Hello there! I have been asked via my instagram account to throw together a WIP/tutorial thread for how I made my bandoleer for my kit. I don't know if I am the best at these as I unfortunately did not take a photo of every single step but I will do my best to explain what I did so that you all can recreate this or a version of this on your own! Alright so now that the introduction is out of the way let us start with the supplies you will need (side note: I am fairly cheap and I try to make my builds as cheaply as possible so there are probably better ways to do this lol)
Supply list: veg tan leather, leather snaps, box cutter, leather punch tool (black tool), snap setter (silver tools), 2 'O' rings, and a leather strip cutter (wooden tool), also a measuring tape (not pictured)
First step: Pick a shoulder and measure the distance from your waist, across your shoulder to the back of your hip. (can be done with a standard tape measure or one you would actually use for measuring cloth/body tapes).
Edit!!!! It has been suggested that measuring this distance with your armor and standard belt rig is best for proper in kit measurements.,which I would agree with. However, if your kit is not yet compete it is always best to add a few inches or so to your final measurement as you can always cut off excess leather but you cannot add leather if it happens to be too short.
One you measure the distance from the front of your hip to the back of your hip going across the shoulder, use your leather cutting tool to evenly cut out the base strap (by that I mean the smaller skinny strap) for your bandoleer: If I remember correctly I chose to cut mine at a width of 1" but in my reference photo it is showing the width I used for the cartridge base holder.
Once you have your under-strap cut get some paper and draw your template for the cartridge holder (here I just taped a few pieces of computer paper together). From there, measure the width of your template and cut slots in the middle of your paper template towards the ends and feed your 1" leather strap through them. This way you can get a feel for sizing. It is way easier and cheaper to do it with paper first than leather in case something doesn't look right or you made your original template too large or too small. I chose to just keep my template a simple long rectangle on the paper version that way I could fiddle with the design once I cut it out of leather but I knew at least the length and width I wanted. Once I was happy with the general length and size of my paper template, I clipped on my aluminum chalk holders to my paper template to figure out where I wanted to place them and marked the general location.
From there, use your leather tool to cut your cartridge holder base. Cut the slots in it just like you did with your paper template and feed your 1" strap through them. I also chose to feed the 1" strap through my two 'O' rings an either end to get a feel for the general look I was going for. As you can see on the bottom of my bandoleer I also added snaps so that I can either choose to attach it to my belt or to my macrobinoculars depending on my mood.
I did this by using 1 'female' snap and 2 'male' snaps to the ends of my 1" strap.
For the macrobinoculars:
For the width of my belt:
Once you have all that figured out, it is time to measure out where to put your cartridges! Again I didn't take complete step by step pictures here to bear with me. What I did was mark on the back of the leather the width I wanted to make the loop strap along the entire length of the leather. I then laid my paper template with the marks from the chalk holders next to the leather and remarked them there. You will want to place the chalk holders (or whatever you will be using) on the leather and then trace the outer edges of each one while leaving a gap between them (this gap will be where the leather will loop). As you can hopefully see in the photo, I marked an 1" space numbered 1 through 6 where the chalk holders will go and have about a 1/4" gap between each one. Using your box cutter or exacto knife, cut, cut your leather on your marked lines.
Now it's time to cut out your leather strap that will hold all your cartridges in place! This is where I probably strayed from the normal as I used the same leather for the cartridge holder as I did from the 2 1/2" base and the 1" base strap. The thickness of the leather made it fairly difficult to weave the cartridge strap in and out of all of those close together slots so to make your life way easier, I would recommend using a thinner leather for this (though that will increase your overall cost). However if you are cheap like me, I just trimmed the thickness of the leather down by hand using the box cutter (drew only a little bit of blooding doing so). When cutting this piece I would recommend cutting it long as you can always trim off excess leather once your weave it through than to have it too short and need to cut another strip. Once you have it cut, weave it through the slots and then insert your cartridges! You are getting close to the end! There could be a better way to attach this to your base but I used the snaps to secure it in place on either end. I think I may just really like the look of them but it is also incredibly easy if you don't want to sew your leather (maybe a little of both? lol)
(If you look closely I am holding paper towel in my hand because I may or may not have cut myself cutting my leather thinner lol)
I also used the same method for the larger cartridge but instead of cutting a separate strap, I secured it in place with my 1" strap.
I also looped this 1" strap so that it weaved in and out of the 'O' ring which secured it in place on either end.
Guess what! You have now completed your bandoleer! Stain that bad boy whatever color your heart desires and you are good to go! Good work vod! You now add your very own bandoleer to your kit. Wear it it with pride!
Hopefully this tutorial is helpful and if any of these steps are confusing feel free to shoot me any questions and I will do my best to answer them!
SUCCESS!!!!!!
