Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Work has occupied most of my time and left me exhausted in the evenings. This weekend however the prepper bug bit me; and seeing as how I’d grown out of my last ghillie suite, and I was also living in a different environment than when I made my last one (woodland specific); the good idea fairy struck.
The environment around Boise is high mountain desert so that it what I am building my suite for. After all, the best ghillie suites, like that best camouflages; are those built to a specific operating environments. It won’t be overly sage brushed out, figuring that if I move from more dead grassy stuff I can add sage to my suite as necessary. That’s where the netting comes in handy aside from just a base for all the other natural materials.
So here’s what I’ve done; and when I do my trousers I’ll take some step by step photos. I took and old deployment DCU (desert camouflage uniform), onto which I sewed on old repair camo netting bits suited for my environment and as a good base net, followed by picked apart burlap tied into clumps, synthetic grass stuff from the crafts isle as Wal-Mart, and some thick twine rope I picked up at the Home Depot. I love the concept of camo, woven into camo, that has been stitched overtop of camo. I’m not endorsing any particular store, just saying this stuff is everywhere. If you are going for the woodland try the fake plant isle in any craft/hobby store.
For me, a big part, is not making the suite look like a big pile of burlap strands, which is what most kits and store bought suites end up looking like. The fake grass and frayed rope knots stick up all over the place as it thickens and don’t lay down the way burlap does. When it’s all done I’ll also take some field test photos and make necessary adjustments so I can be a sexy beast…an unseen sexy beast. And the suite will go good with my rifle project (one of my first articles).
As a last thought; the ghillie suite will take several hours to really thicken up; and you can see from my pictures that my top is not fully filled in yet.
Jon
Update:
Here are what the DCU overalls looked like after sewing on camo netting. Sorry, the lighting was bad in these shots.
At this point I had intended to take stage by stage photos; but I had a bad day and was thoroughly pissed off and just started working. Other than the original materials the only thing I’ve added up to this point was a single old brown army towel.
It’s almost ready for field tests. After which I can thicken it up with specific colors that I’m lacking or need to enhance.
JP
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