigger than a credit card and it communicates to the app on the phone through Bluetooth. So this little device is all you need when you’re sorting through your clothes. Check it out! You hold the middle of the WayLink to the tag and it makes it quick and easy.
[phone] Navy blue with little white dots.
Black, white, and gray plaid for spring.
[Jaz] Pretty cool! So now you know your WayAround to tag your clothes and some accessories. If you combine the use of WayTags with good organizational techniques you’ll be able to find the items that you need, match the items you want, follow the care instructions for your clothing, and you’ll have the information you need to replace any of the items. To order more WayTags go to WayAround.com and be sure to check out the WayAround channel on YouTube to learn more ideas on how you can use WayTags throughout your world. Also go to Insight4 Blind on YouTube and subscribe so that you can learn the tips, tools, and techniques for living life with low vision or no vision. I’m here to help you learn your way around with vision loss. So no worries! You got this. See you next time!