Trews - in search of a pattern

“A Scots Highlander Dragoone?! What do they wear?” This was a conversation with my husband more than 4 years ago, after we had booked to go for the first time to a 4 yearly event in Memmingen in Germany. Until then, our re-enacting life was restricted to The Sealed Knot, an English Civil War society with relatively lax rules on authenticity of re-enactors’ clothing mainly involving breeches, soldier’s coat and shirt. The trip to Germany was with a group called Mackay’s Regiment, a Scots regiment with much higher expectations on clothing standards and also requiring either Highland or Lowland kit for the men. “The men” in this case being my husband, David, and son, Laurie.

Following the recommendations and suggestions from the regiment (always consult those first as the current philosophy and “look” of a re-enactment group can be much more important than true authenticity that stands out and looks odd!), we started to research trews, a form of tight fitting trouser used by Highland men who needed to ride horses and not too dissimilar to the close fitting hose of the 15th and 16th century. Often they were made of checked or “tartaned” cloth in garish colours. Along the way we also researched other aspects of our outfits, including arisaids, the plaid (checked wool) blankets worn by Scottish women against the wishes of the church and government - but that is another blog post entirely!

Bog bodies with no bodies

In 1956, a farmer near Dungiven, Co Derry, discovered some items of apperel buried in the peat that was being cut on his land. In other places, skeletons and even reserved bodies have been found in bogs and then been identified as centuries old. The investigation carried out by Audrey Henshall and others, found that in this case there was no body but instead a collection of very varied clothing and shoes that all seemed to date from around the 17th Century. The clothing did not appear to be “a suit of clothes” but instead a collection of larger items already ragged when they became submerged in a peaty ditch - perhaps the stock of a seller of second-hand clothes?

One of the items in the set was a pair of trews. They are similar to others found in Scotland and Ireland dating from the early 17th Century, but what was so special about these that made us want to try making them? It was the conclusion of the investigators about how they had been cut from the tartan cloth in an extremely efficient way!

Normally when making close fitting hose, the costume books all say “lay the leg pattern across your fabric along the bias to get the required stretch”. This uses a huge amount of fabric and produces a huge amount of waste material. Anyone who has bought tartan fabric in the last few hundred years can tell you that it is expensive. So, anything that showed a 17th Century tailor using their design skills to conserve fabric and be efficient, sounded like a plan to us.

The sketch below is from the paper published in 1961/2 in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Third Series, Vol. 24/25 (1961/1962), pp. 119-142 by Audrey S. Henshall, Wilfred A. Seaby, A. T. Lucas, A. G. Smith and Arnold Connor. It shows the pattern of seams around the legs and hips that are reflected in other finds from the 17th century in Scotland and Ireland.

Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency

So why did we find this information so fascinating over the other trews that existed and commercial patterns from the various companies out there? Probably because we are hard-headed and like to do things the hard way, but also because the original trews were made of a slightly irregular fabric weave and so well preserved that the investigating academics were able to determine how the pieces had been cut from the original bolt of fabric! You could almost hear the sound of the original tailor’s shears - well OK, that is going too far, but it answered so many efficiency concerns about making hose/trews/etc on the bias.

The found material had been immersed in peaty water and bog for over 300 years but the investigators could see 4 colours in the fabric - red, green, dark brown and yellow/orange. I like to think that it might originally have looked very bright and garish against other colour choices of the time. The fabric was also clearly a fine regular 2/2 twill with considerable felting on both sides. The red twill showed a distinctive herringbone reversal that the other colours did not and this allowed not only colour matching but also direction matching of the pieces. From this, the investigators determined the order in which the pieces of the trews had been laid in the original flat fabric - that is to say the cutting order. the sketch below also comes form the original paper cited above.

The surviving trews were not complete, but they were a lot more complete than others from the period and it was possible for the investigators to guess at the shapes of the full trews. There was one sad exception - there was no clue as to how the trews closed over the crotch at the front. That would make rather a spectacle and not of the kind wanted by the Memmingen event organisers, I suspect. We looked at other sources for how trews normally closed and decided that a “cod flap” was probably the best option. This is not the flat buttoned front of the 18th Century but more akin to a flattened version of the cod piece from the 16th Century and in fact cod flaps had been in use prior to that too. We had no specific design for a cod flap, so experimented using various items and information and a human model (David). In fact the cod flap is almost always hidden behind a sporran for the 17th century Highland troops in any case, so comfort and good fit were key considerations here.

It’s so garish!

When choosing the fabric, we referred back again to the Mackay’s regiment preference, which is for muted and restrained tartan colours, not the reds and yellows of the original Dungiven Trews. Laying out the pieces exactly as the original, we had a little more wastage as our cloth was from a wider loom, but it gave that classic diamond shape down the front of the leg and gave a leg shape that was both very fitted and flexible enough to move and walk in with no problems. The fabric we choose was heavily felted on both sides but turned out to be too soft a spin/weave to stand up to the rigours of marching long distances as it rubbed through at the top of the thigh quite quickly. However, all of the hand stitched seams stood up to the stress and strain of long hours of wear, both in camp and out of it.

One of the other design challenges we faced on getting the pattern right, was just how baggy does the seat area need to be. The original academic description says “The trews consist of a pair of legs, reaching from instep to hip, and set into a bag-shaped body”. So what is a bag-shaped body and just how baggy? It needs to stretch over the backside when sitting down but not allow the trews to sink to the ground when standing. To stop the latter, two devises were employed in the 17th century - a belt through a belt channel at the top and trews garters between the knee and the calf muscle. (see above). In the end we went for medium baggy, how boring. The photo below shows the seat when standing - it is not too much larger than the body in it but with a small amount of give for sitting and movement. David says “They are really comfortable - because they are cut on the bias, when I sit down they stretch with me and when I stand up, they conform to my shape again.”

Finally, a note on keeping the lower leg straight and well fitted. The original trews had a some limited evidence of a strap under each foot. This reflects the findings in the other similar trews. So we put a strap of the same fabric in the instep of each foot. The foot is cut in an odd way anyway, with an arch over the top of the foot that brings the side of the leg down the side of the foot into the boot. The bottom of the back of the leg comes down to the back of the heel, so adding the strap is a really obvious thing to do, otherwise the shoe would push the leg up past the ankle. Since it passes under the instep and is held in place by the position of the shape of the leg bottom, its presence is only an issue for those with very flat feet. It does, however, perform its intended function of holding the bottom of the leg straight very well.

To order a pair of trews, have a look at the 17th century men’s and soldier’s page of this website. If you would prefer a made to measure pattern so you can make your own, then please get in touch as that can also be done.