Unbleached Drilling Linen, WLG 162

100% Linen, 7 oz, 61″ Wide

Drilling or drill is a stout twilled unbleached linen used to make military and men’s civilian clothing, usually breeches and trousers, but occasionally coats, waistcoats and jackets. For example in The Virginia Gazette in 1775 “RUN away . . .  a Convict . . .  a Barber by Trade . . .  had on, and took with him . . .  one Pair of new Drilling Breeches”. Hand sewing this project would work well using 35/2 unbleached linen thread.

In the military, drill was used in summer-weight clothing in the French & Indian War, by New-York’s Provincial Congress, who bought 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. If this fabric is not exactly what you are looking for you might consider the similar but heavier hemp linen ticking or Russia drill.