Trip to History In the Making

At the beginning of this project I was really struggling to find research on WWI army trousers. Especially the waistband of the trousers because most historical photographs are more formal and usually include the jacket. I was able to find some good pattern examples and had found a great photograph of the back of trousers so I knew I was going to do a fish-tail back but I was unsure about the pockets and the fastenings on the front. To gain some more insight I traveled to History in the Making: Historical Reconstruction Specialists in Portsmouth. They are a costume hire house that specializes in historical recreations, with a large section devoted to the military. For more information on History in the Making here is their website: http://www.history-making.com/

I was very lucky to get the opportunity to enhance my research and technical understanding of WWI trousers by looking at a recreated pair in a professional hire house. I was shown around by one of the owners Hamish who took me to the WWI section. With his guidance I was able to look through their stock and pick out a pair that would fit the rank of the character of Soldier. I also got to look at costumes for higher ranking officers as well as an original WWI jacket. Once selected I sat down with the trousers to take numerous photographs, notes and measurements. Here are just a few of the photos I took:

This is just a small sampling of the pictures that I took. I started from the outside taking photographs then flipped them inside out to look at how they were constructed and to take photographs. This is where I started making measurements. Some of the things I measured that I felt might be useful when I make my pair were: seam allowances, size of cotton waist-band lining, pocket length, location of buttons, fly front size and length, location of top-stitching, button hole size and hem size. 

Evaluation: By taking measurements and taking time to look at each component I feel I better understand how the trousers will be/could be put together. There may be some differences between this historically made pair and my costumed pair but with the knowledge of how the historical pair was made, as my base, I can build and alter to fit my character. This was also a chance to see the level of work put into this pair in a professional setting and has given me good idea of the level to which I have to work in a setting like History in the Making. 

All images have been taken by me first hand but here is also a citation for History in the Making:

History in the Making. (2011). Historical Reconstruction Specialists. Research re-created WW1 trousers. 13^th October.