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Re: Patches
Remember also that fabric worn enough to hole through needs reinforced for some distance from the hole, meaning that a patch applied from the front would need to be quite large. A repair on the inside of a garment could be much more substantial.
Where to get patches might be another matter. As Bob Sandusky pointed out, exchanging clothing with a corpse would probably solve the problem without use of patches, morbid as it might seem to a 21st-century mind.
While I have never cut up a uniform to perform field patches, I have ripped up a lot of modern clothing to make quilts, which gives me some idea of wear patterns. A single ruined pair of pants (no seat at all, nothing left worth patching), about t be discarded by someone who had acquired others by any imaginable means, could supply a number of patches for less worn garments. The lower legs of pants hardly ever wear through. They would be apt to have picked up mud stain to some degree, and fading might not be uniform, but they would be close enough to the same color and weight of fabric to serve the purpose.
Jackets, greatcoats and other upper garments would be more likely to fray at collar and cuffs, wear through at the elbows, and let go at the shoulder seams and underarms (I am curious; if you handle a rifle regularly in the field, do you see more wear on the right shoulder and underarm?) I would expect powder stains and burns on the right side and wear where the rifle is shouldered, as well as knapsack strap wear. From the old jackets and coats I've dismantled over the years, I'd say the back, left chest area, and skirt (on a frock) would be the best source of patches. In fact, although I don't have the material in front of me at the moment, I recall someone posted an account of Sherman's troops in the Carolinas in which one man said not a greatcoat cape or the skirt of a frock was left, all having been used to put seats in worn-out pants.
The really fussy among us :) may choose to set their patches with thread pulled from the edge of the patch piece, so as to be sure of a better blend. With a little practice, you can learn to reweave tiny holes. If you've ever rewoven even a small part of a woolen garment, you know what a pain it is, but it does produce a neat result if the hole is very small and the fabric around it relatively good (cinder burns, small tears, etc.).
Remember also that fabric worn enough to hole through needs reinforced for some distance from the hole, meaning that a patch applied from the front would need to be quite large. A repair on the inside of a garment could be much more substantial.
Where to get patches might be another matter. As Bob Sandusky pointed out, exchanging clothing with a corpse would probably solve the problem without use of patches, morbid as it might seem to a 21st-century mind.
While I have never cut up a uniform to perform field patches, I have ripped up a lot of modern clothing to make quilts, which gives me some idea of wear patterns. A single ruined pair of pants (no seat at all, nothing left worth patching), about t be discarded by someone who had acquired others by any imaginable means, could supply a number of patches for less worn garments. The lower legs of pants hardly ever wear through. They would be apt to have picked up mud stain to some degree, and fading might not be uniform, but they would be close enough to the same color and weight of fabric to serve the purpose.
Jackets, greatcoats and other upper garments would be more likely to fray at collar and cuffs, wear through at the elbows, and let go at the shoulder seams and underarms (I am curious; if you handle a rifle regularly in the field, do you see more wear on the right shoulder and underarm?) I would expect powder stains and burns on the right side and wear where the rifle is shouldered, as well as knapsack strap wear. From the old jackets and coats I've dismantled over the years, I'd say the back, left chest area, and skirt (on a frock) would be the best source of patches. In fact, although I don't have the material in front of me at the moment, I recall someone posted an account of Sherman's troops in the Carolinas in which one man said not a greatcoat cape or the skirt of a frock was left, all having been used to put seats in worn-out pants.
The really fussy among us :) may choose to set their patches with thread pulled from the edge of the patch piece, so as to be sure of a better blend. With a little practice, you can learn to reweave tiny holes. If you've ever rewoven even a small part of a woolen garment, you know what a pain it is, but it does produce a neat result if the hole is very small and the fabric around it relatively good (cinder burns, small tears, etc.).
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