Only the prepared will stand a chance of surviving in the event of a total economic meltdown. You can prepare in advance by creating a stockpile of food and water and materials; but in the back of your mind, you already know that when the nightmare hits and becomes a reality, that sooner or later your stockpile is going to diminish, and that hunger and thirst - and possibly even disease - is going to force you and your family to move out into the surrounding area in the hope of acquiring food and water and whatever else it is that you will need to acquire.

I haven't seen any threads in this forum on the subject of making improvised clothing. Even if you know how to trap animals and tan hides, do you possess the necessary skill to create decent clothing for yourself ? LW.

"...do you possess the necessary skill to create decent clothing for yourself?..."

Decent? Probably not. A serape, loin cloth, and maybe leggin's, those I could handle...

Please buy extra clothes, I would guess we would not want to see you in a loin cloth any more then anyone would want to see me in one.

From several books I've got instructions on how to make improvised flip-flops out of discarded tires. I haven't used those but I have practiced with other materials following variations of those directions. My results were a far cry from something you'd see in Fashion Weekly but at least they were serviceable. That was way back when I had my old job and a ton of free time on my hands!

Several people in my family are also good with sewing and the like, and they showed me a lot of what they know. Provided I had pre-made materials and fabrics I think I'd do all right. I grudgingly admit I'd have a hard time with a hide fresh off an animal though!

"...Please buy extra clothes..."

Well, OK, if I must. But goin' totally commando is bound to happen, sooner or later...

I suspect this thread might be more appropriate for the "Long-Term Preparedness" section. There might be some small chance that it would be a short or mid-range problem but mostly this is a long-term issue.

Short-term the usual hacks should work well enough. Like field expedient materials stuffed into socks or the sleeves from a long-sleeve shirt as makeshift shoes. Depending on the area going bare foot might be an option. Crossing swamp and streams I have been known to doff my boots and ford the wet area barefoot.

Also, assuming you have footwear and clothing, it might surprise people exactly how long you can keep them in service if they are maintained and patched or mended in a timely fashion. During WW2jungle fighters, far from supply lines, made a habit of carefully inspecting their clothes and mending any imperfections as soon as they were spotted. Even with hard use in the rotting jungles some soldiers were able to keep articles of clothing functional for years even as they were patching the patches and the y were more repaired than good cloth.

Also during WW2 German infantry units each had a cobbler. I think it was one per platoon. The soldier had been trained in the trade as a military specialty and issued a cobbler's kit. With regular inspection, dressing, and repair quality leather boots can be patched, resoled and kept in service indefinitely.

The cobbler also worked to maintained the unit's load bearing equipment, tents and tarps and some uniform repairs. The individual soldiers were expected to do the majority of their own maintenance on their uniforms.

In the end it is the standard set of options. You either beg borrow or steal replacements, patch what you have, make do as best you can, or do without.

Shoes are often the first to wear out and the most difficult to replace.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Blown-Tire-Shoes/

some interesting who to's there

Interesting thought, but in reality who would really ever need a huge supply clothes. Most average items worn, this is especially considering you probably won't be washing them often, could easily last 10 years. I would first begin to slowly transition my daily wear- not rotating often, wearing them longer than usual, and limiting what was truly needed on a daily basis.

-shoes do wear out. But do you plan on walking relentlessly on a day basis? And here again, if your not walking , take them off and save the wear an tear when you can.\

-and on the commando though.............why not? Nudity for one is not that big of a deal if its warm, and a guy an get by in the summer with shorts only if needed and no one would even think twice about it. A female in the same weather could use a bikini for example and save the shorts/pants/shirts, etc...

Providing I had the raw materials on hand I can sew clothes, nothing that would win a fashion show (or seeing some of the crap that strolls down the runway who knows) and boots/shoes can be made by glueing/sewing thick leather or rubber to homemade "socks". Although I think the need for this skill set is generally not needed as there is a glut of clothes in all the malls/wall marts etc....

-Bill Liptak

Making clothing isn't very difficult, just time consuming. You need a good pattern but you can make that yourself. When I've made things I've made the patterns myself based on the measurements of clothes I already have. Given cloth or leather I could make very acceptable clothes. Shoes are a little more difficult, but I could make sandals pretty easily. But then I do a fair amount of leather work and everything is pretty much just a combination of measuring, cutting and stitching.

There's no way I'd wear sandals made from old tires. I used to work at a recycling place which ground up old tires. The wires in the steel belts and beads are bad news for feet and if they're damaged in any way (like being cut into a sandal pattern) they'll eventually work their way out...possibly into ones feet.

Ever since I helped a guy who had a tire bead wire go through his rubber boot, then his foot, then the boot again to the hospital I've been super careful with cut up/damaged/shredded tires.

And his ammo. And knife. And, well, you get it. Like the tee shirt says, "if you die first, we're splitting up your gear"...

Actually if your plan was to take stuff from folks who don't need it any more it might be good to have some tailoring skills so that you can make the clothes fit better (or fit period) and repair any wear and tear so that they last as long as possible.

I think of this issue not in regards to TSHTF but related to being out in the bush for an extended period of time and having wardrobe problem. I carry a change of clothes but if something bad happens to one shirt or one pair of pants, I know I'd do a poor job of sewing together a repair...but I'd still try.

This isn't so hard to believe as I used to think it was. If I fall in a rocky area and shred a pair of pants, I have to switch to the spares. If I soak/shred/etc that pair too, I'm going to want to change especially if it's cold...the first pair could be unwearable unless I do something to fix them...not a job to undertake while hypothermia sets in. To leave them shredded I might as well leave them in the bush and save myself the weight. Either way it's in my best interest to repair those pants as best I can. Even a knee hole should be fixed right away as it could lead to further unrepairable damage. We don't carry reams of cloth and sewing machines do we?

Repairing clothes is a very valuable skill indeed.

To make new ones entirely? bit more to that one.

gives me some ideas for a new project next time I am in the field.

Making my own knives is one thing. Making a new uniform may get me a visit to the mental health nurse.

Thats a good, point, I doubt I'll ever need to make clothes even though I could. But I have needed to repair clothes. I don't carry reams of cloth or even patches with me in the field. But I do carry denim stuff sacks which could decompose pretty easily into patches. And unlike ready made patches they're big enough to cover the whole butt of my pants if I need something that big. Or I can cut one up and make several smaller patches.

Old tires make a decent shoe tread. We made some open toe'd zapatas out of cut up old bias ply ties and scrap leather thong. they weren't the most comfortable, but they were far superior to wearing nothing. Japanese wooden sandals are even more basic; just don't plan on going miles a day in them. Sabot are okay but they are a bit tough to mfr. It's usually done with special wood gouges that scoop out the insides to fit. Mocassins are okay, and I happen to have enough saddle leather to make decent soles, but the suede soled variety won't last any longer nor be any better than a good pair of socks.

Most shoes and clothing that you can easily make at a a home or primitive level will come from the middle ages. Here are a few pages to get you started.

SSRsi's Sewing & Tailoring Page
SSRsi's Shoe & Boot Making Page
Make Your own Tire Sandals
Shoe Making

Footwear of the Middle Ages

Making Mid 19th Century Shoes

A Beginner's Addendum to Making Shoes
Making Medieval Shoes
Shoe making
The making of medieval shoes according to methods from the turn of the 14th century

If I the zombie infestation had driven me out into the woods, I think my sewing skills would soon improve, from jsut wanting to keep things together and also because I would want something to do to keep my mind busy.

If you want to make clothes, several skills may be needed. One, you will need you cloth, whatever it is, and preparing that is going to take some doing. This could involve, spinning fibers into threads or yarns. It could involve tanning hides, weaving threads, knitting, and probably a number of other things.

However, if one had cloth, then that ratty pants that have passed surviving another day as anything so much as a loin cloth, may have one further use, as a pattern. Years ago, I wanted to make a ball that seemed to be made from fur. In order to make a pattern, I cut the cover off a baseball. I think I could get a pair of pants or a shirt apart and use it in the sme way.

I know that I can sew, ive made shirts without a patters and know how to make beanies and pants, and im currently working on a pair of all leather shoes

I generally don't worry about this -- given the durability of clothing and the amount we all have, I figure that I could go almost two years without having to buy/ make new.

im 13 and still growing, so i may have to alter my clothes to make them fit, wich would be easy enough, just cut, then sew in another strip of cloth, and most sewing machines can be operated without electricity!

I just made a pair of flip-flops, it took me like 30 minutes with just a exacto knife and a pen and some thick leather...really easy...I bought the lace but obviously you could make your own