Making A Ghillie suit/blanket

[HandGunner]

So i have decided to make a ghillie suit but it will be more like a blanket. Why? I plan to make it out of a millitary blanket.

My questions are:

were can i get a millitary blanket?

were can i get netting as in vollyball type nets for cheap.

and what colors of string or material should i use to weave onto the ghillie?

i dont have time to drive 3 hours down to south east MN to look at what colors are around the woods but i do have my camo jacket that i just love the pattern and design and color that is in it, it blends in fairly well.

Also should i consider saftey? such as maybe weaving in some orange string to have a somewhat blaze orange effect for hunters to see me?

I plan to do something like a 70% finished weaving so the remaining 30% can be used to put natural debris from the woods into the suit. Wearing it like a poncho for ground bow hunting small areas close by were carrying a treestand can be cumbersome.

[tunrevir]

Fleet farms carry military surplus items and you may be able to find a blanket there. A lighter option might be to find a fabric store and buy fleece in a camo pattern. There are great patterns out there in fleece and it is fairly inexpensive. I had a few facemasks sewed up made from the fleece. Bought the fabric at Wallyworld and it was like 4 bucks for three yards. A good burlap type tapestry material might be ideal for putting your camo rags in while making the suit. The netting I would say hit up a play it again and look for an old badmiton net. Just a few ideas off the top of my noggin.

Tunrevir~

[Surface Tension]

My son whats to do pretty much the same thing for paintballing.

The online kits are easy to find.

[HandGunner]

nets are ridiculous to find play it again sports had some for wayy too much for too little..... my buddy and i almost baught vollyball net to cut up until i found decorative fish net at fleetfarm... its a 5'x10' plenty of net but they make the nets with a big ole hole at the bottom but luckily its near the bottom so it wont interfere with my plan..... i really did feel stupid when i paid $12 for it including tax when i saw a vid on youtube about ghillie suit making and the guy shows decorative plain black netting at walmart he got for $5... he even shows the store price tag..... its a 5'x7' piece plenty for me and with no hole!.... o well whatever at least we have netting now now i need a blanket and burlap material or twine. any ideas on a good tough fabrick for my blanket? someone on archery talk said they used landscaping fabrick and its tough and light.

[HandGunner]

minnesota hardwoods oaks... deciduous forest!

what colors should i be looking at for late september late october deciduous forest?

how much of the colors should i have?

need to die some burlap and how much of each color would i need? i assume natural burlap and brown will be the most dense color in the ghillie but what about other colors?

green?

black?

[Bear55]

Just something to think about if this is for archery, try to put as little camo on your bow arm because your string will hit it. A friend went for a ghillie suit against my advice and had problems shooting.

[HandGunner]

Just something to think about if this is for archery, try to put as little camo on your bow arm because your string will hit it. A friend went for a ghillie suit against my advice and had problems shooting.

it will be a ghillie blanket wich i will wear like a poncho and cool thing is theres no sleeves almost like a sleeping bag when im ready just open the front and shoot.

[Bear55]

Ahhhhh good idea, I should have read a little closer.

[Surface Tension]

I was wondering how your going to shoot a bow with this on. If you have to open this up to shoot, you just gave yourself away by movement. Now you have to draw the bow back.

As far as colors, the kits I mentioned will give you some ideas.

[pureinsanity]

I thought I would give you some insight here. I have made a partial ghillie suit. I am in the process of moving and if I run across it you can have it. (Pay for shipping) and modify it.

To be honest you are better off buying a full already made ghillie suit, for the amount of time effort and money in parts it comes out to be just about the same. Around 100-130$ you can have a ghillie suit shipped to your door.

I didn't want to use the burlap so I used Jute twine. I like the look better than the burlap.

What i did was used a volleyball net, if I were to do it again I would use some type of fishing net with about 1x1" squares. I used shoe goo to glue the net to the fabric along with a little bit of sewing, this glue works great for almost anything. I cut the jute twine and died it with Rite dye. By the time I had most of the back of the shirt done it was pretty heavy.

so again my advice is buy one already made. They make poncho's blankets, full suits, head geer, even an archery ghillie suit.

[LightningBG]

As of yet, I cant wrap my brain around exactly how this is going to work shooting and all. Is your bow going to be under the blanket? or are your arms and bow going to be on the outside?

IMO movement is way more important than color/camo.

I applaud your ambition. I love building stuff (even if half the stuff I build is stupid). You'll just want to think this through.

[pureinsanity]

Bow hunting ghillie suit, arm and chest areas are left without the jute/burlap material so there is no interference with the action of the bow string.

[Bear55]

Looks too complicated for me, I will stick to predator and asat camo.