[Enter_Narne]

This is a post I created on another forum, but I'd like to share it here.

Here's the list of clothing I will include in my family's Emergency Bags. Below the list are alternative uses for the items.

Each family member's set of clothing will include:

1 Balaclava:.................. 1.7 oz. Merino wool or Polypro. Black with a digital camo reverse.
1 Boonie Hat:................ 2.4 oz. Dark Green.
1 Bug Headnet:.............. 0.8 oz. Black.
1 T-Shirt:...................... Undecided on material. White or gray.
1 Long Sleeve Shirt:........ Polyester Blend or cotton feeling Silk. Button Down Work Shirt. White or light blue.
1 Lightweight Jacket:....... Merino Wool or Polyester Fleece. Black with a digital camo reverse. No hood.
2pr Underwear:.............. Undecided on material. Black.
1pr Thermal Underwear
Bottoms:....................... Merino Wool or Polypro. Digital camo.
1pr Cargo Pants:............. Undecided on material. Khaki.
1 Slatt's Rescue Belt:.... Made of Paracord using Slatt's knot. Black.
3pr Lightweight Socks:..... 1.2 oz. Nylon. Gray.
3pr Heavyweight Socks:... 2.6 oz. Merino Wool or Smartwool equivalent. Black.
1pr Trail Runners:........... Gray or Brown.
1pr Glove Liners:............ Merino Wool or Polypro. Black.
1pr Leather Palmed
Work Gloves:................. Black or Dark color. Stored in an easily accessible place in the emergency bag.
1 Poncho Liner:.............. U.S. Army issue or homemade with Primaloft Sport. Digital camo. No hood.
1 Hooded Poncho:........... Undecided on color. Dark green or digital camo. Stored in an easily accessible place in the emergency bag.

None of our clothing will match each others clothing in color and/or style. We want to be non-threatening, average-looking.

Alternate Uses:
Balaclava: beenie, sack, pot cozy, oven mitt, spare mitten, pillow or sleeping mask.
Boonie Hat:fan, basket, bucket or cook pot. Add hot rocks into water in the hat. Water prevents rocks from burning hat. Don't use river rocks which can explode.
Button Down Shirts to maintain positive appearance among the masses (sheep) and are recommended in hot sunny weather or the desert.
Slatt's Rescue Belt: unravel into one long uncut piece of paracord. If you still need to hold your pants up just cut a piece of paracord and tie it around your pants and use the rest of the paracord for whatever is needed.
Socks: mittens, sacks or oven mitts (don't use nylon socks, they melt).
Glove Liners: used with Leather Palmed Gloves for added warmth.
Leather Palmed Work Gloves: hot, cold or dangerous situations like clearing debris in a disaster. Also: oven mitts, aids in climbing, thimble when sewing with an awl (big needle).
Poncho Liner:without the poncho as a coat. Also: converted into Lightweight Sleeping Bag when designed with a zipper along its edge.
Hooded Poncho: Tarp tent.

Cold Weather
Depending on how cold it is, wear all the clothes at the same time including the Hooded Poncho.

Extreme Cold Weather
We will shelter, use a fire, eat more calories or generate heat by physical activity (such as hiking to our retreat/shelter).

Hot Weather
Wear the Boonie Hat to keep the sun off the head, face and neck; the Button Down Shirt to protect from sun. Leave cuffs unbuttoned for air circulation. Wear the Cargo Pants to protect legs from sun.

Wet Weather
Wear Hooded Poncho and whatever clothes are appropriate for the temperature. If in areas that allows for it, wear nothing under the hooded poncho. Skin is waterproof. Dry clothes will be waiting in for you in your bag when you get to shelter.

Bug Areas
Wear T-Shirt, Button Down Shirt tucked in with cuffs buttoned, Glove Liners over shirt cuffs, Cargo Pants and Boonie Hat with Bug Headnet. Gaff tape any areas where clothing separates and exposes skin.

Note: Gaff Tape is used by Gaffers on movie sets. Gaff Tape is just as versatile as Duct Tape, but doesn't leave glue residue.

Night Ops (Ninja Mode)
Digital camo Thermal Underwear Bottoms, Digital camo Lightweight Jacket and Digital camo Balaclava.

This may seem like a lot of weight and bulk, but I have all of these items in one from or another and they aren't heavy. I will go to the post office and weigh each item. I'll post weights here. The bulk issue will be addressed with a large ZipLoc storage bag and squeezing all the air out of it. When clothes are compressed in a ZipLoc like this it makes a very rigid piece. It could even be used as a pack frame.

In a bug out scenario, we may take the bags with us and at some point, when it is safe, change out of our regular clothes and don the clothes in our bags. I'm only thinking this because we will most likely be wearing a lot of cotton items and items of less durability.

What do you think? Any advice, tips, suggestions?

Note: The link I provided for the Slatt's Rescue belt goes to an archival site. Just click on any of the dates and you will see an archived version of the website. The current Slatt's site is down.

 

[Ammo]

Thats a good list.
Thanks for the information..
I usually add a pair of light weight moccasin's for in camp wear.
Also handy for when you have to take a trip to the latrine, in the middle of the night.

 

[soldier506]

Where I am from, winter is a major issue. Temps reach down to -40 plus add a wind chill onto that. Ensure that you have proper clothing for your area.

 

[Guerrilla]

Great idea for a post! Here's a rough list of our clothing:

Bag 1: Inclimate Weather (Top to Bottom)
Beanie
Balaclava
Glove Liners
Polar Fleece Hoodie
Rain Pants
Shell Gloves

Bag 2: Clothes
1 pair canvas kakkis
1 Pair ultra light back convertable pants (pants or shorts)
3 duofold t-shirts
2 pair travellers underwear
2 pair merino wool sox
2 pair fox river silver threaded light weight hike socks.
2 bandannas (usually not in bag and in use elsewhere)

Not Bagged:
1 Pair water shoes or sandals
1 camoflage poncho, used as pack cover in rain or to hide tent's rainfly as a tarp.
Mosquito head net used as stuff sack for clothing that is frequently added and removed, stored between day pack and main pack for easy access (gloves, beanie, etc) without taking off packs.

Uses:

Worn:
Jeans
Cotton T Shirt
Durable button down work shirt.
Australian Akubra hat (same uses as boonie cap, see below)
Wool Socks
me: Either desert combat boots or matterhorns.
her: goretex light hikers
Me: double length canvas gi belt. (Stronger than 550 cord and can be used for hauling, towing, lifting, suspending.)
Her: old punched leather belt.

Notes:

All my polypro, except long johns, have been replaced with polar fleece. It is warmer, breathable, lighter, and is worn as an outer layer instead of an inner, allowing more flexible use of layering which is needed when distance hiking. being able to start walking at 7am with frost still on the ground and gradually do this was great:
shed gloves, shell pants, open outer shell coat, open hoodie. Shed shell coat, beanie, hoodie, overshirt. And be in a t-shirt and jeans on a lovely afternoon without stopping once to change, take off shoes, remove long johns, etc. This is important if you are expecting to be active, since over heating in long johns can lead to sweating, and when you stop moving, that sweat can lead to hypothermia.

I accquired an Akubra hat last year while walking. It's wool, but an amazing hat. You can stone cook in it, during the summer, you can soak the hat to create an evaporative cooling effect around your head and during the winter it stays warm. It's durable as anything, and regains it shape after being strapped to the back of my bag for days. (I look like Gilligan in a floppy boonie)

Consider loosing or wearing the trail runners and going with water shoes, or hiking sandals like Tevas or chacos? I wear solomon water shoes, which have saved me repeatedly when fording rivers and are comfy as campshoes. If you've ever had to cross a river bed of baseball sized stones in stomach deep water with a 65lb pack held overhead barefoot, I applaud you. Those stones hurt! The other thing about trail runners is they DIE when you put them on the road for distance.

The clothing is stored in two bags. Both of them are waterproof sil-nylon bags meant for canoing and kayaking. Keeps disasters from happening, like your water bladder bag busting and soaking everything. All our gear, in the bag, is kept in light sil-nylon waterproof bags.

Expecting to hit northern cold at about 18 months in, we also had a mail-ahead supply box that contained:
2 Down Parkas
2 heavy duty gortex shellcoats
2 pair gortex pants
2 polypro ski masks
2 pair gortex shell socks.

Look into duofold for t-shirts, they weigh nothing, are easy to wash in the field, and if you rinse them ocassionally between washes they don't get that dead dog BO smell of long worn and unwashed cotton.

To find good deals on clothing, look at campmor.com, I've been able to score the silver lined socks for $2 a pair there, and duofold shirts for $3. Polar fleece is about 1/5th the price at REI, and after buying an $80 polar fleece pull over, I got a hoodie for $18 at campmor.

If you are each going to have a pair of work gloves, consider changing one pair out for waterproof thunsulate lined gloves. They are similar to what fire fighters wear and you can actually handle burning logs (or houses, i suppose) with them. I keep two pair at the cabin for torch work, campfire fun, etc...

I love the slatts belt. I might make one for my girl. Between us, we have about 200 feet of paracord woven into our other gear (wrapping water bottles, first aid kits, etc) but use it frequently for bear bagging, tarp ties, etc, so unraveling the belt would happen pretty quick.

Great ideas man, good to have you over here. Makes me wish I hadn't missed survival forums.

 

[test]

Nice list, I got a few pointers from that one, thanks a bunch.

SOLIDUS

 

[badkarma]

great posts guys!! Thanks a lot.

 

[bogdan]

Very good list. Make me to review mine.
As a plus, i colect all the small, old, obsolete and little damaged clothes. Washed and put in vacuumed bags. You never know...
Also, i have a mechanic sewing machine, with a lot of nails, thread and buttons

Bogdan

 

[Brimasmom]

My dear hubby just told me that the Marine Corps is no longer issuing polypro's as they have the tendency to melt to flesh in the event of an IED strike. Who knew?

Claudia

 

[Guerrilla]

Canvas khakis and a denim jacket are musts of you plan to work around fire. Sparks from a campfire eat holes in synthetics. One of my polarfleece liners caught a hot screw tip I was grinding off of a shed (working in the snow), and it wound up melting into the fabric and had to be cut out. I wear old sweatshirts under a denim jacket for cold work now.

 

[Enter_Narne]

Their called Eco-Mesh Pants from Railriders. Here's the Link
There are two hidden zippers on the outside seams of the legs that run from mid-thigh to mid-calf. When opened, these allow air to flow into the pants to cool you off. When closed they look like regular pants. I've read many reviews about these. They seem to be just the thing to protect the legs from the sun and scraps while still keeping you cool. There's only one alteration I'd make though. I'd add cargo pockets somehow.

What do you think?

 

[Guerrilla]

Make sure you have some natural NON-MELTING clothing. You have a poppy campfire, and all your synthetics are going to get pinholes. I know the uses for my synthetics in a functional layering system, but I also know how vulnerable they are to fire.

I have a pair of convertable pants that turn into shorts. They are flimsy ultra light backpacking pants, but they make great swim trunks, and the fabric is remarkably resiliant to thorns and stickers. My old pair met their end when a drunken friend chucked a log into the campfire upwind of me. Fishnet camping pants. To it's credit, it didn't ignite, just melt.... at every point where a little red spark touched. If I could sew, I'd modify some ripstop summer BDUs to have little zippers. No melt, light weight, fast dry, useful cargo pockets... Oh and don't glow like cotton does on NVGs....

 

[Enter_Narne]

ThReAd ReSuRrEcTiOn... OooOOOoooO

Time to resurrect this thread.

I got a poncho liner in digital camo and modified it so it can also serve as a lightweight sleeping bag. I got the Ranger Rick Poncho Liner Conversion Kit. It works pretty well. If it gets colder I can always put on more clothes and then get in the bag.

I got some polyester t-shirts from thrift stores. They performed well.

 

[Enter_Narne]

I think I'm going to add sarongs to the list. There are just too many uses for these things to ignore.