DIY Camping gear - stuff sacks

So far I have made trail running sandals, an alcohol stove from beer cans, and a pot cozy. Today I continued my DIY adventures with the Yama Mountain Gear stuff sack kit. This year I will be going on my first backpacking trip and realized that I needed to pick up a few more stuff sacks of various sizes in order to pack for it. Instead of buying more ultraSil packs I decided to give the DIY cuben fiber sacks a try. In general I really liked the experience and results from this kit. I enjoyed making them, and after the first couple the process really started to work itself out for me. I think that the building was fairly straight forward, however the execution takes a bit of practice to do well. I used the first layout that they provide to mark out the sacks to make. In the end I found that they were all a bit smaller in size than I was imagining due to comparing the sizes to the commercially available ones. I think that a more useful first set of sacks would be provided with the third layout that they suggest. While they are easy to put together with the instructions online, the important thing is how they compare to other stuff sacks in design and price. First, being cuben fiber they are light, really light. I do not have a scale, but a bunch of them feel lighter than my standard silnylon sack. The lack of stitching and natural hydrophobicity of cuben is nice to keep water out of my gear, however the design of the DIY ones leaves an opening where the drawstrings enter their channel which is larger than the commercial offerings. This is likely not to be a major issue since my gear will go into a trash bag in inclement weather, it is still nice to have that extra security. The other major difference to the ultraSil sacks is the DIY ones are flat bottom instead of having a round bottom. Other than that the resultant bags seem really nice. As a quick price comparison I was able to make the 6 suggested stuff sacks plus a micro pocket sized one with the kit materials. The kit price was $35, and in comparison small cuben fiber stuff sacks range from $10-18 each, and ultraSil is $10. So from that stand point this was a clear win (I disregard the cost of my time here as I enjoy the process of making stuff). The real test will be this summer when I find out how long they last. I look forward to wearing them out and knowing that I can easily replace with more homemade stuff sacks.