When I fish small streams (like the one behind the house), I always wear camouflage, because the fish can see you against the background. But my favorite style hat is a Driving Cap, and for some reason, there are no camo versions, anywhere. I’ve looked for years, in vain. So the other day, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I took my old tan-colored Wal-Mart Driving Cap, and with some Prismacolor Markers, and about 20 minutes of elbow-grease, I now have a usable camo hat to wear fishing. I have washed it in the machine, and the colors appear to be stable.
I have an old pair of tan Cargo Pants (Dockers), that have a grease stain on them. I will be doing them, next. If that goes well, then my fishing vest will follow…
This is so cool! Now I don’t have to pay those big prices just because something is camouflaged. I can get used stuff at the Goodwill, or yard sales, and camo them myself, for a fraction of the cost (as well as recycling discarded items). And I should be able to do different camo patterns easily. I did the hat in my version of Woodland Camo. I may try Alpenflage on another hat that is gathering dust in the closet.
Thats the way that most of the guys that invent cammo… Realtree, etc got their start. Keep up the good work, maybe we will be reading about Gig-a flage soon!!
That’s a great idea. I have a lot of those hats and have a light colored one I could convert to camo. What color markers did you use, brown, olive, black, tan, etc.?
I couldn’t say from personal experience. (one more diy project and I’ll pull out what’s left of my hair) The claim is that they are permanent. Some can be air brushed. From an ad:
I found some fabric paint at Jo-Anne Fabrics (yes, I also sew and knit…), and they are much easier to work with. I found another old hat and practiced on it. I also fished my old fishing vest back out of the trash (my wife keeps throwing it away…) and practiced on a Swiss Alpenflage-style pattern. Here is the results.
For the Woodland camo, I used Chocolate Brown, Hunter Green and Black, in that order. For the Alpenflage, I used White, Chocolate Brown, Grasshopper, Hunter Green and Black, in that order. The order is important to get the 3D effect (I remember that from my Marine Corps Days).
I washed the hat and vest after 24 hours (in cold water) and dried them in the dryer. The colors did not run or fade. In fact, the colors look even better.
I am going to try it out on the little stream behind the house.
I have several Kangol hats, but I have never seen a camo version. They are wool, and I don’t know how the paint would do on wool. And, as you said, they are a little pricey to paint. My wife would do some serious physical damage to my anatomy if I were to paint one of my Kangol hats…
Walmart has great cotton Driving Caps in several styles (Ivy, Irish, Newsboy, etc…) for just $10.99. I think I’ll get a few of these, paint them, and see if I can sell a few at a Flea market, or one of my gigs. I could use the proceeds to buy more fly-tying and boat stuff.
