So...
Veering wildly away from my condemnation of low quality, foreign made gear...
My buddy bought an old Blackhawk minimalist "Low Vis" plate carrier. His idea was to drape an alice harness over it, which isn't entirely without merit, but I thought I'd try to add some functionality to it. I did learn that I can't sew a straight line to save my life, and perhaps I'll improve upon that with practice.
The modifications I made would have been easier on my little sewing machine if I'd cut the stitching holding the front and back of the plate bag together. As it was, I had to bunch up the rest of carrier to get the presser foot where I wanted the stitching and it made straight lines very challenging.
I first had to remove the 1.5" straps going around the middle. These are, I think, way less useful for holding two 5+lb plates than an elastic band, so I slapped a panel of loop closure on the belly and lower back of the carrier to allow for a simple 4" elastic cummerbund. I had a spare elastic cummerbund from Arbor Arms for this project, but I may try my hand at sewing one some time, if I can find 4" elastic band in multicam for sale. I was getting the hang of this sewing machine and did some of the ugliest sewing you've ever seen.
Then I took some 1" webbing and sewed a few inches on each side to hang a swiftclip from.
Seeing how appalling the sewing on the panel on the back was, I sewed a "curtain" over it, just a rectangular panel with hook closure on the back and sewed to the plate bag across the top. I also switched to a dark brown thread instead of tan. The thread is some heavy duty upholstery type.
The swiftclips and the front panel cover up the worst of my work on the front, and my friend has about $28 into it so he's not sweating it. I might get some cordura and try sewing my own plate bags.
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