How to make a Ghillie Suit
Should I buy one or build one? 
Making your own ghillie suit can be a very rewarding project. It is a very time consuming project and before you begin your project you should really determine if it’s worth your time.
Photos of Ghillie Netting and Jute
Free Ebook Download on How to Make a Ghillie Suit
After you have read further the step by step process you will see just how time consuming making a ghillie suit is. Making a full ghillie suit can take anywhere from 15 to 40 hours. While you may think that it will be a fun project in the beginning taking 2 hours each night for 8-20 days. You may have second thoughts on day 5 wishing you had just purchased one.
Let’s say that you can build a full suit in 20 hours. You should determine how much your time is worth. If you say merely $5/hour, building the suit is costing yourself $100. However, if you’re having fun doing it or its a project you do with your family, this cost doesn’t matter too much.
The materials of a ghillie suit alone may double your cost. The ghillie suit consists of three main parts. The clothes (jacket, pants, overalls, BDUs), netting and jute thread. Additional parts are dye, dental floss, sewing needles, spray paint, Shoe Goo, etc… Depending on what quality of suit you are constructing, the clothing portion can run you from $20 to $50 alone. The netting, jute and accessories will cost you from $10-$20 depending on how much you put on your suit.
If you add this all up, you’ll see that simply purchasing a ghillie suit may be a better choice than (DIY) doing it yourself. There is definitely some satisfaction on make your own suit. There’s nothing better than sniping someone in paintball, having them ask where you got your suit and you telling them you made it yourself. Their next question is often, how do I make one?
If you decide to purchase a ready-made ghillie suit, the Ultra Light Ghillie Suit is a very good quality and popular suit.
How to make a Ghillie Suit
Technically the ghillie suit is a very simple suit to build. Here are the basic steps. Get jacket and pants, lay and attach netting over them, tie strands of dyed jute to the netting. And you’re done! Of course, there are many many steps inbetween with little details but you get the gist of it.
First you should determine if you want a one piece or two piece suit. There are pros and cons to each one. A one piece suit is easier to get into and has no seam at the waist for potential snagging of your pants while crawling. The main advantage of a two piece suit is that you can just wear the top if that’s all you need. Once you select a suit type and are ready to purchase the clothes, remember to buy one or even two sizes larger than what you normally wear.
For netting, any type of strong net will do. A black volleyball net works well here. Other nets that you can use are fish nets, If you’re using any other color net, remember to dye it darker when you are dying your jute.
To attach the netting to your suit you can simply sew the netting to it. Do not use regular thread because its not strong enough. You can use waxed dental floss as it’s strong and cheap. Some people simply glue the netting onto the suit with Shoe Goo. I’ve found that the Shoe Goo dries very strong and is still slightly flexible. It saves actual labor time over using thread. But you’ll lose real time by waiting for it to dry. Some people do both, they sew the netting on and then Shoe Goo the corners to make sure the dental floss doesn’t come undone.
The netting should be attached to the back of the clothing. Whether or not you attach the netting to the front depends upon why you are making the suit. If you are going to be crawling or laying prone alot, you don’t want the netting and jute on the front of the suit. If you’re going to walking or crouching you would want the front of your suit covered.
The next step is to color the jute thread. The choice of colors is dependent on your environment. A decent color range to start with would be tan, green, black, brown, dark green. You can see a sample of colors on the left.
You can add to these colors based on your environment. The thread can be colored using dye. Determine how much thread you want of each color and cut it in those sections and dunk them into the dye. You can get the clothing dye at any Walmart or Target.
You can also purchase the Ghillie Kit shown on the left which comes with pre-cut and dyed jute along with the netting. These come in various sizes.
Once you have the jute thread dyed, it’s time to cut it into various lengths and attach them to the netting. Cut the just in strands of 18 to 24 inches and begin tieing them to the netting. It’s better to begin with your suit’s main color, such as tan. Take all the tan jute and tie one strand onto each netting square in the center. Then begin to add on the other colors in a random fashion.
Tying the Knot
You can find details on how to tie knots to ghillie netting in the video below or on this page: Ghillie Making Knots
Once you’re done, step back and take a look at your suit. Make any adjustments if you feel the color pattern isn’t random. To give it more color you can get some spray paint of a different color and give some threads a light spray.
Fast Ghillie Suit Making
Here’s a cheap but easy way to make your ghillie suit. Because the tying the jute to the netting is the most time consuming, let someone else do it for you. Purchase a ghillie blanket and get yourself a jacket and pants BDU set from a military surplus store. Lay the ghillie blanket over the BDUs and cut the netting to match your jacket and pants. Sew or Shoegoo the netting onto the jacket and pants and you’re done in 1/10th of the time!
59 Responses to “How to make a Ghillie Suit”
XXX size- Thanks
By Paul Jackson Jr. on Oct 28, 2007
I’ve always wanted on of these awesome suits.I hope I win. I’d like the jackel in an XL thanks alot.
By Scotty on Oct 28, 2007
could i have a Large if i win please?
thanks alot!
By Joe on Jun 17, 2008
it took me 24 hours and i went to the mall and ran around in it haveing my friend record it. hahahahhahahahhahahaha!
By nick on Jul 21, 2008
I’ll try wining one sounds the easy way to get a suit
By Ronnie Demeter on Jul 23, 2008
What im doing right now, is im making one out of threads of clothing, and mesh, like fishermens net. I have like my boxers, and pants and shorts into my hoody. Its nice looking
By Zein on Jul 26, 2008
dfdfdf
By joe on Sep 10, 2008
hey i would like a M if i win thanks
By Cooper on Nov 5, 2008
I made my suit with burlap strips…After a little wile of running around in the woods it slowly un ravels and makes it look good, i glued my burlap on with a hot glue gun, it lasted a little wile i am trying to sew all my straps on now Large if i win
By Jess on Nov 6, 2008
get scrim scarfs and make a suit stule them attach cam nettng them add bull rap and ur dne
By biff on Nov 22, 2008
lolololololololol
By bob on Nov 24, 2008
wow this is easy ny cousin just made one and im going to too
By alex on Nov 29, 2008
wow man it was worth the time but but boy it was time consuming i got done yesterday and the minute i got done it started raining so i waited until today and it was amazing WOW thanks alot for the reccomendations
By jackson on Dec 18, 2008
i made one last summer out of strips from burlap sacks and after i rolled around in the mud and let it dry i worked quite well
By wyatt on Jan 30, 2009
I saw these in battlefield and i knew right away… want one
By Anonymous on Jan 31, 2009
Gosh dangit, why do none of these tutorials show how to tie the dang chute/burlap/etc to the net?
By ethan on Feb 3, 2009
I made one out of old shredded t-shirts and it looks very very similar
By Trevor Montgomery on Mar 10, 2009
Here is a video on how to tie the jute to the net.
http://www.ghilliesuitclothing.com/blog/how-to-make-a-ghillie-suit-details-of-the-knot/
By Ghillie Suit Clothing on Mar 13, 2009
wat r u guys talking about “f i win i want a large/medium/ect” if there is a contest how do you join?
By aric on Mar 27, 2009
it looks like my bro
By Anonymous on Apr 11, 2009
I am going to make a ghillie suit as a summer project, what would you reccomend for the netting, i am going to build it out of burlap because i have acquired an unlimited supply of tan and flat white burlap 100lb coffee bags and jute.
By adam on Jun 5, 2009
sorry about the last question just read through and found the answer. btw, very nice site.
By adam on Jun 5, 2009
I have a friend that built one and he said that he made his own netting and he gave me the instructions. i might also try that route what would you reccommend???
By adam on Jun 5, 2009
I think makeing a gilly suit is very cool,neat but you have to buy all of the matrails to build it.Also on the other hand you could mess up.Makeing a gilly suit is very cool.So i think you should buy one how you would like it.Lets say you want one for the fall time,winter time,or the summer time which why im looking for one,at a good price also im learning how to make one of my own.It is kind hard but i think when im done it will look great.Also it could be mess up.If you could send me so good tips on make the gilly suit by hand that would be great.Thanks for reading this.
By hunter johnson on Jun 29, 2009
I looked this up because I am paintballing and would like to try the sniper approach. I play a few times a year, and we only play for fun. What I was wondering is…why do you people want to know how to make one? I mean if your not paintballing or hunting, then what are you doing? Just blending into the forest?
By Anonymous on Aug 6, 2009
being in the military i have seen these things first hand, and let me tell you they get HOT! first time i wore a no bull real Ghillie suit was in iraq. it was a three piece desert crawler stalker setup. the jacket had the material cut out of the back and the netting sewn over the hole to add ventilation.(kinda helped, but not really) wearing this thing while holding a Rem. .308 sniper rifle with Ghillie wrap made me look BA. i plan on making two of these suits outta old cammies i have aquired over the years i have been in. one set in desert winter(light color jacket and pants for the snow) and one in woodland fall/summer. from the people i talked to about thes, all of them said that a true Ghillie Suit could take upwards of 60 hours to make and a lot of time in the elements. they also said you want the suit to look faded like the plant life you will be using it in. hope this helps someone.
By unseen marine on Oct 15, 2009
if you use both knots would that be a good idea? my tough yes because i believe it would desort the human shape right?
nick
By nick on Dec 14, 2009
These things are cool. We use them in south africa for airsoft. Do you have ideas on a poncho type one.
By Deathfromabove on Dec 18, 2009
Well i’m hoping to make one thanks for the tips.
By ALEX on Jan 17, 2010
The prices sound a bit exaggerated, but what do I know.
Will have the materials tomorrow and get this project rolling. Goin’ to have a Savannah scheme and stalk my friend in his field lol.
Though, you’d need about 4-5 ghillie suits just for this accursed state of CO
By Skresh on Feb 8, 2010
lol
By Anonymous on Mar 4, 2010
I am making my Willie suit out of burglar drips and its staring to look good. I guess if u pit a lot of time into it and effort it will look good
By rg on Mar 20, 2010
This works but also u want to make sure that u reinforce the front torso, elbows, and knees go on youtube and lkook up how to make a ghillie suit there’s one that is taught by marines
By penis on Mar 30, 2010
I want to build one today, but it sounds complicated. I’ll have to read the instructions a couple of times to remember
By kane on Jul 23, 2010
Hi, Im making a ghillie suit too.. but How many strands of the pre-died and cut jute do you put in the knot? Also I dont have money for a ghillie suit net so I was wondering what the size of the squares should be?
By brown on Jul 24, 2010
man im here in south east texas and let me tell you its hot… any one have a good idea for making a vented suit like that one guy discribed
By nick on Aug 11, 2010
Put about 4-6 strands per knot, they overlap making each knot look like 8-12 strands.
To make the back vented, cut about a 15 inch by 10 inch hole out of the back of the ghillie suit BDU and add either mesh or a fine netting to cover the hole you made.
By Ken @ Ghillie Suit Clothing on Aug 11, 2010
Im just buying one from a friend that he bought for 100 $, i getting it for 45 XD.
By Jordan on Aug 17, 2010
You probably need to drag it aroung to wear it out and if youre using it to hunt soak it in manure so the animals cant smell you
By Alex on Aug 24, 2010
#
“I looked this up because I am paintballing and would like to try the sniper approach. I play a few times a year, and we only play for fun. What I was wondering is…why do you people want to know how to make one? I mean if your not paintballing or hunting, then what are you doing? Just blending into the forest?”
Well im making one cause im in the army and unless youre some sort of special forces unit you dont get issued a ghillie and i really want one.
By Alex on Aug 24, 2010
great advice on materials and methods thanks im making it for airsoft games so it will help alot
By ben on Sep 29, 2010
what is the best jute to use in a gillie suit….assuming there is one?
By false name on Nov 28, 2010
@ Ethan
I hope you review this once in a while, cause I know just how to knot it. Twist it so it kinda pops up, or down. Then take some Jute Twine and attach it. Easy way.
Harder way, once you’ve twisted the burlap, try knotting it using a basic knot.
By IXII NL on Dec 26, 2010
Oops,
It doesn’t matter. Jute is Jute.
By IXII NL on Dec 26, 2010
whitch colours should i use for summer time in midle/south europe? thx for answers
By el slo sniper on Feb 25, 2011
can i use sisal twine also?
By crzyboi on Mar 27, 2011
yeah this info is good stuff i’m gonna get the materials tomorrow now i can snipe in the woods
without having to worry about being seen for a while
By Blackone on May 23, 2011
i mad a ghetto ghillie suit out of yarn and it looks ok but all of the ones i have seen look really good and i was just wondering were i could find burlap bcuz i went to walmart and i asked 2 ppl and they said they didnt even know wat burlap is & but the ppl i asked must have been idiots
By be on Jun 6, 2011
you know you don’t have to do any of this. you can just shred some DCPU pants and stitch them on. make a great ghillie suit
By me on Jun 27, 2011
im thinking about making a ghillie suit but i will use a volleyball net yarn shredded cammo shirts will this work?
By sean on Jul 27, 2011
I so have to do this makin fing sounds gr8t fun
By Camoguy on Jul 31, 2011
i think its pretty cool but if I win can I have a large
By Adam on Sep 12, 2011
Thankyou ghilliesuitclothing.com, i needed a new suit. now the afghans wont see me, and when they do see me, it will be too late…
yours sincerely, L. Cpl O’Connell, Queens royal lancers, kandahar air base, Sniper team leader.
By ROGUE-sniper. on Oct 12, 2011
great site
i’m making a suit soon and this site helped a lot!
By dan on Oct 17, 2011
im gonna make this for airsoft games and im gonna wear it for halloween and hide in the bushes and when someone walks by i will jump out and scare the crap out of them. the ghillie suit is kinda scary just when a person wearing this is in plain sight. its going to be so much fun.
By stealth attack on Oct 26, 2011