Am I the only one whose kids grow like weeds? We just finished back to school shopping, for those of you who send your kids out to school. How are your kids doing? Are any of your kids already starting to outgrow some of their clothing? Maybe they aren’t already horribly small, but you notice that the pants are getting slightly “highwater”? Or maybe their long sleeves are starting to creep up past their wrists? I know I can’t be the only one!
And craziness here at my house, my eight-year-old wears almost the same size as my (almost) thirteen year old! But keeping those two, specifically, in clothes that fit is crazy!!
That’s now though. What are you going to do if we ever end up at TEOTWAWKI? How are you going to keep your kids (and you) in clothes that fit and function properly? Let me give you some tips and tricks to make life now (and then) so much simpler, faster and CHEAPER!!
That’s one of the most awesome points of this all. If you follow the clothing principles below, you are going to save a TON of money on clothing because you’re going to be getting a TON of clothes for AMAZING prices!! WOOHOO! Who doesn’t love the ability to save money?
Clothing Principles
(1) Buy a year ahead and/or two sizes up
SO how do you save money on clothes AND become more prepared at the same time? Well, let me tell ya. You buy ahead.
What do I mean? Okay, right now we’re coming into fall. All the summer stuff is on mega-uber-clearance. I want you to go to the store and pick up clothes for your kids for NEXT summer AND the summer AFTER THAT. Now don’t flip. I’m not telling you to buy like $500 worth of clothes. Because you’re going to find those clothes for $3 – $5 (or less – how cool is that?!?) at Wal-mart right now. You may very well be able to get more clothes for less money by buying at the end of the season for the next year and year after!
It gets even better – seriously! Then next year, you’ll just pick up ONE year’s worth of clothes, so you’ll save money because you’re only buying one year’s worth of clothes instead of two. Just pick up the clothes for two years out from there. Yes, you’re buying clothes for 2 years out and will the clothes automatically correspond to exactly two years out? No, but by doing this, you are providing for your kids for 1-2 years if something big ever were to happen.
More than that, if something would happen to your income, then you’ll have enough clothes to get you through a year and a half to two years without having to buy clothes. Not a bad clothing situation in which to find yourself.
(2) Buy the same sturdy shoes in the next several sizes 
This goes right along with clothes, but there’s an excellent way to handle shoes! Do your kids already have a sturdy pair of hiking boots or work boots that fit them really well and that they will already wear without grumbling about it? If they do, that’s awesome! Buy the next 2-3 sizes up on those shoes NOW.
If they don’t have a sturdy pair of hiking or work boots, set out in search to find one. We used to get our workboots for our boys at Payless. They would easily last them throughout the year. With Payless having gone belly up, we have had to look for other places to find them. Sometimes you can get good sales at Kohls. Sometimes you can grab a steal from Amazon. With the exception of going to church, hiking boots work for just about every season and provide a greater degree of protection to the feet than regular shoes do.
Every time your child goes up one shoe size, buy the next size of hiking boot up from what you’ve already purchased. This way you are constantly providing for your family’s physical needs, should we experience TEOTWAWKI.
(3) Learn basic sewing
Hey GUYS if you plan on learning how to do stitches on someone if they cut themselves, you might as well learn how to sew. It’s very similar. Sorry to break it to ya.
Another way to save on your clothing budget and to be better prepared for every eventuality is to learn how to repair your own clothing.
Clothing repair
Before you learn to sew something from scratch, you need to learn how to do basic repairs.
Sewing doesn’t have to be hard. Can you thread a needle? Then you are capable of hand sewing. If you truly have never picked up a needle, start by learning how to sew on a button. If you can sew on a button, then you can repair a seam. Learn how to do these six simple stitches and you’ll be well on your way to taking care of basic clothing repair.
No-Sew Tricks
Can’t sew NOW (though I’m sure you’ll learn, right?) There are some tips and tricks that will do in a pinch.
Patches
Make sure you have enough patches. All you need is an iron to attach those to your clothes. Fortunately, even an old fashioned iron that doesn’t need electricity will work to affix the patch to whatever piece of clothing that you need to repair.
Fusible Tape
Another great no-sew item is fusible tape. You can use it to repair clothing seams if you don’t have a thread and needle (learn to sew – it’s so much better and will last longer). Fusible tape is put into the seam area and then the area is ironed to cause the two sides of the seam to adhere to each other.
Fabric glue
What could be easier than opening a bottle and squeezing the glue into the seam area of the fabric and sticking another piece to it? Not much! Just keep in mind that this won’t hold nearly as well as a simple stitch will! (Please learn to sew!)
(4) Intermediate sewing 
Sewing with a sewing machine is so much faster than hand sewing, though it isn’t necessarily easier. Grabbing a sewing machine is a wonderful way to enhance your sewing skills. During TEOTWAWKI though, you may not have electricity. I picked up what is referred to as “An Iron Lady” aka a treadle sewing machine. You power these by pumping your feet while you sew. It’s easy to get it into a rhythm and crank out stitches just about as fast as you can on an electric sewing machine. They take a little getting used to operate, but once you get the hang of it, it is so simple.
As with anything preparedness related, learn how to use it now though.
I can hear some of you ladies and maybe even some of you guys ‘in the know’ now. “Karen, what are you talking about – saving money? In case you haven’t been into a fabric store in a while, fabric is……..well, expensive!” Oh…..but I have another money-saving trick up my sleeve.
Joann Fabric and Hobby Lobby have 40-60% off coupons floating around. Now that might not get you a lot if you plan on buying lots of various fabrics to sew beautiful garments out of it, but if we’re talking TEOTWAWKI, why do you need beautiful garments? What you need are functional garments. Did you know that those 40-60% off coupons are good on ANY quantity of ONE fabric? So why not buy a 10-20 yard bolt of denim for 40-60% off? Do you know how many pair of jeans that you can sew out of 10 yards of fabric? What about flannel for making PJ’s? Again, buy a gender-neutral pattern and buy the fabric in a large quantity!
Don’t forget things like buttons, thread, zippers, snaps, and other sewing notions that you will also need to finish the clothes that you buy.
Adults and Clothing
While you can absolutely sew clothing for adults, it may just be simpler to make sure that you have extra clothing. You can so easily do it on the cheap. Each month on the last Tuesday of the month, our Goodwill has a $1.50 day. You can get 95% of your clothing for $1.50 per piece on that day. I put it into my calendar and take all of my kids down there and we outfit everyone in our family of seven for about $75. Pretty amazing! Having a few extra pairs of blue jeans and a few long-sleeve and short sleeve shirts tucked away will never hurt anyone. Just make sure that the clothes that you have put back for yourself still fit. Try them on once a season when you swap out your bug out bag contents and change your clocks.
What About You?
How do you plan on providing clothes for your kids? What about providing clothes for you? Do you have any sewing skills? Do you plan on augmenting your sewing skills? Share with us in the comments so that we can all be better prepared.
Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
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I learned to sew in grade school, it has served me well. I have fixed clothing, sewn on buttons and even made leather sheaths for my favorite axe and trowel. I have repaired tents, backpacks, and even shoes. one of these days I want to get a failed tire retread off the highway and make me a pair of sandals, I know I can do it. I like to shop on ebay and buy clothes in lots, I buy boots and shoes a year or two before I really need them. I buy danner military or law enforcement boots, they take a beating and outlast anything else.
I hear you on the “learn to sew” part. I’m male and can do quite well for myself. As for the “buying clothes for two years out” and the “bolts of fabric”, we’re trying to scale down so as to make our life simpler. This just doesn’t fit in very well. Can anyone say “storage”?
I’m in my mid sixties now , but grew up poor so I’ve had practice at this. Hand me downs from older cousins and siblings got worn until they were worn out. My sisters, my brother and I learned to hand sew and apply iron on patches (do they still make these?)early in life. We would place the iron on patches in our jeans on the inside and the outside for durability. We usually got two pairs of shoes per year.The start of the school year a pair of leather boots that Dad kept well greased and they lasted until spring when we got a pair of tennis shoes, usually Converse. Worn out clothes were stripped of buttons and added to the button jar, needles and thread were always available in a color ‘close enough’. Things improved as we got older although I kept the habits working blue collar and kept my work clothes mended. My work clothes were/are usually purchased at various thrift stores or worn clothes become work clothes. I agree with Tim on footwear choice, you do not want to skimp on boots if you can help it.
thrift shops are also a great source for fabric. Sheets, table cloths, drapes and even larger size clothing are a source of inexpensive fabric that can be used to make clothes just like fabric from bolts.