How to Make a Ghillie Suit - Best Instructions Online!
Should I buy one or make one?
I love this topic, we get SO MANY e-mails about this question from customers who ask “should i buy a one or make one”. There is a tone of information, guides, how to’s and instructions on How to Make a Ghillie Suit online, that you can very well make one yourself. You may think the answer to our question is simple … buy one, since we sell them, but not really for two reasons. We also sell the materials you need if you were to make your own, like Ghillie Suit Kits.
Thinking of making a ghillie suit, tell us in the comments! If you’ve created a ghillie suit send your us your pictures; so you can share your accomplishment with our members.
- Ghillie Suit
In these tough, difficult economic times I know we will all be tempted to cut back on expenses and make a ghillie suit yourself. Rightly so, making your own ghillie suit can be a very satisfying project. On the other hand making your own ghillie suit is an extremely time consuming commitment and you should consider this before you embark on a project you might not finish, not get the results you want and you will ultimately have to determine if its worth your time.
Straight out, ghillie suit construction is extremely time consuming, a chore you will discover once you’ve read the step-by-step process. Typically, the most basic ghillie suit can take anywhere between 17 to 43 hours, a really great ghillie suit can take up to 100 hours to make. Like any “arts & crafts” projects we enjoyed as kids, making your own ghillie suit will give you that sense of ownership & hard work; but when you spent 9 - 22 days spending 1-3 hours per day - you might have second thoughts on just day 4.
When we’re always deciding on whether to buy something or make it ourselves, we always calculate the savings benefits of making something yourself. Personally, whenever I decide to pay someone to do something for me, I always ask myself “how much is this task worth to me”; if the value is there for someone else to do it for me, and save myself that time, I have no problem paying that person.
Now, lets say you can finish making your full ghillie suit in 23 hours. How much is your time worth? If you earned minimum wage at lets say $6.55 (the current (2009) Federal USA minimum wage), the cost of making this ghillie suit to you is $150.65. If you enjoy making a ghillie suit, then the “value” isn’t there for you, but if you value your time, then the value in buying a ghillie suit is there.
Cost of Ghillie Suit Materials
Unless you already have raggedy camouflage jackets, pants and other ghillie suit materials you don’t need any more. You will find the cost of ghillie suit materials will soon add up pretty quickly, that the savings of making your own ghillie suit become a liability to your time.
Main Materials Needed:
- Ghillie suit clothes (jacket, pants, overalls, flight suit, BDUs) - approx: $20-$45
- Netting - $14
- 8lbs or more Jute Thread - ($6.74 x 4 = $26.96)
Additional Materials Needed:
- Dye - $2.50
- Dental floss- $3.00
- Sewing needles - $3.00
- Spray paint - $5.00
- Shoe Gue - $4.00
Obviously, if you have a flight suit, overalls, jacket or pants will significantly reduce you costs. If you don’t have any of the materials what so ever, it will cost you a minimum of $57 dollars to $82 dollars. The better the quality, meaning the more realistic and the more jute you add the more it will cost you.
Basic math will tell you, the costs add up pretty quickly, and buying a ghillie suit may seem like a better choice that the arts and craft route. Making your own ghillie suit will give you that sense of pride knowing you made it yourself or the compliments you’ll get when asked “where did you get your ghillie suit” you can proudly say I made it myself.
If you’ve accepted the challenge, I’m guessing your wondering now how to make a ghillie suit?
Now, if you see value of buying an already-made ghillie suit or don’t want to spend time with gluey fingers - great, affordable, high quality suits that are popular with our customers include:
- The Paintball Ghillie Suit - $57.87
- The StealthSuit Ghillie Set - $89.50
- The Ultra-Light Ghillie Suit - $133.00
Advantages of a Ready-Made Ghillie Suit
- Most are Machine washable
- Cheap
- More comfortable
- Customizable
- Fire Retardant
- Designed for many weather conditions (heat, cold)
- Available in many different terrains
- Long Lasting
- Ready Out of the Box
Disadvantages of a Ready-Made Ghillie Suit
- Less customization
- Cheap
HOW TO MAKE A GHILLIE SUIT
For many military personnel and seasoned professionals, they opt to create their own Ghillie Suits. While others choose to purchase “Create-Your-Own” Ghillie Suit kits online. To summarize the build process, its very simplistic. Start with a jacket and pants, lay them down and attach netting over them, and then tie strands of dyed jute to the netting. To summarize the process to these simple four steps is an understatement, because there are dozens of steps in between with meticulous details.
I commonly refer to needing a jacket and pants - but this would the first decision you would need to make - whether you want a 1 piece or 2 piece ghillie suit. There are advantages and disadvantages of each option. The one piece ghillie suit will allow you to get in & out of it easier, and won’t get caught while your crawling, because there is no seem. If you just need to wear the top part of the ghillie suit, the two piece ghillie suit is its main advantage. Remember, to always buy one or two sizes larger than what you normally wear. Click here for Ghillie Suit Sizes and Ghillie Suit Colors.
For netting, any type of strong netting will do. I usually recommend people use a black volleyball net, which works great for ghillie suits. Other netting options include fish netting - if you choose to use any other color net, don’t forget to dye it darker when you are dying your jute.
The meticulous work begins when you start attaching your netting to your suit - do this by sewing the netting onto the suit. Using regular 
thread won’t work, because its not strong enough. You’ll have to a stronger material like a waxed dental floss, which is also incredible cheap to get. If sewing is not your thing, some people just glue the netting on the suit using Shoe Goo; which I’ve personally discovered that Shoe Goo dries very strong and leaves your suit flexible. Using Show Goo gives your fingers a break and saves labor hours, but you lose real time when your waiting for the Shoo Goo to dry - so its breaks even, time wise. For best, long lasting results, experienced hunters do both. They sew the netting onto the suit, then Shoo Goo the corners to make sure the dental floss doesn’t come undone.
How you attach the netting - whether its on the back online or on both sides, really depends on how your going to use the ghillie suit. If you will be using your ghillie suit to crawl or lay down most of the time, then you do not want netting and jute on the front of the suit. If you will be walking or crouching a lot, then netting and jute should cover the front of the suit.
You got your suit, you have the netting sewed or glued on. Now, its time to color the jute. Selecting the choice of colors is wholly dependent on your environment. A good starting off point would be tan, green, black, brown and dark green.
Other jute & synthetic threads are available in black, brown, dark green, gray, light olive, lime green, olive green, natural tan, and sage green. The colors you choose will be based on your environment - some general color themes include: Woodland, Mossy, Desert, Timber, Leafy & Winter White. You can always color the thread by using dye. Once you decide what colors you want, determine how much jute you need of each color (always buy a 1-2lbs extra, then what you think you need) and then cut it in those section, and dip them into dye. Dye can be purchased at any major Big Box store like Wal-Mart.
To save time and avoid a mess, you can always purchase a Ghillie Suit Kit, which comes with pre-cut and dyed jute along with netting. The Ghillie Suit Kits are usually 5 lbs and 7 lbs in sizes.
If you decide on buying a Ghillie Suit Kit, you can get the basic Ghillie Suit Kit, or get specialized ones like a Paintball Tracker Kits, and the Paintball Ultra light Ghillie kit. Or get the basic Ghillie Suit Kit, but customized colors and amounts.
The next step, after your jute thread is dyed is to have the thread cut into different lengths and attach them to the netting. The jute should be cut into strands of 18 to 24 inches and then begin tying them to the netting. Start with your suit’s main color such as lime green. Take all the lime jute and tie one strand onto each netting square in the centre. Then begin to add on the other colors in a random pattern.
Once all the jute thread is attached, do a quick shake test to make sure everything is secure. Make any changes that need be, like if you feel the color pattern isn’t random enough or give it more color by simply giving the thread a light spray painting.
Then take a deep breath, step back and admire your creation. Finally, take it out the woods and show it off!
Advantages of a Homemade Ghillie Suit
- Can be less expesive than Ready-Made Ghillie Suits
Depending on what materials you already have
- Get exactly what you want
Disadvantages of a Ready-Made Ghillie Suit
- Time consuming - can take up to 100 hours
- Can actually cost more than just buy a ready-made ghillie suit
- Not all materials are fire retardent
- Not machine washable
- Depending on effort, quality may not be that good; making it a one time or a couple time use suit.
How long did it take you to make your ghillie suit! One guy said its taken him 1000 hours! Tell us how long did it take you!
(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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i’ve made my own ghillie suit, you forgot to add:
- messy
- may come out weird, meaning not the wayy you intended, and wasted your time.
i have both the paintball ghillie suit and made my own last yr. i found the already made one works just as great as the one i made myself.
nice instruc. hopefull my ghillie suit comes out alright!
goodluck to anyone making a ghillie suit, mine took exactly 107 hours! but i love it!
anyone here make custom ghillie suits for order?
you’ve got to have no life for you to make a ghillie suit on your own, it is so difficult and time consuming best of luck to all those who try.
it took me 113 hours and 6 weekends to make my ghillie suit.
[...] include old bdu materials or a flight jacket, jute, leaves etc. to make one check out these How to Make a Ghillie Suit - Best Instructions Online! materials will cost you almost the same cost as just buying one, which is about anywhere between [...]
i remember when i made my ghillie suit.. it took me awhile, but it was fun. my recommendation to those who want to make a ghillie suit. dont start unless ur going to see it through, otherwise you’ll have a half ass junk suit.
where do you get dye for the ghillies?….and i admit anyone who’s gonna make one, has no life, including myself, because i am bored 3/4 of the time:P
CrAzy AziAn:
You can buy dye in a lot of place. Try your local pharmacy, craft stores, and Walr-Mart.
[...] How to Make a Ghillie Suit Best Instructions Online Ghillie Posted by root 21 minutes ago (http://blog.ghilliegear.com) How to make a ghillie suit the best step by step instructions on how to make a homemade i usually recommend people use a black volleyball net which works great for ghillie suits add your comment below or trackback from your own site powered by wordpress l Discuss | Bury | News | How to Make a Ghillie Suit Best Instructions Online Ghillie [...]
Cool post, just subscribed.
My ghillie suit took almost 80 hours and it came out exactly as i wanted for desert environments. my cousin in the military wanted to take it up to the base to show some retards wut a 13 year old did compared to there garbage.
Dickweed: Haha that’s pretty funny
Hello. I think the article is really interesting. I am even interested in reading more. How soon will you update your blog?
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article.
it took me 15 seconds….i jumped into a bush…worked great …no one saw me the whole time during paintball!!
Ghillie suites ar cool though..if u can’t buy a cheap one…bushes work great!!!!
ive made my own ghili suit . it coast only 30 $ in iran and take about 25 hours .
well i made my ghillie suit out of some old brown yarn and some old cloth torn up and it works great, i just glued it to an old brown jacket with a glue gun…
Why would you want a machine washable ghillie suit? YOU ARE NEVER SUPPOSED TO WASH YOUR GHILLIE SUIT EVER!!!
I just bought a sheet of shadow grass burlap from Cabela’s, pulled every little piece of thread out and tied it to a soccer net works great for desert paintball. also for more dimension, i added irregular cut peices of burlap sheet to imitate sagebrush. smells like crap after a few weeks
id wash it if i got shit on it
It took me a total of 150hrs to make mine my grandpa was a ranger in the army and a sniper as well and he took a look at mine and was very satisfied on my hard work he said his self he would’ve worn it.
I made my own Ghillie suit. Took about 30 hours. It was just a test one though. I am going to sell that one and make a new one. This one is going to be much better. This website helped. If anyone needs any extra help, look on Youtube and there is a nine part video that is very detailed. Type in “Ghillie Suit Part 1/9″ The person who made is named GhillieExpert. Hope this helps.
Thanks for putting this up. I will be making a ghillie suit.
I talked to a former U.S. Army sniper, and he suggested that I should focus mainly on the hat, and on the back parts, because most of the time you’ll be lying down or crouching behind a bush. This means you use less fabric, and there for it is lighter and easier to wear. I weighed mine after I made it, how he suggested, with a hat, BDU jacket and pants, and patches of canvas on my elbows, torso, legs and knees, it weighed just over 5 pounds.
I MADE MY GHILLIE SUIT IN ABOUT 13 HOURS. YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW THAT TO DO. IM BUILDING A REALLY GOOD WEBSITE ON HOW TO BUILD REALLY GOOD SUITS IN UNDER 4 DAYS. YOU ONLY HAVE TO WORK FOR ABOUT 5-6 HOURS A DAY.
E-MAIL ME @ col_sharp@yahoo.com for more information.
ok its up the site is http://WWW.RILEYSGHILLIE.WEBS.COM
hey i have a website that is very similar to this one. if you finish ur suit. please post up the picture on my site and add ur name. i like to see what the community is up to in the ghillie world
Took me about 20 hrs. it’s a back only suit, and it works in grassy areas and woodland. about 6 strands of jute on each side of the netting.
I’m going to start come summer. It seems like a very tedious project and should solve the delema for the question of what I’ll do over the summer. I’ve put everything to budget and it should cost me about 175-225$ Wish me luck. I’ll probably be the first kid to post his finished ghillie suit here.
hey branden you want to start in the winter so by the time spring comes around you are already done and can start getting it dyed
shoe goo that is glue for shoes or ?
I made my own netting out of old nylon monofilament fishing line, and it took nearly 4 24ft rolls of burlap, along with some dyed fabrics and brown carpeting. You will be satisfied if you make so it fits your environment. Great for hunting any game even with some blaze orange on. I recomend it.
i made my own ghillie befor i found this page
i also got a ghillie from my uncle whom was a
marine sniper.well anyway after looking this
page over the instuctions you gave we very well
so great job.the instructions you gave took me
around 3-5hours
i am going to try and make my own gillie suit hope it comes out good.
i spent 60 hours repairing a g suit during school. few things to keep in mind.
-jute is FLAMMABLE (some types come pre treated with flame retard)
-jute has a lot of shine, to get rid of the shine you have to do whats called “ghillie wash” crawl through a muddy stream for about 50 meters. this will get the jute broken in and cause it to clump up and look like stuff other than clean jute
-use rubber bands to secure live veg to your suit (grass, leaves and such)
-use live veg from the height at which your going to be crawling
-60% live veg 40% jute, dont look like a wookie
-blend into your background (dont use green pine needles to veg up if you know your going to move away from pine trees)
real g suits dont look like much until you put live veg on them, once ur done with the veg, be sure to pull it off and let your suit dry out so that it dsnt rott
i really need help iam going to make one but it sounds hard if add burlap and jute would it be better i think it seems dumb to add the shoe goo wouldnt it just fall off and how do you make the gun a rifle cover a ghillie suit wouldnt your feet show
i was a marine sniper in Nam and i had 2 wear a desert 1 and i had to make it it took me about two weeks to make but i guess they didnt see me haha good thing
i live in fortworth TX and there is a surplus army store there and they have the chepest gillie suit i have seen enywhere and is the best i HAVE SEEN and the best part about these they r only $70 to $80 and these are surplus suit are the best i havent bought one because i cant buy one when i have other stuff to pay for but if you really want one i think this is the place to get a gillie suit and it saves you time and money {the store is called OMAHA surplus}
Making ur own ghillie suit is best if u have any idea of what ur doin. You can -by far- out-doo any store that sells them. I make em and sell em right from home to people around here! Mine are light, looks good, and long lasting! Make your own if u think if you are capable! But it does take some time. To make a good one it takes me about 3-4 days!
could someone sell me a ghillie suit
Hi, we tried sending you an email to the one you used, but it got returned to us. If there is anything we can help you with please let us know. Email us at sales (at) ghilliegear (dot) com or use this web form. http://www.ghilliegear.com/contact_us.php
Thank You
Lindsay
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