Anybody have any experience camouflaging light colored fabric? Camo fabric is pretty expensive so I was looking to make my own camo for my blind out of sheets bought from a thrift store. I have full size flat sheet in a light tan color that I found for a couple bucks and then some OD green fabric that I was looking to make some netting type camo out of. Just curious if any of you have dyed fabric or have used spray paint with any success.
Bob - a 12 foot roll of camo material at walmart would be about $15, but seems pretty weak. We also have a local farm supply store that sells camo burlap by the foot for about $1.50, but again, I'm trying to make it cheaper than that.
OA - I'm always looking for ways to make things as cheap as possible.
I have had pretty good luck with that Walmart burlap.
I think the success of your project will depend on how much natural cover is in front of your bed sheet. If you are looking to eliminate cost I'd just skip the bed sheet all together and just wake up an hour earlier before the hunt and go 100% natural.
One thing you may not have thought about...bed sheets are really thin and will blow in the wind a lot easier than burlap.
In summer months i would stand with a tree or trees as my background or amongst low lying bushes using a reversible (green side out0 military WW2 poncho...keeping the face covered and hands and shooting at the last second when they are in too close to effectively get away.
You can get camouflage burlap or whatever material it is and wrap yourself in it or cut out openings for your arms.....that is the cheap way out and you can find that military stuff they use to cover vehicles or cannon with-not sure what it is called. The trick is wear brown or green underneath it..and bingo you should be in business....those $5.00 brown cotton jersey gloves are great for your hands...you can get face camouflage pretty cheap too....whether as a mosquito netting or just use that tube stuff....
Well, for my first attempt at doing my own camo design, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. A $2 tan bed sheet from a thrift store, a $1.25 can of black spray paint (terrible stuff), and a $4 can of dark brown spray paint puts me in at about half the cost of the store bought stuff (though we'll see about the durability I guess). I used some tall grass and a branch from a maple tree as the stencil, but I might add some green accents with a pine branch, just to spruce it up a bit (pun intended )
As far as it blowing in the breeze, I'm going to find a way to pull it tight across my blind frame. with natural vegetation added to it, I think it should work fine.
Just a thought: you mentioned the potential for it blowing about too much. That made me think of event banners stretched above streets. They usually have slits or partial flaps cut into them to reduce their blowing about. Consider that mod if flapping becomes too much of a problem.
Not a bad idea OA. We'll see if it becomes a problem, though with the spray paint added, the sheet has become much stiffer than a normal sheet, almost as if it was starched.
Here are a few pictures of my semi-portable blinds. The sheet spray painting was too much effort for me, so I bought camo material -- some actual blind material and some great hardwood pattern at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Then, I stapled to 6 ft. furring strips - they were about 60 cents for 8 footers - I cut down to 7 foot at an angle so they have a point, and end up with a 1 foot stake for tying down with camo ropes as needed to sturdy them.
I also take some of wife's tall grasses once they are dead for the season and weave and zip tie them into the material to give them pre-brushed in look. I did cut semi-circles into the purchased fabric for wind flow.
I've got about four of these, about 10 feet long when they're done and I can roll them up. I can set them up ahead of time and brush them in better, or carry in over my shoulder and brush in in the field. About the right size for 1-2 hunters.
More brushing in the better. My problem is that I usually don't hunt crows until after deer season in mid December through end of March, and there is little to brush in with -- mostly bare hedgerows and edges of woods, and the crows are more educated by then. I want to try some September hunting this year while there is better cover and dumber birds!
The next go around you might get some tan colored sheets ans buy some other earthtone colors of rit dye and do a earthtone tye dye type camo. if you really want to go the cheap route black walnuts soaked in water make a good brownish color. google how to tye dye and I'm shure you will find the instructions of the tye dye process. good hunting and hiding.
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A SUPER 90 and a crow in range, life is good. A good sandwich and bag of M&Ms doesnt hurt either.
Patterns look pretty good. You also might consider checking out some of the recycle sites they have on Yahoo. People are looking for someone to take their stuff that is still good but they do not want the hassle of selling it. Got a working toaster oven that way for curing paint on my jig heads. But drop cloths might be around and they are definitely thicker might already have some pattern on it already too.
When you talked about how the sheet got stiffer when you painted it, you reminded me of something that some people did back where there was not all this high tech or customized hunting clothes. They would get their hunting pants and paint the front of the leg so that it would stiffen it so that they would act like chaps do. Never tried it as we would just wear long johns under our pants and hope the stickers did not hurt too much. When I think about how much things have changed I wonder how our young ones will get along if things ever get really tough.
Used tents go for cheap in yard and garge sales. I would think the fabric and structural materials could be modified to make a free-standing blind that would be fairly wind resistant. A green, brown, or black tent could be painted in camo relatively easy with cans of spraypaint. Heck, you could change colors to match seasons or locations. It could also be rain resistant, but crow hunting slacks off in rainy weather. You might even be able to camoflage a small one, and set it up on a camo'ed boat, once you tie up in a likely location. You know, you could mount a small one on a 4-wheeler, and drive it from one side of the grain field to the other. I'm gonna quit now, my head is hurting.
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"When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all bird's flying. ...the sensation is the same, and the last one is as good as the first." E. Hemingway "Fathers and Sons"
The season around here doesn't start until Oct. 28th, so I still have some time to wait. Once the season starts, I'll be putting it through the paces for sure.
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Just how I like them "low and slow"