Making Clothes After TSHTF – Question From A Reader

I received an email from a reader recently that gave me pause for thought.  It was one of those subjects you should be thinking about, but you’re probably not.  After all, getting your AR15 ready for TEOTWAWKI is a hell of a lot sexier than darning a pair of socks or sewing a new pair of pants from scratch.

So this reader put the question to me and since I don’t so much past repairing a rip or sewing a button back on I’m going to put it to the wicked smaht readers of SHTF Blog.

Read the email below and let’s see what we can come up with for an answer.

-Jarhead Survivor

First of all, I am not native english speaker (I am spanish, old Europe), so please, forgive me if I do not write correctly.

I have been reading about preparedness for a while and I have found it interesting. Your blog is a goldmine. I would like to ask you about something that does not receives much attention and I think it could be as important as food: clothing.

I am not talking about “best pants for bugging out” or “How many socks in your bug out bag?” I am thinking in long term SHTF scenario. How would you get your clothes? Wool + knit? furs?

Lets imagine it:
- Global outbreak, there are just a few survivors (all of them preppers, of course). You are in a community and food /safety is not an issue.
- Current resources are no longer available at all. That includes clothes, all current, easy access, clothes are unreachable. There may be tons of jeans and coats in some warehouse not far but they contaminated or whatever. Not an option.
- You have no access to information that you do not have today (you can’t learn how to create fabrics).

At this point, I would like your opinions and plans about what should you do now. The main problem I see is that while growing your own food is business as usual, I have never seen anybody creating all his clothes.

I would like your senior preppers opinions. Do you have a sheep? Have you learned how to shear? Or how to make felt?

Would you recommend me growing cotton (or linen or…)? Do you have cotton seeds (or linen or…)? Do you know what are climate or water requirements and have planned/reserved land for these crops? What hardware is needed to create threads/strands/fabrics/clothes (apart from the sewing needle and scissor that is common ins bug out equipments)? What hardware is needed to create felt from wool?

On the other hand, I do not think you can make ALL your clothes with furs…

Could you please give me your opinions about long term clothing? What about long term clothing for children?

Note: Please, bear in mind related items: ropes, bedclothes, pillows, diapers, nets…

Note 2: Sheep… or even better a mangalitsa pig!! please, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalitsa

-Jesus