Gillie Suit

8/6/2019 Gillie Suit

1/35

Decription QuantityUnit

PriceWhere to get

a:

Tubes of Shoe Goo or Goop

(these are the small ones, if you get the big

tubes, you only need 5)

10 $2.50

Walgreen's, K-

mart

or Wal-mart

b: Hot glue gun (Optional) 1 $8.00Any pharmacy, K-

mart or Wal-mart

c:Big pack of glue sticks (for hot glue gun)

(Optional)2 $3.00

Any pharmacy, K-

mart or Wal-mart

d:Military cordura canvas duffle bag or some sort

of reinforcment fabric1 $18.00

Ebay or

Army/Navy

store

e: Pack of sewing needles (Optional) 1 $3.00Any pharmacy, K-

mart or Wal-mart

f: Pack of sewing pins with a big round ends 1 $2.00Any pharmacy, K-

mart or Wal-mart

g: Camouflage BDU Jacket (AND) 1 $10.00

Ebay or

Army/Navy

store

h: Camouflage BDU Pants (OR) 1 $10.00

Ebay or

Army/Navy

store

i:

Olive drab flight suit 1 $25.00

Ebay or

Army/Navystore

j: Camouflage Boonie hat/BDU hat (OR) 1 $7.00

Ebay or

Army/Navy

store


2/35

k: Camouflage Helmet Cover 1 $10.00

Ebay or

Army/Navy

store

l: Nylon Netting 1 $14.00K-mart or Wal-

mart

m:Pack of Walgreens brand dental floss, non-

waxed, non-scented (200 yds) (Optional)2 $3.00 Walgreen's

n:Powder dye packets of Rit-Dye (quantity

depends on how much used and different colors)X $2.00

Some

pharmacies,

K-mart or Wal-

mart

o: Can of Flat Black spray pant 2 $2.50K-mart or Wal-

mart

p: 8 (or so) yards of burlap (about 25 feet) 1 $7.00

Gardening or

hardware

store

Step 1: Cutting and dyeing your burlap


3/35

Before everything, you want to cut and dye your burlap. If you went with the square typeburlap, cut equal length of it accordingly to how many colors you want to use. For example, if

you have 20 feet of burlap, and three colors you are using, you only really want to cut three, 5-foot sections, and with the last 5 feet being the natural color burlap. You may however, want to

consider dying more of your base color than anything else. For instance, if you may wish to dye

8 feet of your base color, with only 4 feet of your other colors. Now, depending on which type ofsuit form you want to have, you may desire to have the square type burlap, or the shredded typeburlap. This is not to say that the burlap cant be shredded before attaching it to the suit. This is

the way I did it (you loose about half of your burlap if you use attach the square type strands onthe suit then shreed it). Before ever attaching any of the burlap to the suit, I cut a square about 18

inches by 22 inches and started to pull out all of the 18-inch horizontal strands. This gives you abunch of 18-inch strands, and a bunch of 22-inch strands. Keep doing it, and you got yourself a

veritable feast of shredded burlap that can be attached quite readily. You way the consequencesof ether shreeding the burlap before attaching it to the suit, or cutting it in squares then shreeding

it, but I have had no problems with ether burlap method. Important! If the netting needs to bedied because it is of a color that will stand out, you must do that now after dying the burlap and

before emptying the dye buckets.

Another thing about the burlap method. Before you go about pulling out the strands for all ofthe different colors, you might want to consider taking out your spray paint and adding more

colors to one particular color. Haha, I know I am confusing you here, so let me break it down foryou. When I was attaching the colored burlap to my last suit, I was faced with the dilemma of

blending the colors that I have chosen to have (and it will be your problem as well, when you areat that part of the process) It came out kind of funny looking, so I decided to add some spray

paint to the mixture to blend in the colors and little better. Then I got this crazy idea. The nexttime I make a suit, I will spray paint blobs of a different color onto the square burlap that I dyed.

This makes it so you have more then one color on one strand. This helps considerably whenblending. So, I suggest spray-painting blobs or big squiggly lines onto the big square pieces of

burlap. Here is a list of suggestions for different colors.

Light Green Dark green or olive drab

Dark Green Light green or olive drab

Tan Green or olive drab

Light brown Dark brown or tan

Brown Light brown or dark green


4/35

(This list does not limit the different colors you can use. Spray painting different colors on to theburlap depends on what your base color is and what different colors that you are combining with

the suit, which you canread about here.)

IMPORTANT!! READ BEFOREDYEINGANY BURLAP!! Nature has something like 2

million different shades of color that it can throw out in an environment at one given time.Unfortunatly, Rit-Dye doesn't make 2 million shades of colors. Experiment. Buy some yellowand green and mix the two. Instead of letting the burlap soak up all of the dark green color, take

some tan colored burlap and dunk it in the dark green dye and water for a few seconds than takeit out and dry it. Do whatever you can to get the desired colors for your environment.

Step 2: Getting the feel for your jacket, and determining the netting placement

For those of you that didnt read any of the other stuff I said about choosing BDUs that arelarger than what you wear, go and read that now. After you have read all of that and have your

BDUs, the first thing you want to do is put your BDU jacket on. Make sure it is comfortable androomy, and that when you rise your arms in the air, the jacket doesnt come down to your elbow

or something. You want it to be so that the cuffs of the sleeve are still touching youre a little bitabove your wrist. If you are making the suit with the netting all around the front part of the suit,

you may skip this part if you wish. Lye on the ground with the jacket on you elbows and knees.Mark or note where the imaginary line on the jacket arm is before the fabric is touching the

ground (on the inside of both of your arms), and where the reinforcing canvas should be placed.

You dont want the knots of the netting to be sewn into any place below the imaginary line thatyou just marked, or where you are going to be putting your canvas. Now take off the jacket andlay it out on an open space and flatten it out (You actualy may find it easier to skip to attaching

the canvas to the elbows now before applying the netting. Remember, the place where thecanvas reinforcments may not be where the extra fabric is on the actual jacket depending on how

you crawl).


5/35

After that, stretch the netting out over the jacket and pin it down. Make sure that it is even andnot too overstretched. Also, make a visual inspection to see if there are any breaks in the netting.

If there are, just try to arrange it that that is the part were you will cut it off at or put a piece oftape on it to remind you of it later. Important! All of these pictures give a rough outline of what

the netting should look like on the BDU's! Do NOT try to make everything lookexactly like

them! Depending on the type of netting you used, and the size of your BDU's (and since I canonly estimate what it will be like when I draw them by hand) it may be different.

This is when you have to decide weather you want the netting on the front off the suit or not. If

you do, go to the second part of the next step skip this next part if you wish. If not, keep reading.

Step 3: (part 1) Cutting the netting to match the jacket


6/35

What we need to do now is cut off the netting so that it covers the back, the sides, theshoulders and the arms. Weather or not to cover all of the arm or simply cut it off a little bit

before the end of it is up to you, but personally, I would cut it off a little bit before the ends ofthe arms so I have room to attach a pocket to that area. Also, the reason we want to have a little

bit extra on the shoulder region is so that it will lap over on the tops of the shoulder (dont worry,

if you did this correctly it shouldnt bother you when you are lying down). Be sure to leave aboutan inch worth of space between the end of the cut and the actually knot, then burn the ends of thenylon piece so that it doesnt unravel. Remember, though, that just because the picture is what

mine looked like, yours may be different depending on the netting and or size of jacket that youused. Use my picture as a guideline to what it may actually look like, however it doesnt have to

look exactly like it. Make all the necessary cuts like the ones in the picture, however if you areuncertain about how much netting to cut off, remember that you can always cut it off later if it

doesnt work; you cant really cut on the part you cut off. Also, note the cut around the armpitarea in the picture below. This is so that the netting does not restrict the range of movement that

the garment provides. You might have also noticed that there are loops on the sleaves of thearms. These are thumb loops, loops that you put your thumbs in when you crawl. We will get

into those later.

Important!

Depending on where you put (or plan to put) the canvas on your elbows, the netting placement may be

different, and you may not wan to put a lot of netting on the shoulder area (becuase the hat will

probably cover that area).


7/35

Step 3: (part 2) Cutting the netting to match the jacket

If you want the netting to cover the front of the jacket as well, make a cut like the one shownabove. Be sure to leave enough netting for it to wrap around the arms and torso. If you cut this

correctly, you wont need another piece of netting to cover the front, and you will be able to usethe pockets in the front of the jacket. Also, note the cut around the armpit area. This is so that thenetting does not restrict the range of movement that the garment provides. Be sure to leave about

an inch worth of space between the end of the cut and the actually knot, then burn the ends of thenylon piece so that it doesnt unravel.

After all the proper cuts have been made, pin down the remaining section again (for bothtypes of suits). This is basically how the netting is going to be attached to the back sections of thejacket. Take a permanent marker and put a little dot under where the knot would be placed

(around the parameters). Dont worry about the parts of the netting were you would have to wraparound the arms or torso area just yet. All you need to do is the back part of the jacket.


8/35

Step 3: (part 3) Cutting the netting to match the Flight suit

First thing you want to do is put on the Flight suit on. Make sure you still have freedom ofmovement even with pants and a shirt on. Get down on your elbows and knees and take a look at

where the canvas should be placed according to where your elbows touch the ground (Youactualy may find it easier to skip to attaching the canvas to the elbows now before applying

the netting). After all that is done, lay the Flight suit out flat on the ground and place the nettingover it like shown in the picture below (depending on how wide and long the netting is, you may

not have to put the netting down over the Flight suit as shown below).


9/35

The general idea is that we want to cover the whole backside of the Flight suit, and the arms

and legs. Once you have put the netting over the Flight suit, pin in down and stretch it out. Makeall the neccisary cuts like the one in the picture below. Notice the cut around the zippered boot

pocket. You don't want to sew or glue anything covering that area (since there are very littlepockets you will have once you've attached the canvas, this is one of the only ones you will get).

Pin down the netting and stretch in out again. Time to take out a permanant marker and put a

little dot below all of the knots on the Flight suit, including the arms and legs.


10/35

Step 3: (part 4) Cutting the netting to make a poncho (Bushrag)

This part is modeled after a kit that can be bought from http://www.bushrag.com/. The kitcomes with 4.5 lbs or differently colored burlap, a belt, netting for the hat and torso area, and


11/35

instructions on how to complete the suit. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, time andeffort on making a suit with the BDU's or Flight suit, this website has the best camouflage

system for the price.

The best feature about this type of a suit is that it is reversable, and infinatly adaptable. You

put lighter colors on one side of the net, and darker colors on the other side, and you have aponcho that can adapt into desert lands and forest lands. Plus, any of those strips can be pulled tothe other side if you want to blend in another color! That means you can mix the browns with the

greens, and the greens with the tans! This makes this type of suit extremly adaptable to almostany environment. The only downside of this type of suit is that is cannot be used for crawling,

but if you need cover ground quickly and than lay down in your position, it is one of the bestconfigurations. It can also be taken off and used as a cover.

What we are going to do here is cut out a certain length from the netting. It can be as wide, or

as long as you want; totaly depending on how much of your body you want to cover. If you onlywant to cover your torso to your waist, cut it smaller and narrower. It you want it to cover most

of your arms and down to your knee's, cut it longer and wider. It's solely on how much coverageyou want on your suit. After you have figured out how much coverage you want, you want to lay

the netting out on the ground and find the center of it. You than want to cut a small opening inthe netting for your head to fit through. Important! You only want to cut enough netting to let

your head through! You want the poncho to be tight around your neck, not sagging. Since youdon't have a base to work with (this netting is your base) you can skip everything and go strait

to attaching the netting to the Boonie/BDU/helmit cover.


12/35

Step 4:Preparing and ataching the netting to the jacket or Flight suit

You must now sew in (or glue on) the parimeter of the netting, like in the picture shown

above (in red). But you don't want the sags, that is, you don't want to be able to pull the nettingover about 1 inch from the base material. So you want to have an assortmants of knots in themiddle too. Also, you can get the exact same desired effect with the Shoe Goo or Goop instead

of sewing the knots. It may pull off if you pull hard enough on it, but it will generaly stay on.(remember I am using the picture above to show you what sewing or glueing around the

perimeter means, you may have the other type of BDU suit with the netting in the front). Afteryou have put the little dot under where the knot is, get your needle and dental floss out. Pull out

about an arms distance, or approximately 25 inches of floss. Thread the needle with it and put the


13/35

needle and equal distance of the floss on both sides.

What you need to do now is make a knot at the end of the floss. The easiest way I know to do

this is to wrap the ends around your finger with about a to an inch worth of slack and pull theloop of your finger. Put the end into the hole and pull it through. You want to know make

another knot directly on top of that knot using the same procedure as mentioned above.

Now you have a correctly threaded needle to work with. With part of the jacket still pined

down (most of it actually, except for the area that you will be working on) push the needle underthe first dot to the left side and the first knot of the netting and start sewing. After about 12 or so

in and outs (6 from the inside of the jacket, 6 from the outside) or until a nice white clump ofdental floss starts forming, stop sewing when you get to the inside of the jacket again. Now, this

part is very important. This part guarantees that this knot will not unravel. What you need to dois stick the needle under the big clump of dental floss already sewn into the fabric. After you


14/35

have stuck the needle through, run it through the loop you just made and pull it tight.

Do that twice. Then wrap the needle around the floss once and put your finger on it and the

inside of the fabric and pull the needle through making a close knot on the floss near the sewn inpart. Then cut off the floss right after that knot.

Do this with all of the knots in red, and a couple in the middle (or glue it instead). Try tomake this fun though, dont just sit there and look sad. Turn on some music or the TV; try to

make it interesting for yourself. If you only do 10 knots a day, youll be done before you know it.

Make it a habit to do it right when you get home and it will (believe it or not) get done in time.

After you finished the back area of the jacket and are starting on the shoulders and arms,

periodically stretch out the netting and pin it down to see how the netting will sew onto the fabricand make the necessary adjustments. Remember, the knot doesnt absolutely HAVE to go on the

dot you made for it. You want to the netting to be flat with the fabric and vice versa, not acrumpled up piece of jacket and netting.


15/35

After all of the knots have been made for the back, shoulder, and arm areas, time to spread outthe jacket and make the dots for all the other pieces of netting. Start with the ones on the sides,

they are the easiest to complete for both of the types of ghillie suits. Now, to do the shouldersand the upper arms are going to be a bit trickier then just sewing it. Put the jacket on and take a

look in the mirror. Grab a hold on the netting on the shoulder area and pull it over where it

should be. Take that marker and put a dot to wear you think would be a good place to put innetting when you stretch it out. Do that for a couple of knots and on both shoulders. Than take itoff and start the whole process of sewing (or glueing) all over again, this time completing the

shoulder area and upper arms.

After all is said and done, and all of the knots on the jacket are complete, put it on and try itout! If you are making the suit without the netting in the front, lye down with it on and see how it

feels. If you did it right, there shouldnt be any knots jamming you in any part of the body.Congratulations! You have finished the jacket. Take it off and lay it on the ground. Inspect the

netting and make sure there are not breaks in them or cuts in them. If there is (I know my damncat chewed one or two of them in the middle when I had it out), then you need to cut an extra

piece of netting off (only one strand with a knot on each end will do) and sew it near the area ofdamage, creating a nice little "patch". Be sure to seal the ends of the cuts with a candle and flame

so it doesnt unravel.

Step 5: (part 1) Preparing and ataching the netting to the pants

Time to go onto the BDU pants (after what you did with the jacket, this thing is a breeze; took

me only 3 days to complete it). First things first, you want to wear the BDU pants with the jacketthat you just completed and stand in front of the mirror. Note and mark where the jacket overlapsand ends and where the pants begin. You want to start you sewing about an inch above that mark


16/35

(also, if your making the crawling suit, mark where it ends on the front too). If you are making asuit with the netting in the front, you may skip reading this part if you wish.

Now, lay the pants on the ground, and the netting on top of it (you really only need 3 knots

wide of the netting on each leg). Cut two square pieces of netting for the two leg. (Sorry, Igoofed on the actually size of the pants. The crotch area is a little bit lower than shown on thepicture, and the line connecting the two separate pieces of square netting is a piece of shoe lace

since the netting cannot stretch if connected. You may need two of this to cover the rear sectionof the pants.) You may wish to cut the netting short of the end of the pants like in the picture, or

extend the netting to the bottom of the pants. Its your decision and really doesnt make much ofa difference except for personal choice (remember, however, that there will be strands of Burlap

on the netting). Spread out and pin down the netting on the pants and mark a dot under the knotsjust like on the jacket and start sewing just like on the jacket. Since we are going to be putting

canvas on the front, it really wouldnt make much sense to sew into the first level of the pocketsto spare them.


17/35

Step 5: (part 1) Preparing and ataching the netting to the pants

If you are making a suit with netting in the front, lay your BDU pants down on the groundand the netting over them, only with a little bit more netting spanning out to the sides like shown

in the picture. How do you know how much netting to spare and how much to cut off? Pin down

the netting in the back and turn the thing around and stretch the netting to the front to see howmuch you need (note, you dont need full inner leg coverage). Then place the dots under theknots on the fabric in the back of the pants. Like in the jacket, worry about the front part later. If

you want to still use the pockets, make sure you only sew the knot into the pockets first layer andnot all the way into the pants. Also, make the necessary cuts in the netting AFTER you have

sewn it all in. After you have sewn in the back part of the pants, wrap the front part around andpin it down. Again, place the dots under the knots in the netting onto the fabric and continue

sewing.


18/35

Step 6:Preparing and ataching the netting to the Boonie/BDU/helmit cover

Now that you've completed everything, time to do the Boonie Hat/BDU hat/hemit cover. This

is a cinch compared to the labor you just completed on the jacket and pants or flight suit. In myopinion, using a BDU hat is by far the easiest thing to use, since you don't have to worry about

the wide brim of the Boonie hat, and the awkwardness of the helmit cover. What we are going to

do is get a piece of cloth: a rag, and old cut-up BDU jacket or pants, or some GI InduvidualCamo netting and cut off a piece to fit about 3/4 of the way around the Boonie hat/BDUhat/helmit cover. You want this to come to around the shoulder level, almost like a cape like

effect.


19/35

After you have the size down, you want to cut a piece of neeting to fit on the piece of cloth you just

made and glue or sew it on. You then want to sew or glue it to the back of the Boonie hat/BDU

hat/helmit cover like shown above. After that, cut another piece of netting to cover the Boonie hat/BDU

hat/helmit cover like shown below. After that, you only want to sew or glue in the netting on the top of

the Boonie hat/BDU hat/helmit cover like shown (in red) and keep the rest draping over.

If you are making the Bushrag type poncho, then you might want to consider making two

BDU hats into ghillie hats; one of the hats for the darker colors, the other hat for the lighter

colors. I havn't quite found out a good way to make the hat reversable like the poncho, so this isthe best thing I can think of. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Important! For all garnmets!

If you used the sewing method, take out the Shoe Goo or Goop now. Try to do this outside, ina well ventilated area, preferably were the sun is shining. Just put a generous glob of the glueover the knot area. Remember, your not trying to glue the knot to the fabric here, just protecting

the knot. Let the glue dry for about 30 minutes to an hour before going on to the next part and/orgarment. After everything is dry and settled, time to take the suit outside (preferably on the grass

or newspaper) and lay it down. Take out the flat black spray paint and put a dab on every knot of


20/35


21/35

Now that you have the measurements for the jacket, measure the pants. It should start where

you marked it at (when you were wearing the jacket) and it should end about 6 inches below the

middle of your knee. It should also be about an inch away from the seam of the outside and

inside of the pants, so therefore it will slant slightly downward for each pant leg. For me,wearing a Medium Long, the both of the leg pieces were about 28 inches for the two long sides,8 inches for the longer width side, and 6 and a half inches for the shorter width side (refer to

picture). If you have a Medium Long BDU pants, then you dont have to worry about anything(along with the Medium Long BDU jacket). Next, you want to take the measurements for the

knees; the pieces of canvas that you will use to reinforce the legs at the knee. It doesnt have tobe big, about 4 inches from the center of the knee each way and as wide as the big leg piece. My

knee pieces were 10 and a half inches for both the long sides, 8 inches for the longer width side,and 6 and 3/4th inches on the shorter width side. Refer to the pictures for an example.


22/35

After all your measurements, its time to cut the canvas duffle bag up. (NOTE: The peopleat Snyder Creeksell already camouflaged 330d water resistant Cordura canvas, which is

perfect for the patches needed for a suit. It is BYFAReasier then the duffle bag method,

and at $14.95 a yard, it's MUCH cheaper and less aggrivating). Anyway's, if your theadventurer type, don't worry. It may look a little weary, but if you do it correctly, there WILL be

enough canvas from the duffle bag to do the whole job, plus another chunk of it left over at theend. It is the cutting and planning that makes this feat possible. Your duffle bag should look

something like the picture below (sorry, but the picture below is the largest I could get it).


23/35

Now the first thing you want to do to this duffle bag is cut off that little flap at the opening.

This piece will be used for the extra canvas needed to reinforce your knee. Then you want to take

a seam cutter or a small knife/scissors and cut the thread holding the piece at the bottom of theduffle bag.

Once youve cut all the thread off (and the piece at the bottom), you should have an extra ovalpiece of canvas and a big tube shaped duffle bag. Stash the oval piece of canvas with the other

one you have (for the extra canvas needed to reinforce your other knee). Now you want to findthe where the duffle bag was sewn together. Take some sharp scissors and cut the along the seam

to the left side of it. After you have completed that, go back to that seam you just cut, and cutalong the right side of it, separating it from the duffle bag canvas.

You should now have a very long, thin piece of double stitched canvas. Put this aside with thetwo other pieces of canvas. This piece will be used for the thumb loops that I will talk about

later. Now you should have a big flat piece of canvas, with a bunch of things stitched andattached to it. Cut off shoulder straps and cut the seams from the fabric that it was stitched on.


24/35

You basically want as much of a plain canvas surface as possible. Make the cuts for the two

chest pieces. Then cut the pieces for your arms making sure to take in consideration the long

pieces you will need for the legs (ifyou notice in my suitabove,and someofthe sketches thatIhave,you'llseethatI madea funnylooking "L" shape formyarm peices,and I wentrightupto

the sleave. DoNOTdo itthis way! A simple squarecutpiece willbe fine forelbow coverage,and it's notneccisaryto goallthe wayuptothe sleave.) After those cuts, mark out where you

want to cut out the pieces for the legs, than go ahead and cut them off too.

Now you should have 6 pieces of canvas that you just cut out. Take out the jacket and buttonit up. Lay out the jacket and the pieces of canvas to where they should be, and see if everything

fits into place. If everything looks good, and it all fits, mark where the canvas will be placed on,all the way around it. Now its time to take out the Shoe Goo or Goop. This is where you will use

so much of this stuff. First thing you have to do, is remove all of the buttons from all of thepockets, and then proceed to put little dabs of glue on the pocket flaps to keep them down and

out of the way. Let that dry, and you should have all the pockets flat with the jacket. Now, youdont really have to glue the canvas to the jacket, you could sew it with dental floss and triple

stitch the thing and it would work just as good. But after all the damn sewing you did (over thepast month I would think) I think that you would never want to see another needle again. Now,

this is how you are going to glue the canvas. This Shoe Goo/Goop is an amazing thing. It canhold this like liquid steel, but it cant last sticky very long. Meaning, what your going to have todo is start by putting a beam of glue on the two short parts of the canvas (and a couple of dots of

glue all over the middle of the canvas), and press it down onto the spot you marked earlier andnot try to do the whole thing, or else the bead you started earlier will be almost dry (I know, its

happened to me). Hold it for about a minute, or get something flat and heavy to place on it. Thentake the glue and make a beam all around the long sides of the canvas and press it down on the

jacket. This time, you might need to get something heavy and flat. Old VCR videotapes workwell for this purpose. You may need to break out and another tube of Shoe Goo or Goop to finish

this piece (that why you need so many of them, but it is well worth it). After that piece is dry(should take about an hour) go to the next piece and repeat the process above. After that, you are

ready for the arm pieces. Again, mark were the pieces will go. For these pieces, however, youdont need the same procedure as above. All you need to do is put a beam on all of the ends of


25/35

the canvas (and the a couple of dots in the middle) and press it down on the marks you madeearlier. Use some VCR tapes and a weight to hold the two pieces down. While these pieces are

drying, lets move onto the pants.

First, mark were you need to place both of the pieces on the legs. Then use the same

procedure as you did with the chest pieces with these pieces. After they are dry (give them aboutan hour or so) take out the other canvas pieces that you have been saving and place them over thearea in which the knees are, and mark it. Then use the same procedure you used with the arm

pieces. Let it dry for about another hour, then take out the hot glue gun and its glue sticks. Put astick in and plug the gun in. It will take about a minute for it to warm up, and after it is ready to

use, put a small line of glue over the edges of all of the canvas pieces. Let it dry, for a little bit,than inspect it more closely to see if you missed any edges. Thats enough work for today, let the

glue dry and the canvas to settle and come back tomorrow.

After everything is dry and settled, time to take the suit outside (preferably on the grass ornewspaper) and lay it down. Take out the flat black spray paint and spray paint the hot glue on

the edges of the canvas. Let dry for about 10 minutes, then come back and apply another coat ofpaint. After about two or three coats of paint, let the whole mess get some air circulation and

time to de-fumigate.

Step 8:Attaching the burlap to the suit

You made it this far! Time to start attaching the Burlap to the netting. This can be a long

process in it self, and is certainly back breaking. I recommend you get a comfortable place to dothis on, like a table or something, and sit down. Basically, all you are doing is tying the strands

of burlap to the sides of the netting. It is more complicated once you start worrying about thecolor coordination, so I am going to make it simpler for you.


26/35

Every ghillie suit should have what Id like to call, a base color. This is a color that is put onfirst, and tied to every side of the netting. With this in mind, there are certain color combinations

based on which base color you choose. Obviously, if you were going to go into an environmentwith a lot of greens, you would want some sort of green your base color. Likewise with brown or

tan or any other color. A general rule of thumb for colors is:

Desert Tan

Forest Green

Snow White

Urban Green and gray

Remember, this is just a base color. Depending on what type of forest you are going to be in,

you may want to choose different colors. Certainly, forest environments have the most variety ofcolors. Some have a think ground, full with vegetation and fallen trees and plants, and some are

relatively bare with scattered grayish trees. If you know which area you are operating in, you canpredict what kinds of other colors you want. A very easy way of doing this is to go into the

environment you will be using this suit mostly in, and take a picture of the natural vegitation.Then pick out the most prevalent color in the photgraph, followed by the two or three other

colors that you want to use, and try to match up the color as best as you can with the Rit-Dye.

However, if your like the rest of us, and dont really know, here are a list of colorcombinations depending on what type of environment you are in, what time of the year it is, and

which blends are acceptable for a wide variety of environments. You basically only want to haveabout 2, 3, or 4 different types of color. The only color you want to avoid at all costs is black.

Never, ever, dye anything black. Or for that matter, forget about what youve ever thought about

before about the color black and its relation with the environment. Let me explain. I bet youthink that if you are going to be stalking around at night that your obvious choice of color wouldbe black; shirt, pants, cap, whatever. WRONG! You never want to be wearing black, night or

day. With the exception of a totally darkened room (which in the that case, no color wouldmatter), black stands out terribly once your eyes have adjusted to the light difference at night.

This may be hard for some of you to accept, but its true. Why? To put it simply, nature has noroom for the color black. The ground is brown, the grass is green, and the sky takes on a purplish

tint at night. Forget 2D printed camouflage fabrics and their use of black. Those blacks are putthere to mimic natural shadows, which we will already be making with the 3D ghillie suit. With

that said and done, here is the list of possible color combinations for ghillie suit. But pleaseremember, these are just suggestions based on my personal experience and knowledge. You are

not limited to just these colors. Do what you want! If you want to go prancing around in a pinkghillie suit, thats fine by me. *laugh* But on a more serious note, remember that there are over

something like, 2 million different colors. Of course, Rit-Dye doesn't have that many colors, butyou use what you can find, or try to match visualy.


27/35

Forest Environment

FallBase color: light

greenOther colors: reddish brown (more red than brown), dark green

SpringBase color: dark

greenOther colors: brown, light green

WinterBase color: light

greenOther colors: white, gray (depending on snow, if no snow, usespring)

All-

year

Base color: lightgreen

Other colors: light brown (or tan) and olive drab (or dark greenwith olive drab spray paint)

Snow Environment

All-year Base color: whiteOther colors: (with patches of, not all randomized and blended)

gray (and/or) dark green

Urban Environment

All-

year

Base color: green or dark

gray

Other colors: green/dark gray (depending on base)

tan/brown

Desert Environment

All-year Base color: tan Other colors: (with sparing blends of) light brown or light green

With that in mind, pick a base, and start attaching it to the suit. I have calculated, that you

only need about 18 strands of burlap for each side of a 3 inch spaced netting without getting

what I like to call, a ghillie wookie. If you have less space between your netting, plug it into thisformula to figure out how much maximum burlap strands you can have for each side of the

netting, with X=the number of strands on each side of the netting.

18=

X

3 length of space between knots

And solve it like a proportion. The point of making a ghillie suit is not to look like a guy wearing

a ghillie suit, a big bushed up, pile of burlap. The idea is to look like nothing. You do NOT wantto overkill on the burlap. That is why only 18 strands of burlap maximum limit for each side of

the netting will do. With that said, you would apply your base color to every side of the netting,with two knots of 4 strands each. This gives you 10 more strands of room to add. You may want

less, depending on what you want to look like or for how much weight you would like it to be.The base color should be whatever the general area of operation is. In my educated opinion, I

wanted a color that could be in almost any area in the United States, so I decided on a light greencolor. Your can be whatever you want it to be. When attaching other colors besides your base


28/35

suit, however, you do not have to follow the 4 strand rule. You may get lazy, and start addingmore then 4, or you may want to add less to blend in the environment more.

When you have finished with the base color (you will probably have some left over, save it

for later) start randomly putting other colors on. We are NOT trying to take away one pattern and

replace it with another one! The idea is make the colors blend in with each other, and not havebig blobs of color here and there. To get an idea of how to properly blend in the colors, take a

look at regular camouflaged BDUs. Remember, this is just an idea maker, not a guideline. Also,make sure to distribute the colors evenly as well, if you leave one particular color out of the

pants when you used it all up on the jacket, the pants are going to look differently when youwhere them. The idea is to blend EVERYTHING together, the jacket/pants/hat are all the same

in this manner. After you have attached a generous amount of burlap to jacket/pants/hat, thiswould be the time to do the blending. Dont worry if the suit looks a little weird after you have

attached a lot of colors and burlap to it.


29/35

Step 9: Blending and spray painting the suit

Dont worry if you think the colors stand out a little bit more than youve hoped for. This isthe time to wash all that away and blend everything together. Whatever combination of colors

you have used, it is always a good idea to add another color of spray paint to the mix, one that isclosely related to the base color that you put on in the beginning. Here is a nifty chart to figure

out which spray paint is the best for each base color.

Light

greenOlive Drab

Dark green Olive Drab

Light

brownBrown

Dark

brownBrown

Tan(natural)

Light brown or tan

Grey(depending on the other colors added) very lightgreen, light brown, or Olive Drab)

Olive Drab Green


30/35

Remember that adding the colors of spray paint to the suit is an art. You may notice in thepicture above that I sprayed some of the tan part of the suit with the Olive Drab spray pant. This

makes it so that the tan color doesn't stand out as much. This is what you are trying to do. And asalways, this chart is not the limit so how many, or what color you want to add or blend in to the

suit. You may even want to take this opportunity of blending to addanothercolorall together.

This is very limited however. For instance, if you have a suit with light green, dark green, andolive drab, you may to consider adding a darkish gray to the mix. Be very sparing with this tactichowever. Also, the spray paint will not make the burlap sticky, but it will somewhat restrict the

individual strands from spreading out more than it should. Therefore, if you do use spray painton your suit, take a big-toothed comb and comb the some of the individual strands. This will

separate the stuck togethered strands.


31/35

Step 10: Customizing your suit

Your almost there, but your suit is not quite finished yet! This is the part where you willdecide what different options you want on your suit, and to try the suit on yourself. This part is

mainly for the BDU suit that you can crawl with (since the Flight suit has Velcro wrist closer andkeep it in place just fine), but if you want to put some of these on the other suit, that's fine by me.

We will first start with the thumb loops. These are great when you need to crawl, because theywill keep the arms flat and not catch on anything. All right, remember that long piece of doublestitched canvas that I told you to put aside? Well, this is the time to take it out and cut it in half.

After that, seal the ends with a flame. Then the first thing you want to do is put on your jacketand get on your elbow and knees. Look at where you think the most appropriate place to put the

thumb loops based on the placement of the canvas and the way you are crawling, and mark thetopside of the sleeve with a little dot (on both arms). Take off the jacket and pick an arm to start

with. Lets say the right sleeve for sake of argument. Go to that little dot that you marked off andplace one of the pieces on the dot's area only on the inside of the sleeve and make it

perpendicular to the end of the sleeve. Put the strip down about an inch from the end of thesleeve and put two pins through the strip and sleeve to keep it in place. Important! You want to

make sure you have the smooth side of the strip facing inward! It is better to have the smoothside against your tender hand muscles then the rough seams. I unconsciously made this mistake

and had to re-sew the whole strip again. After making sure, you then want pull some dental flossout to about an arm and a half's worth of length (about 38 inches) and thread it into a needle.

Start sewing from the inside of the sleeve and keep sewing up and down the strip until you'vemade about 4 lines or until you run out.


32/35

Now, put the jacket and look at your right sleeve. Take the loose piece of the strip and pull it

into the other inside part of the sleeve (to see where you need to sew it in). Depending on your

arm length and what size of the BDU's you have, your finished product may or may not look likethe one in the picture, but you are generally trying to get it to look like that. Once you know howfar and where the strip should be pulled to, mark the strip and the place where it was held, then

take off the jacket. Pin down the strip and cut off any of the extra and unnecessary strip. Youwant to have it about an inch down the sleeve like in the first one. Unpin it and seal the ends with

a flame. Again, thread and sew the strip into place just like before, with about 4 lines, or untilyou run out. Then, repeat this process with the left sleeve (or the right one, depending on which

one you started with). Important! You want to make sure you have the smooth side of the stripfacing inward again! You may forget about this part after all that sewing.

The next special modification you may want to consider doing to your suit is to replace some

of the chest buttons on your jacket (or button fly on your pants) with Velcro strips. You wouldwant to do this so that the buttons don't jam into the soft parts of your body on a hard ground. I

am going to show you how to replace the second and third button down from the top button onyour jacket with Velcro. Notice I did not say the first button around your neck. It's not necessary

to do that since it won't be in any contact with the ground. You may want to do all of the buttonsexcept for the top one, or just the ones I show you. Its you decision and how you come in contact

with the ground. First, lay your BDU jacket on the ground facing inside up. Remove the secondbutton down from the top with a small pair of sharp scissors, or a seam ripper if you have one.

Mark the spot where the button was. This is your center point. Now, depending on what Velcroyou get (preferably black, with 2 inches of width, none of that stick-on stuff if you can), you may

have to do this next part differently. Cut the Velcro in a 2-inch by 2-inch piece, both the hard

Velcro part and the soft Velcro part. You want to start with the hard Velcro part on the placewhere you removed the button. Take out some of that left over Shoe Goo or Goop and put a beadall around the edged of the 2x2 inch piece, and a dab in the middle. Then line up the middle of

the piece with the center point that you marked earlier and press it down. Put something heavyon it and come back in about an hour or two (you may want to do both of the Velcro pieces since

it takes so long to dry).

After everything is dry, pull out about two arms length of dental floss (about 50 inches) and

thread and needle. You now want to sew one line around the entire edge of the piece. Only one is

necessary. Important! Be very careful sewing the dental floss into the hard Velcro! If you do ittoo fast and are careless, the hook will eat up the wax and chew up the floss! If this happens

you'll need to cut the thread off and do it all over again. Go slowly with the needle, making surethe floss doesn't come in contact with any of the hooks when your pulling it through. If it starts

catching a hook, pull it out in the other direction a little, then try pulling it through again. After


33/35

one line all around the Velcro piece is finished, tie off the knot as you would with a knot on thenetting. Repeat the same procedure with the soft piece of Velcro on the other side of the suit,

using the buttonhole as the center point (be sure to only go through one piece of the fabric andnot through to the canvas). Repeat these processes to any of the buttons you wish to replace with

Velcro.

Step 10: Customizing your suit

Your almost there, but your suit is not quite finished yet! This is the part where you will

decide what different options you want on your suit, and to try the suit on yourself. This part ismainly for the BDU suit that you can crawl with (since the Flight suit has Velcro wrist closer and

keep it in place just fine), but if you want to put some of these on the other suit, that's fine by me.

We will first start with the thumb loops. These are great when you need to crawl, because theywill keep the arms flat and not catch on anything. All right, remember that long piece of double

stitched canvas that I told you to put aside? Well, this is the time to take it out and cut it in half.After that, seal the ends with a flame. Then the first thing you want to do is put on your jacket

and get on your elbow and knees. Look at where you think the most appropriate place to put the

thumb loops based on the placement of the canvas and the way you are crawling, and mark thetopside of the sleeve with a little dot (on both arms). Take off the jacket and pick an arm to startwith. Lets say the right sleeve for sake of argument. Go to that little dot that you marked off and

place one of the pieces on the dot's area only on the inside of the sleeve and make itperpendicular to the end of the sleeve. Put the strip down about an inch from the end of the

sleeve and put two pins through the strip and sleeve to keep it in place. Important! You want tomake sure you have the smooth side of the strip facing inward! It is better to have the smooth

side against your tender hand muscles then the rough seams. I unconsciously made this mistake


34/35

and had to re-sew the whole strip again. After making sure, you then want pull some dental flossout to about an arm and a half's worth of length (about 38 inches) and thread it into a needle.

Start sewing from the inside of the sleeve and keep sewing up and down the strip until you'vemade about 4 lines or until you run out.

Now, put the jacket and look at your right sleeve. Take the loose piece of the strip and pull it

into the other inside part of the sleeve (to see where you need to sew it in). Depending on your

arm length and what size of the BDU's you have, your finished product may or may not look likethe one in the picture, but you are generally trying to get it to look like that. Once you know how

far and where the strip should be pulled to, mark the strip and the place where it was held, thentake off the jacket. Pin down the strip and cut off any of the extra and unnecessary strip. You

want to have it about an inch down the sleeve like in the first one. Unpin it and seal the ends witha flame. Again, thread and sew the strip into place just like before, with about 4 lines, or until

you run out. Then, repeat this process with the left sleeve (or the right one, depending on whichone you started with). Important! You want to make sure you have the smooth side of the strip

facing inward again! You may forget about this part after all that sewing.

The next special modification you may want to consider doing to your suit is to replace some

of the chest buttons on your jacket (or button fly on your pants) with Velcro strips. You wouldwant to do this so that the buttons don't jam into the soft parts of your body on a hard ground. I

am going to show you how to replace the second and third button down from the top button onyour jacket with Velcro. Notice I did not say the first button around your neck. It's not necessary

to do that since it won't be in any contact with the ground. You may want to do all of the buttonsexcept for the top one, or just the ones I show you. Its you decision and how you come in contact

with the ground. First, lay your BDU jacket on the ground facing inside up. Remove the secondbutton down from the top with a small pair of sharp scissors, or a seam ripper if you have one.

Mark the spot where the button was. This is your center point. Now, depending on what Velcroyou get (preferably black, with 2 inches of width, none of that stick-on stuff if you can), you may

have to do this next part differently. Cut the Velcro in a 2-inch by 2-inch piece, both the hardVelcro part and the soft Velcro part. You want to start with the hard Velcro part on the place

where you removed the button. Take out some of that left over Shoe Goo or Goop and put a beadall around the edged of the 2x2 inch piece, and a dab in the middle. Then line up the middle of

the piece with the center point that you marked earlier and press it down. Put something heavyon it and come back in about an hour or two (you may want to do both of the Velcro pieces since

it takes so long to dry).

After everything is dry, pull out about two arms length of dental floss (about 50 inches) and

thread and needle. You now want to sew one line around the entire edge of the piece. Only one is


35/35

necessary. Important! Be very careful sewing the dental floss into the hard Velcro! If you do ittoo fast and are careless, the hook will eat up the wax and chew up the floss! If this happens

you'll need to cut the thread off and do it all over again. Go slowly with the needle, making surethe floss doesn't come in contact with any of the hooks when your pulling it through. If it starts

catching a hook, pull it out in the other direction a little, then try pulling it through again. After

one line all around the Velcro piece is finished, tie off the knot as you would with a knot on thenetting. Repeat the same procedure with the soft piece of Velcro on the other side of the suit,using the buttonhole as the center point (be sure to only go through one piece of the fabric and

not through to the canvas). Repeat these processes to any of the buttons you wish to replace withVelcro.

Documents

Gillie Suit