Securing your hood, scarf, keys, spectacles, and maps against loss Post 468
You can check every item you pack to secure it or other items. Start with securing all open pockets. Or buy clothes with secure pockets. Jackets for photographers, fishermen, sports enthusiasts, travellers and others have multiple pockets. Ski jackets and sports jackets often have inner pockets. You can also search online for dress with pockets, shirt with pockets, tee shirt with pockets, coat with pockets, raincoat with pockets. Here is what I have found and adapted.
Pockets
At last I have found clothing in bright colours with multiple pockets. You can wear a short sleeved tee shirt with another jacket on top when on trains or walking through crowds.
A five pocket tee-shirt reduced to about fifteen pounds, free postage or plus postage. Coupons available.
Various colours.
What Else For Securing Pockets?
What else can you do? Don't keep valuables in a backback with a zip or open pocket which has only a button or nothing closing it in public places and crowds.
Guard against things falling out of pockets by attaching zips to all pockets.
Wear ski jackets which have inside pockets. You could keep a phone on a long lanyard and put it into the inside pocket when the phone is not in use.
Protecting Phones
Don't put your phones down on a table. Watch out ofr strangers who approad with a newspaper and put it down on top of your phone.
Instead, you can create a pocket large enough for your phone. Alternatively, attach a lanyard. Or both. What about securing the pockets?
Pocket Fastings To Prevent Losing Items
Add zips to all pockets. Add, an inner zipped pocket pocket for valuable inside the main pocket, concealed by an inner flap. Consider where you will put your hood if handing your clothes to a cloakroom in a restaurant or event. Is the hood one which you can put in a pocket, down the sleeve, or ataach with a large safety pin without making holes in the jacket?
Attached Hoods And Caps
I like to wear an attached hood so I don't leave it behind. I looked at my attached yet detachable hoods. Some fold away inside a jacket collar. Other have zips. Zips which are strong and divide at both ends can be sewn on to collar and hool with a simple straight line of machine or hand stitching, twice at the end or all the way along for extra strength and security.
Zips or Buttons?
If zips are unobtainable, take too long to order before your trip, or too challenging, consider buttons. You could add a button and loop to your favourite hood and collar of your jacket. Or sew on the hood. I sewed on a lightweight child's hooded cap to a sleevless est which has many pockets. That way I always have a brim to shield my eyes when driving or walking in daylight.
Protecting Yourself - Map or Guidebook Pocket
The most important thing not to lose is yourself, your entire self. No pockets will help if somebody takes your entire suitcase of bag, or kidnaps you - or you get lost because you are out hiking, lose your guide, and have no map, and nobody knows where you are or which way you went.
Water carrier pocket
Carry your own water. When buying a backpack, I look for one which has either a bottle pocket on the side, or a loop for attaching a bottle with a lanyard.
Umbrellas Haave Multiple Uses
Carry an umbrella everywhere. It has three uses.First, obviously, on cold or rainy days, against snow, rain - and wind. I try to buy one which won't blow inside out.
Secondly, on sunny days it doubles as a parasol.
Thirdly, it is useful for photography. A white light reflects for phtography reflects light onto the face or subject such as a dog, insect, flower, or an object such as a statue.
Fourthly, you can use it to keep others at a distance. Wave it around as you walk towards people who might accidentally or deliberately stumble into you.
When standing in a line (in the UK called a queue, keep an umbrella or large empty bag between yourself and people behind you.
Straps On Bags And Cameras
You can change thin straps which break easily and bite into your shoulders for wide straps. You can als attach a broad cloth with two slits to protect your shoulders by spreading the weight. The easiest straps to change are those with clasps or clips. You could then have a thin straps for evening dinner in a hotel, but a wider more comfortable one for daytime and when out walking about.
Many lanyyards can be used for keys, your home's front door keys, your hotel bedroom key, your phone, a small change purse down the front of your tee shirt or dress.
Keep your shoulder bag or cross body bag in front of you. inside pockets are no help when somebody with a knife cuts the strap. You can buy bag with slash proof straps. But two people approach you from behind. One jolts you fromt the left. You look left. The other takes your bag from the right. A third takes the goods. This happened to me in Singapore. I lost my cross body bag and the phone inside it. A few weeks later I received an email from Indonesia from a girl saying she had bought my phone from a guy in a market and needed my pin to unlock it. I did not have a real name or phone or address from her. We decided it was safer not to reply. A canny friend of mine in Singapore said, "Phoney story. She's the girlfriend of the robber."
Maternity dress and Bag
A maternity dress can be worn over a backack on your front to conceal the backpack. Leaving you hands free. You could design it as a bullet proof vest, or over a bulet proof vest, to protect you from being stabbed in front.
Watching Bags
Don't leave a bag in a trolley behind you in a supermarket or airport. A find my phone tag could alert you to the movement of your bag.
Maps, Mental Maps, Tee-Shirt Maps
Plan your route in advance and say it aloud to memorise it to save time and avoid standing looking at maps. Ask shokeepers in shops which aren't busy to tell you the route. Or you could print the map on two tee-shirts for yourself and a companion.
Regatta
Regatta provides a waterproof coat with taped seams and integrated can't lose it hood and an inner pocket. Currently January 2025 on sale through ebay.
Useful Websites
Regatta Hooden Raincoat Inner Pocket
Tee-shirt with side seam pockets
https://www.clevertravelcompanion.com/
Skirt and dress with side seam pockets, jackets and trousers with double poclets
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