Has anyone ever made there own camo? i don't mean a ghille suit or wearing flannel. I like the open patterns like predator and ASAT and was reading a old copy of traditional bowhunter the other day and came across a article about camo and the African wild dogs camo. i read this months ago and just starting thinking about it. i was considering taking an old pair of khaki pants and a paint brush and putting about two or three big slashes of paint across them in hunter green or brown. Has anyone ever done this?

i am worried that
1 the paint will smell bad.
2 it will wash off easily when washed
3 the paint will be reflective or show up badly with uv brighteners... if that is real.
thoughts???
thanks guys

Rit die works quite well to do exactly what your talking about
I have used it to make my own camo in the past and it worked very well .   The tan car harts with black and darn green RIT die and I even did a few white shirts "tie died" with brown, black and green.  Actually a pretty effective camo pattern.    I used the sponge paint brush and RIT to make my own camo pattern on an old faded carhart jacket and pair of overalls, was very effective.

You can usually find RIT die in the laundry soap isle at walmart.   It also works pretty well to stain your wood arrow different colors too when mixed with alcohol.

Yes.  Don't use paints, use fabric dyes.  Go to the fabric store.  They have a very wide variety.  I have used army desert camo and then brushed black and gray lines on them.

Did a set for a Texas hunt a few years back with tan t shirts and cargo pants and a handful of dye pens from the craft store.  They faded enough over three or four season that I don't use them anymore, but they worked great and let me pick a quiet fabric in the weight I wanted.

Quite a few years back I took a pair of jeans and splashed them with bleach. Looked real good until the third washing. The cotton fell appart where an excess of bleach had been. I threw them out because of all the holes. Sometimes I wonder if someone dug them out of the trash and started the whole ripped and holy jean thing! LOL "I could 'a been somebody!"

believe it or not Chuck Adams did a article alot of years ago on making camo by tie dieing his clothes,  but that was before he did the slam !!! LOL

Way back when I was broke and couldn't afford camo my brother & I made our own ASAT version. We took white sweat suits and dyed them tan(Rit)and then spray painted random white blotches and then made stencils out of construction paper like the ASAT design and spray painted those with black and dark brown. Looked great! yes it fades and yes it stinks like paint until you wash it a few times but we sure killed a lot of animals wearing it. This was 25+ years ago. You could do the same thing but instead of paint use dyes and blot it on with something.

My daughter tie died some white t shirts for me they turned out great!

I used rit dies on a pair of yellow sweat pants. They came out a little brighter than I wanted, but in the early season, they fit right in.

I put the die in a spray bottle and went to town.

I have a faded cammo hoodie that I might use some left over flat forest green latex paint to "freshen up".

I have used Rit dye and boot and shoe dye (with the sponge aplicator) and it works well.

white coveralls and spray paint, 1987 era

Dude you look like Freddy Mercury in that pic...LOL

I've used spray paint, wood stain, Magic markers. The sky is the limit.

Use Your imagination and show us pictures when Your done.

I do this often.  I'll hit the GoodWill and find khaki's or use cotton camo that's faded and lost it's contrast.  I use stenciled patterns I've cut from card stock and black exterior spray paint.  When it's dried, I'll wash them and the stark color fades to a mute black.
I'll do this before turkey season if a pair needs it.  By the time deer season rolls around, they've been washed several times don't smell at all.
The pic isn't great, but I have a pair on here, and have touched up my hat: