How To Make A Ghillie Suit: In Simple Steps
If you're an outdoors enthusiast who spends a lot of time hiding in the forest whether it be for paintball, hunting season, or other stealth activities, it's a good idea to have your own custom-made ghillie suit to keep you camouflaged. Ghillie suits are useful tools in a variety of climates and can be easily made at home so you can customize the suit to best fit your needs. In this article, we will teach you how to make a ghillie suit in 6 simple steps.
Camouflage is a great tactic that gives you more opportunities to sneak up on a target or remain hidden in plain sight. We know it's difficult to find specialty gear like ghillie suits for an affordable price, so we have taken the time to prepare this article to help you learn how to make a ghillie suit on a budget. As we move through this article, we will highlight background information about ghillie suits, how to make a ghillie suit at home, and helpful tips to remember as you craft.
What Is a Ghillie Suit?
A ghillie suit is an awesome camouflage technique that gives you full coverage with three-dimensional aspects that create the illusion you are just as much a part of the landscape as any tree or bush. These ghillie suits get their name from similar outfits used by Scottish gamekeepers to help them stay blended into their environment for optimal stealth. Ghillie suits are ideal for adventurers who want to disappear in nearly plain sight, military snipers, undercover surveillants, hunters, and paintball players.
A ghillie suit is a full suit covered in burlap and other lively materials that breaks up your silhouette causing you to blend in seamlessly with your surroundings. Traditional commercial camouflage only works as a two-dimensional solution that will help you blend in to the distant viewer, but will still reveal your shape when spotted. When you first learn about this camouflage tactic, you may wonder how to make a ghillie suit that will cost a fraction of the price that major retailers charge. Below we discuss our favorite, detailed methods and steps for how to make a ghillie suit at home as a DIY project.
How to Make a Ghillie Suit: Materials
As you read through this article to learn how to make a ghillie suit, you may notice that you already own many of the materials to build a cheap yet durable ghillie suit. You can use ghillie suits in a variety of weather, so it is important to consider the environment you plan to wear your suit in and the various obstacles you could encounter there.
Remember that ghillie suits are great for hunting deer, turkey, duck, hog, and other wild game, so the seasons you use your ghillie suit in may vary significantly. Some easy items you could use to make your ghillie suit right now are an old camouflage jacket, a burlap sack and string, netting, floss, fabric dyes, military surplus camouflage clothing, spray paint, needles, felt, and hot glue. Let's get started with our 6 simple steps to learn how to make a ghillie suit.
How to Make a Ghillie Suit in 6 Simple Steps
Before learning how to make a ghillie suit, we recommend gathering all your materials before you craft so the process takes less time. Below we highlight 6 simple steps for you to create an easy, unique, durable, and affordable ghillie suit from the comfort of your home. Although we outline the steps, we encourage you to be creative along the way and always consider the environment you will wear the ghillie suit in since this factor influences your color scheme. The first phase of learning how to make a ghillie suit is all about collecting and customizing your materials.
1. Gather Your Materials
2. Sort the Netting & String
3. Dye Fabrics (Optional)
4. Attach Netting & String to Your Suit
5. Make a Ghillie Hood
6. Finish Your Ghillie Suit
Tips
Here are some quick tips to consider as you finish learning how to make a ghillie suit. We recommend using a camo netting to cover your face, shoes, gloves, and any other part of your gear that could be identified. Test the suit outdoors and see how effective the camouflage really is and know of natural obstacles that may snag or interfere with your suit. Move front to back as you maneuver in the ghillie suit and don't hide behind trees or natural features with straight lines.
If you are using the ghillie suit for consecutive days in the field, remember to add more organic material to maintain a bulky and natural appearance. Perhaps the most important tip we have is to remember that a ghillie suit does not make you invisible - so calculate your moves wisely and study shadow patterns to help you stay protected.
Conclusion
We hope you have found this information to be helpful as you learn how to make a ghillie suit at home. It is important to use quality materials that will not fray and break down over time so you can get the longest use out of your ghillie suit. Having a homemade ghillie suit gives you more opportunity for customization, saves money, and ensures that you have the perfect color scheme to match whatever your surroundings may be.
