Finishing Details of Richmond Depot Trowsers

[cpinkhaminsc]

Hello all, I just purchased a nice pair of jeans Richmond Depot style trowsers for the Chicamauga event, and need to shorten them considerably. Should the bottom (cuff) be simply turned under and hemmed? Being jeans, the unfinished raw edges in the leg seams will quickly unravel, should they be flat felled or French felled to preserve them?
I appreciate your help,
Charles Pinkham, Company D, Minnesota First

[CJDaley]

Re: Finishing Details of Richmond Depot Trowsers

As long as you're altering them, why would you need to reproduce them exactly how they were issued at the Richmond Clothing Bureau? If they were made to length and a soldier saw fit to alter them in camp, the alteration would be up to the soldiers discretion.

For an alternative hemming option, please take a gander at some of the images from a pair of CS trowsers in the Gettysburg museum. In these pictures you can see there is cotton lining which goes up a few inches or so from the cuff, plus there is a seperate farbic facing piece for the cuff and the top of the facing piece is raw edged.