Squirtgunsquirter
Demi-God
Danil54girl gave me the idea to make something for the dog. So, I will make a pack setup.
This is a fairly complicated DIY, but doable in my opinion. If you were just starting to sew, or only had a newer home machine (an old singer would stitch it) I wouldn't try this as a first project. It looks simple, but its easy to make mistakes on the layout, and the multiple layers of stitching mean it would be a real bear to correct mistakes.
I will try to post text under the pictures, we will see how that goes.
All the stuff. That's Foliage Grey 1000 denier DWR cordura nylon as a base, the main body of the harness and packs.
I have a clear ruler marked at 1 1/2 inch all along the length, this sets the lines of stitch on the molle. More on that later. Various bits of webbing, a circle maker, I use versachalk chalk board wet markers to do layout, they wash right off when done. A soldering iron to cut the webbing and melt the ends, and a hot glue gun to tack things together rather than pin anything. I have 2 ADF raptor II load rated quick release buckles (2000 load rating), those will clip the top of the harness to the padded chest/belly piece. I will run the webbing (milspec nylon, grey, breaking strength minimum of 1400 pounds, with a 3x safety factor, max breaking strength is 5500) in complete loops so that the load isn't on the stitching, the harness would be rated to lower the dog, or me lol, by rope. The padding for the chest piece is a non-absorptive closed cell foam, 1/4 inch thick. The thread is milspec T69, 10 pound breaking strength, so you can calculate the number of stitches needed to reach a required strength (100 stitches in a box-x pattern would give 1000 lbs). Overkill for this application.
I'm sizing the bags, and the harness body to fit a 1 gallon ziplock bag on either side. I inflate the bags partially, and use them to measure.
The body of the harness, it will be the part that sits on his back. The end of the fabric on the top of this picture are cut to allow the webbing to sit at the correct angle, and a circle is cut to fit around the neck, about 3 inches back from where a collar would sit. This is where things get tricky if you aren't familiar with using a seamstress tape to measure and fit around curves. It isn't THAT hard, but measuring with a flat ruler wont work too well. I cut a 16 x 16 square, and then put it on the dog and marked it out to give an approximate fit, then used that as a rough guide for the final measurements. The dog was confused.
This image is full size because it is super important. Molle looks like it could be a 1x1 inch grid, or 1 1/8th. But if you sew that, other one inch webbing, and Blackhawk speed strips, or whatever, wont fit between the lines of stitch. I use a 1 x 1 1/2 inch grid. So the webbing is one inch, and there is one inch between the webbing strips, and the lines of stitch are at the 1 1/2 inch shown. When I start sewing, this will be clearer.
The general layout of the buckles. The larger Cobra buckle will be just for a leash, and the leash will be load rated with a loop to attach a carabiner. The 2 ADF buckles will just clip the harness together, so you slide the harness over the dogs head, then clip at the sides back by his hind legs. I will run the webbing for the back clips through the molle webbing, which will cut down on stitching, and allow a little side to side movement of the buckles, and therefor the belly piece. I don't want a tight, super solid fit, the dog needs to be able to move and bend in this.
The webbing for the molle layed out on the piece. I will make the bags with corresponding webbing just like any molle gear. Obviously, any molle bag or accessory will fit this harness when it is finished. Sometimes there are things I just don't feel like making.
That's where I am so far. Hoping to get this done today.
This is a fairly complicated DIY, but doable in my opinion. If you were just starting to sew, or only had a newer home machine (an old singer would stitch it) I wouldn't try this as a first project. It looks simple, but its easy to make mistakes on the layout, and the multiple layers of stitching mean it would be a real bear to correct mistakes.
I will try to post text under the pictures, we will see how that goes.
All the stuff. That's Foliage Grey 1000 denier DWR cordura nylon as a base, the main body of the harness and packs.
I have a clear ruler marked at 1 1/2 inch all along the length, this sets the lines of stitch on the molle. More on that later. Various bits of webbing, a circle maker, I use versachalk chalk board wet markers to do layout, they wash right off when done. A soldering iron to cut the webbing and melt the ends, and a hot glue gun to tack things together rather than pin anything. I have 2 ADF raptor II load rated quick release buckles (2000 load rating), those will clip the top of the harness to the padded chest/belly piece. I will run the webbing (milspec nylon, grey, breaking strength minimum of 1400 pounds, with a 3x safety factor, max breaking strength is 5500) in complete loops so that the load isn't on the stitching, the harness would be rated to lower the dog, or me lol, by rope. The padding for the chest piece is a non-absorptive closed cell foam, 1/4 inch thick. The thread is milspec T69, 10 pound breaking strength, so you can calculate the number of stitches needed to reach a required strength (100 stitches in a box-x pattern would give 1000 lbs). Overkill for this application.
I'm sizing the bags, and the harness body to fit a 1 gallon ziplock bag on either side. I inflate the bags partially, and use them to measure.
The body of the harness, it will be the part that sits on his back. The end of the fabric on the top of this picture are cut to allow the webbing to sit at the correct angle, and a circle is cut to fit around the neck, about 3 inches back from where a collar would sit. This is where things get tricky if you aren't familiar with using a seamstress tape to measure and fit around curves. It isn't THAT hard, but measuring with a flat ruler wont work too well. I cut a 16 x 16 square, and then put it on the dog and marked it out to give an approximate fit, then used that as a rough guide for the final measurements. The dog was confused.
This image is full size because it is super important. Molle looks like it could be a 1x1 inch grid, or 1 1/8th. But if you sew that, other one inch webbing, and Blackhawk speed strips, or whatever, wont fit between the lines of stitch. I use a 1 x 1 1/2 inch grid. So the webbing is one inch, and there is one inch between the webbing strips, and the lines of stitch are at the 1 1/2 inch shown. When I start sewing, this will be clearer.
The general layout of the buckles. The larger Cobra buckle will be just for a leash, and the leash will be load rated with a loop to attach a carabiner. The 2 ADF buckles will just clip the harness together, so you slide the harness over the dogs head, then clip at the sides back by his hind legs. I will run the webbing for the back clips through the molle webbing, which will cut down on stitching, and allow a little side to side movement of the buckles, and therefor the belly piece. I don't want a tight, super solid fit, the dog needs to be able to move and bend in this.
The webbing for the molle layed out on the piece. I will make the bags with corresponding webbing just like any molle gear. Obviously, any molle bag or accessory will fit this harness when it is finished. Sometimes there are things I just don't feel like making.That's where I am so far. Hoping to get this done today.
. I only inspired your critter project, but hey it gave you something to do while your wife is sick. Sorry she gave it to you though.
