Self Sufficient Style
When becoming more self sufficient, many forget about their clothing. There are several ways in which to be more environmentally friendly and prepared when it comes to what you wear, from learning to sew to making them from scratch.
Buy Quality Clothes
If you’re buying clothes for your cache, then the best place to go would be an army surplus store, as the clothes that they will stock will be durable and long lasting. If this is what you wear anyway, then you’re likely to know that army surplus stores are the best place to buy good quality clothes that are going to last. It might be harder to convince the ladies to wear this type of hardwearing clothes but if the situation arises then they will have to.
Learn To Sew
Fixing your own clothes is one of the paramount things that you must be able to do when you’re on the road to becoming self sufficient. Create a stock of buttons, needles and thread. These things may be invaluable for fixing things other than clothes. Learning to sew, darn and patch will make your clothes last ten times longer than they would otherwise, and as you get better you won’t even be able to tell.
Making Them From Scratch
There was a time when we made our own clothes. It was a very, very long time ago, but it did happen! There are many sources of material for textiles, including animal, plant and mineral. The easiest way (and it’s still not that easy) would be to keep a sheep and use its wool and make it into a fabric. Once you shear your sheep of its wool, it needs to be scoured- cleansed of the lanolin that makes it greasy, rinsed and dried. The wool is then carded, either through a carding machine or by hand using carding combs. This detangles the wool and creates a continuous fine web ready for the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel then creates yarn by holding two ends and spinning them together. Depending on the speed and other factors, different lengths, strengths and thicknesses can be created. This is then weaved in a loom to create a textile that can be made into a garment. It takes perseverance and skill to be able to do this.
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Grant says
Add a “Buttoneer” to your pack and you’re good to go! They also do small sewing jobs and fix buttons faster than sewing.