Russia Drill, WHP 100

100% Hemp, 14 oz, 62″ wide

Russia drilling or drill is a stout twilled fabric used to make both military and civilian clothing, usually breeches and trousers, but occasionally coats or jackets. For example in The Virginia Gazette in 1775 “Run away from the Subscriber . . .  a Convict Servant Lad . . .  a Native of London . . .  He had on, and took with him . . .  Russia Drill Breeches”. Hand sewing this project would work well using 35/2 buff linen thread.

Russia drilling had military uses also. Drill was used in summer-weight clothing in the French & Indian War, by New-York’s Provincial Congress, who bought Russia-drilling for the waistcoats and breeches of its four 1775 regiments, and by some British and loyalist regiments in America after 1778 and made by the regimental tailors into breeches, waistcoats, and overalls.