Hi all,

I was wondering if there's a good (read:cheap) source for outdoors fabric with which to learn on?

I'm particularly looking for some mesh, and some elastic, to add side pockets to an old pack.

In reality though, does anyone have any suggestions for a starter pack of fabric and doo-hickeys I ought to get? I seem to find one, get it, then find another, and I keep on paying for shipping. If anyone has a "you ought to get A, B, C, D, and a few E's" that might cut down on my costs for my uninitiated self =).

Thanks for reading! This is FUN

I'm a big believer in ordering extra, esp. of the little things that are cheap. If a part costs less than $1, I usually order ten even if I only need 2. Helps spread shipping cost.

Here's stuff that's handy for me to have around:

Ladder Locks, 3/4"; side-release buckles, 3/4" & 5/8" or 1/2"; Dual adjust side release buckles (for hip belts) 3/4"; Line-locs; mini cord locks; mitten hooks; 3/4" and 5/8" flat webbing; nice 2mm line. The side-release line-locs from Gossamer Gear or Zimmerbuilt look interesting, and so do the sternum strap setups both carry.

Fabric: Right now I have some 1.1 silnylon, some 1.9 (70D) silnylon; some x-pac; some 3D mesh; misc. bits of generic nylon from JoAnns; polycryo (bought locally as window insulation); blue CCF foam; quite a bit of aluminized Cuben; and lumber wrap salvaged from my local building supply (for prototyping). Plus various bits of stuff I'm sure will be extremely useful, once I figure out what to do with it.

And I'm sure my supplies are minimal by the standards of many other here.

I've been able to find grosgrain and thread locally that work for me, so I save shipping on that.

I can't say enough good things about DIY Gear Supply for finding everything you need.

In fact, when I made my backpack guide, it hit me that the only thing I didn't purchase from them was foam. When I brought this up with Scott at DIY Gear Supply, he went about locating a source. Now, I can buy everything I need to make a pack from Scott, with a few locally (things like aluminum stays).

To top it off, he carries 2nds and has cheaper prices.

He does have mesh, and I usually use shockcord rather than elastic for pockets, but the elastic can easily be sourced from any local fabric store.

I actually sourced the supplies needed for a cheap/durable pack once from DIYGS to something like this:

88" of 12" wide Oxford nylon
You would have to actually order 3 yards
1 ft spacer mesh
2 yards nylon drawcord
2 linelocs
1 cordlock (2-hole micro)
1 yard 70D Sil seconds
1 yard 1/2" grosgrain

This would total about $12 for materials and I would guess less than $20 including shipping. The pack would use the oxford nylon, which I really like in just the 12" stuff. It is super cheap and can make a pack for you at 25L pretty easily with dimensions 10x5x20. You could just upgrade to getting the full width stuff and still only add a couple of bucks tops. It would also use two layers of spacer mesh for straps and no foam, and the straps would be the drawcord through the linelocs. Add in some shockcord for about $1.50 and you are totally set.

I really want to make that pack now. May be my next project.

+1 DIY Gear Supply. Great service, great prices. I made a couple shaped tarps from his 1.1 Sil seconds, and it was great stuff--cosmetic prob. only and that was very hard to see.

DIY Gear supply is great. I am also a big fan of OWFINC, cheap shipping.

I have some extra fabric laying around you can have for the cost of shipping too, if you wanted to mess around with some UL materials. I have a box with quite a few pieces of both Momentum 50 and 90, silnylon, mesh etc.

Thanks for your recommendations on sources and DIY kits. I'm definitely going to take you up on your offer John (PM sent), then go from there with what else to nab =). Thanks!

Make sure you get the thread from diygear, he lists what it actually is, and it's all the good strong stuff. The thread prices are great, I'd get one big spool of each color he has, plus the strong thread, tera 40 I think it is, which you want for the high stress connections like straps. Those big spools last a long time, and the stuff you find at fabric stores if it's the gutterman is the thin stuff, not anything you'd want to use for a pack.

I wish diy would carry more colors of thread, but he seems to be adding more slowly, but a full range would be great, I'd buy them all, it's worth it, stuff looks nicer when the thread colors match.

owfinc also carries the big spools of some colors, gray/black, which are in fact the same type as diy carries, but I don't believe you could find that fact out by reading anything, but the 765 yd spools, which are just right, that owfinc has are the same type as diy.

Owfinc has the nice 4 oz /yd black mesh. owfinc has sort of expensive shipping, so if you get stuff from them, make sure you order a lot to make it worth it. I think they have the cheaper thin ladderlocks, but I'm not certain.

Rockywoods has a great selection of colors of oxfords and 70d nylons, plus the dimensioan polyant stuff, and their prices are good. They also have different colored webbings, the only place I know that has that. Their matching hardware though is very heavy, albeit super strong.

I agree, get way more webbing, hardware, than you think you need, it's good to just have it around, and it's very hard to find stuff of good quality locally, if you can even find it at all.

Note that zimmerbuilt sells very good quality ladderlocks, other sources use the cheap thin kind, if they have pics you can see the difference, the type zimmerbuilt and a few others sell are more curved and much nicer, albeit a tiny bit heavier, but do you really want to use a smaller lighter one for a key connector?

zpacks has nice stuff too re connectors and webbing and all that. 1/2" grosgrain might be harder to find, I'd buy that, it goes fast, and you might not find it locally.