LEARN TO SEW

The single best piece of advice I can (and do) give to someone who wants to learn how to sew to make gear is to check out LearnMYOG. Tim from LearnMYOG has a "Zero to Hero" guide which tells you everything you need to know to get started, from sewing machine considerations, to which thread and fabric to use, and even offers a handful of free patterns and instructions for perfect beginner projects. While the projects and technical fabric recommendations are more oriented towards lightweight outdoor gear, the basic sewing skills you will learn from these projects are indispensable. 

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If you know how to use Google, you can learn how to sew. I know because that's what I did. For any question you have, someone's grandma probably made a Youtube video explaining it 15 years ago. There are countless super friendly and helpful people on the internet who are happy to answer your questions and help you out if you get stuck. I recommend checking out r/MYOG (which has its own beginner guide) and r/MYOGtacticalgear on Reddit as helpful resources. Just keep this advice from commenter "featurekreep" in mind:

 

"Ask very targeted, specific questions. If you say "I'm having a problem with X, how do I do it better?" you will probably get lots of helpful responses. If you come in hot with "how do I do (everything)?" you will come across as someone that just wants to skip all the hard work it takes to learn a new thing."

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95% of the information is already out there for those who want to find it. But feel free to reach out to if you have any questions about the other 5%. I am eternally grateful for the resources and the people who helped me on my journey and am always happy to pay it forward in any way I can.