Thread 2841100

Didn't see any Make Your Own Gear thread so I am making one.

Currently making a leather sling bag for my offgrid travels around the world, and my idea for it is so unique to what I discovered I used and needed when travelling that I'm pretty sure this bag would suck for anyone else using it.

Pic unrelated.
Are you using anything you made yourself for your /out/side adventures or did you trash everything away to buy premade gear?

I looked into myog a couple times now when I wanted a different quilt or a different pack, but by the time you're done buying materials not really saving much.

Think it made more sense 10-20 years ago when there wasn't an entire cottage industry around making UL gear

>>2841100 (OP)
>I could've bought it on temu for 2 bucks
I did that with a folding foraging bag.
Saw one on AliExpress for 3€, remembered I've been wanting to make one for years.
Used it to gather blackberries 1 time, next time I'll have any use for it is next year.

Thinking positively, I now have almost 2 linear meters of 1000D polyester.

>>2841156
Was it nice to use though? Anything you added to it to make it suit your needs or was is just a pouch?

Just bought 1.15m2 of leather to make my own bag, it better get some good use.

>>2841100 (OP)
I definitely like making my own stuff. Like Ron Swanson said "people who buy stuff are suckers"

But I'm practical, so if it's more affordable to buy, I will.

I made a 100L backpack 90% ripstop and the rest leather where it would wear (bottom and straps). Not because it was cheaper but also custom. I can pull some Paracord strings and make it a 40L with two 20L "compartments" on top and bottom. That lets me separate shoes from clothes and from water.

I was also able to add a frame so when it's 100L, I don't need to walk like an upright turtle.

The frame I made from 5mm x 600mm titanium poles, that I can also use to prop up my tarptent.

So I use a tarptent only because I haven't come up with a better design for a tarp/hammock tent. But that's on my to-do.

I chose to make my own tarp with silpoly fabric. Allowing me to sew 78"x150" together for ~150"x150" at about $50 vs $100+ to buy premade and smaller.

These days we can pretty much live how our ancestors did, using available products to make what we need.

I've also tried making my own jeans. I dislike trying on clothes and my gap jeans fit perfectly but the material doesn't last more than 5 years. Lucky denim lasts a lot longer and feels more comfortable but no lucky jeans fit like my gap. So I took a spent pair of gap jeans and made a stencil, spent $30 on lucky denim to make 2 for me and enough to make another for my nephew. Custom pockets and fabric make it ideal comfort and slightly cheaper than buying gap.

Businesses make products but even the designers admit they make a design and compromise for markets and usually end up only a pittance of what they started with.