Introduction and Possible Design Considerations
Allright, now that we have covered all the
materials necessary and weather or not you want to use them or not, we
will move on to the construction of suit, and the many different options
you can have. Remember, if you don't want a particular option, don't put
it on the suit. On the other hand, if you find this particular option appealing,
don't hesitate to add it. No one is stopping you from doing whatever the
hell you damn want (to your ghillie suit, anyways). Also remember that
the purpose you want it for really depends on what options are on your
ghillie suit, or that you don't even need a ghillie suit at all, rather
just a blanket or netting garnished in the same manner as the ghillie suit.
- If you need to crawl around in whatever you
need the ghillie suit for, it would be a good idea to not sew any netting
and therefore not garnish the front of the suit so you can crawl without
anything snagging (as it will do if you have anything there). Don't put
garnish on the front of the suit, and you will now have a lighter suit.
- If you do not need to crawl but are still moving
around in it, you could go ahead and cover the front of the suit with garnish.
Remember, it would limit what you could use the suit for (crawl wise),
however, it you don't need to lie down, this would be great. You could
just kneel down and be camouflaged. Same thing goes for a poncho or some sort of clothing like that. Remember however, more garnish, more
weight, less air circulation.
- If you don't really need to move, and just
lie somewhere, the blanket or netting will provide the same coverage, without
the extra weight or restriction. Once your finished, just roll it up and
leave. The only base you will need for this, is ether an unused, preferably
lightweight and greenish color blanket, or just a regulation issue camouflage
net. They sell for about $20.00 at an Army Navy store. You can use ether.
However, I personally suggest the latter of the two, since there is already
a net for you to work with, and the only thing you would need to do is
attach the Burlap.
I am going to explain how to build four types of ghillie suits, in this order: With BDU’s, 1) the ones with burlap just on the back of the suit and canvas on the front, 2)and ones with burlap all over the suit. 3) With the Flight Suit, burlap on the back and canvas on the front. 4) And with just a regular netting poncho and burlap all over the torso, front and back (also refered to as the Bushrag).
(A quick note about the BDU’s
before we start the instructions. I have heard of people turning their
BDU’s inside out so that the pockets are protected in the inside and they
are still able to use them. Personally, I do not care for that manner of
constructions for one simple reason. Uncle Sam invested a lot of money
for engineers to come up with one of the best designs for their Battle
Dress Uniforms. Soldiers depend on their lives for this design. And, it
is designed to be worn in this certain way. So to go and do something like
turn it inside out (for me anyhow) seems ridiculous. One could argue in
defense that they weren’t designed to be made ghillie suits out of, but
remember this is just my opinion. If you want to turn it inside out, then
it’s your suit and you can do what you want with it.)
Another thing before we start. You may be inclined to make more than one ghillie suit and/or using different instructions each time. For example, you may have a suit that the base color is green with a few browns and tans in it, and another suit that the base color is brown with a few greens and tans in it. This not only gives you more experience making ghillie suits, but now you have two seperate suits that can adapt into two different environments! You might also want to try different methods of making the suits as well.
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