How to Make a Ghillie Suit for Stealth and Survival

By Admin on December 8, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

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How to Make a Ghillie Suit

for Stealth and Survival

A ghillie suit is an essential item for any prepper who needs to stay hidden and undetected in a wilderness or urban environment. Whether you’re hunting, scouting, patrolling, or evading, a ghillie suit can help you blend in with the surroundings and avoid detection by other humans or animals.

While you can buy a ghillie suit online or in a store, making your own ghillie suit can be a fun and rewarding project that also saves you money and allows you to customize the suit to your needs and preferences. In this article, we’ll show you how to make a ghillie suit with easy-to-get materials and basic sewing skills.

Step 1: Gather the Materials

To make a ghillie suit, you’ll need the following materials:

A used set of Camouflage BDU’s (Battle Dress Uniforms) or a jacket and pants made of a similar material
Jute or burlap strips in natural colors (e.g., brown, green, tan)
Netting or mesh fabric (e.g., fishing net, bird netting) in a matching color
Shoe Goo or other strong glue
Sewing needles and dental floss or nylon thread

You can find most of these materials at a military surplus store, a craft store, or online. The cost of the materials should be less than $50, depending on the quality and quantity of the items.

Step 2: Prepare the Base

The first step in making a ghillie suit is to prepare the base, which is the jacket or the pants that you will cover with the burlap or jute strips. A BDU uniform jacket is ideal for this purpose, as it has pockets, buttons, and a collar that can help you blend in with the environment.

Take the jacket and turn it inside out. Cut the netting into strips that are at least two squares wide and long enough to cover the sleeves and the front of the jacket. Use dental floss or nylon thread to sew the netting onto the jacket, leaving gaps between the strips for the burlap or jute strands to go through.

Secure the stitches with Shoe Goo or another strong glue, and let the glue dry for a few hours. The netting will provide a framework for the burlap or jute strands to attach to, and also help you move more freely without getting tangled in the strands.

Step 3: Cut and Separate the Burlap or Jute

The second step in making a ghillie suit is to cut and separate the burlap or jute into individual strands that will cover the netting and create a 3-D effect. You can use bulk coffee bags, potato sacks, or rolls of netting to get the burlap material, or buy braided jute twine in natural colors and unravel the braids into strands.

Cut the burlap or jute into strips that are about 2-3 inches wide and 12-18 inches long. Then, unravel the cross-linked fibers and separate them into individual strands of equal length. This process can be time-consuming and messy, so make sure you have a large workspace and a vacuum cleaner handy.

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Step 4: Tie in the Burlap or Jute

The third step in making a ghillie suit is to tie in the burlap or jute strands into the netting, starting from the bottom and working your way up. Take 10-15 strands of burlap or jute and fold the bunch in half, then push the loop under each vertical square of netting.

Draw the hanging ends of the bunch through the loop and pull tight. Start at the bottom and work upward, ensuring that each row overlaps the one beneath it.

Step 5: Attach Burlap Strands to the Hood

The hood of the jacket is a crucial part of the ghillie suit. It is the part of the suit that will hide your head and face from view. To attach the burlap strands to the hood, take a small piece of netting and sew it onto the top of the hood. Then attach the burlap strands to the netting using the same method as in step 4. Make sure that the burlap strands overlap each other and are distributed evenly across the hood.

Step 6: Add Burlap to the Back of the Jacket

Once the hood is complete, it’s time to move on to the back of the jacket. To add burlap to the back of the jacket, take a handful of burlap strands and tie them to the netting at the bottom of the jacket. Work your way up the back of the jacket, adding more burlap strands as you go. Make sure that the burlap strands overlap each other and are distributed evenly across the back of the jacket.

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Step 7: Add Burlap to the Pants

To complete the ghillie suit, you will need to add burlap to the pants. Start at the bottom of the pant legs and work your way up, tying burlap strands to the netting as you go. Make sure that the burlap strands overlap each other and are distributed evenly across the pants.

Step 8: Add Final Touches

To add some final touches to your ghillie suit, you can attach natural materials such as leaves, twigs, and grass to the burlap strands. Use some shoe glue to attach the natural materials to the suit. Make sure that the natural materials are distributed evenly across the suit and blend in with the environment you will be operating in.

Conclusion

Making your own ghillie suit is not only a fun project, but it can also be a valuable addition to your prepping supplies. With a few easy-to-get materials and some patience, you can create a suit that will help you blend in with your surroundings and stay hidden from view. Whether you’re a hunter, a prepper, or just someone who loves the outdoors, a ghillie suit is a useful tool to have in your arsenal. Give it a try and see how effective it can be!

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