BatNinja's Ammo Pouch Tutorial

Yay! working on it as we speak. A pain to get the right color pleather though…. Im making a black one to practice my "skills" lol...:D
 
Blind guy questions, since I can't see the tutorial images themselves:

1. I'm a little uncertain based off the title - does this thread contain the info needed to make an entire ammo belt, or just the pouches for the belt?

2. Would any kind soul be willing to provide me with written instructions for the tutorial contained in this thread? I know that's a lot to ask, but I'd like to discuss the project with my grandma, who may be willing to lend me her sewing prowess - but she's not the most tech savvy and I'd rather discuss it with her in person before just telling her to come to this thread and look at the tutorials. I know it's probably a lot to ask, but I'd be truly grateful if someone was willing to do this. I'm thinking of something like the written instructions in LadySewforus' neck seal tutorial (which I hope to put to good use very soon).
 
Blind guy questions, since I can't see the tutorial images themselves:

1. I'm a little uncertain based off the title - does this thread contain the info needed to make an entire ammo belt, or just the pouches for the belt?

2. Would any kind soul be willing to provide me with written instructions for the tutorial contained in this thread? I know that's a lot to ask, but I'd like to discuss the project with my grandma, who may be willing to lend me her sewing prowess - but she's not the most tech savvy and I'd rather discuss it with her in person before just telling her to come to this thread and look at the tutorials. I know it's probably a lot to ask, but I'd be truly grateful if someone was willing to do this. I'm thinking of something like the written instructions in LadySewforus' neck seal tutorial (which I hope to put to good use very soon).


Joseph,
This is mainly a thread for how to make the ammo pouches themselves. There are two schools of thought on this belt; functional and non functional. Some folks like functional due to lighter weight and having little pockets to put batteries, snacks, whatever will fit in there. Others like non-functional because they might be easier/faster to build with less skill involved. Personally, I'm going with the non-functional 2X4 method, but I'm going to drill out the blocks to make them lighter, yet still hold the form. This tutorial is for the non-functional, wrapping vinyl around a wood block variant. Basically you have a wood block in the shape of the pouch, then a piece of vinyl cut from a pattern wraps around the block covering the left and right sides and is glued in place. Then another piece of vinyl which has non-functional stitching in it is wrapped around the glued vinyl to cover the front, bottom, back and top, and also forms the front flap.

The belt itself is a single ply leather or vinyl belt with stitching on it. Depending on whether you're doing an ROTJ or ESB build you'll have some grommets installed in the built as well. Two grommets for ESB and I don't remember how many for ROTJ. Strumfett has an awesome ammo belt thread that Rafalfett helped with, so it's pretty much belt gospel!

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/tutorial-ammo-belts-v2-rafalfett-templates-47515/

There is some kind of html weird coding going on there so everything looks kind of disorganized.

I hope this helps, I know it's not a step by step, but I'm chasing a 4 yr old around today while mommy is at work!

Good luck,
Main
 
Thanks so much, Mainst69 - that definitely does help. It gives me a much better sense of the project as a whole - for example, I knew that wood blocks formed the base for the "pouches", but I didn't realize that the vinyl covering the pouches was in two pieces.

So, with the belt itself, is it as simple as cutting the long piece of vinyl or leather (I'm guessing 44" x 2" or something like that), and then doing a single row of stitching around the edge, and then adding in the grommets in appropriate numbers and spacing? That seems pretty easy. (I'll check out that link you shared, too - maybe it'll answer that for me).
 
Thanks so much, Mainst69 - that definitely does help. It gives me a much better sense of the project as a whole - for example, I knew that wood blocks formed the base for the "pouches", but I didn't realize that the vinyl covering the pouches was in two pieces.

So, with the belt itself, is it as simple as cutting the long piece of vinyl or leather (I'm guessing 44" x 2" or something like that), and then doing a single row of stitching around the edge, and then adding in the grommets in appropriate numbers and spacing? That seems pretty easy. (I'll check out that link you shared, too - maybe it'll answer that for me).

Joseph,
my advice would be to go at it in this order: get your codpiece/butt plate fabed or bought (they don't have to be painted yet, just wearable); then wearing both of those armor pieces you can then measure for your girth belt, you have to have the girth short enough to get like 8 or 9 inches of black nylon webbing to fasten it with, (it has four buckles, two per side so you need two nylon straps. Lastly, wearing your cod/butt armor and girth belt you can measure for your ammo belt length as it kinda sits on top of all that stuff.
At least that's what I'm trying to do!

I just checked the leather belt blank I'm using and if I remember correctly the actual beslt size was like 2.52 inches, but I'm not that anal so I'm rounding that off to just 2.5!
A single stitch line runs both edges of the belt, all the way around it, velcro is used to secure it and I think it is two strips of velcro 1 inch wide by about 8 inches or so. These are placed on the inside of the outside flap of the belt and it looks like they were stitched in place as there is two rectangular stitch patterns on the outside of the belt.

have you decided whether you're doing an ROTJ or ESB Fett, maybe I haven't seen that yet.

check that strum fett link out and if you have any questions PM me and I'll see if I can answer them for ya.

later, got some painting to do on my daughter's Darth Vader!
 
"My daughter's Darth Vader." That is a win, if I've ever heard one.

That sort of detailed info is so helpful. I will definitely PM you if I need anything else, but for now you've answered everything I need to know. Seriously, thank you so much!
 
Okay, here are ALOT of pics from the actual process...

Tools of the trade
View attachment 94565

Pouch Template
View attachment 94566

Ready to glue...
View attachment 94567

Stretching the vinyl gives the finished pouch a flat, uniform look:
View attachment 94568

This is the order I spot-glued:
View attachment 94569

Then the bottom...
View attachment 94570

And finally, the top:
View attachment 94571

Now, the flap template
View attachment 94572

After spraying with 3M Adhesive Spray, press the sides to the center:
View attachment 94573

The back of the flap should look like this:
View attachment 94574

On one end, cut the corners (I used a plastic template)
View attachment 94575

Another look at the corners:
View attachment 94576

Stitching (note the Teflon presser foot)
View attachment 94577

The finished flaps
View attachment 94578

Gluing steps 1-4 (see digrams above)
View attachment 94579

After the glue dries for steps 1-4, glue the front flap
View attachment 94580

And finally, the finished pouch!
View attachment 94581

Mods, please let me know if there's a limit on the number of pics in a thead. My apologies in advance!

A couple of other notes...

I always make extra pouch flaps (around 12-14). This allows me to pick and choose the ones that have better stitching. I am NOT a professional!

For the main belt, I use the same approach as the pouch flaps: 5" wide, 3M spray, folded into itself, makes a 2.5" wide belt.
Ls amazing. What colour and strength is the cotton. I noticed the foot, but what needle did you have to use?
Thanks Adie UK
 
Ls amazing. What colour and strength is the cotton. I noticed the foot, but what needle did you have to use?
Thanks Adie UK

Adie, thanks for the compliment! For the needle, I used a standard denim/leather needle (I don't remember the number), and I used upholstery thread to give the stitches a thicker look.
 
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