cool now about the putees... how do you put those on CORRECTLY, i tried but im pretty sure i did it wrong in some small way
Different units wrapped their puttees in different ways and old pictures show some very complicated looking wraps. For a basic infantry impression they are wrapped from ankle to upper calf.
First you need to roll up each puttee so that the tape is on the inside.
Grab the bottom of your trousers (pants) on each side of the ankle, pull them up so that the hem sits on top of your boot.
Now pull the material tight to each side and fold the material towards your heel. You should now be able to keep these folds in place with one hand.
With the other hand, take your rolled puttee and hold the end under your thumb or finger at the inside of the ankle. Unroll the puttee one and a half times around your ankle - for the right leg you should unroll the puttee clockwise, for the left leg anticlockwise.
This should be enough for you to let go of your pant leg without losing those folds you made.
The puttee is now unwrapped around your leg. Start by going down over the top of the boot so only five pairs of lace holes are visible, then work your way up your calf making sure to keep good tension all the way without cutting off any blood supply. It should finish up a couple of inches below your knee.
In an ideal world the pointed end of each puttee should rest on the outside of your upper calf pointing backwards. If it's on the outside of the calf pointing forward then you have unwrapped the wrong way round and will have to start all over again.
Sometimes the end of the puttee will end up inside your calf or to the front or the back. Unless your unit is parading in front of the King, don't obsess about getting perfect symmetry. Period pictures show that real soldiers didn't worry about that sort of stuff so you don't have to either
Finally, wrap the tape around your calf a couple of times, then tuck the last few inches over and under the tape at the point where it's sewn to the puttee (wherever that may be) until you have about an inch of tape left. Tuck this last bit under the end of the puttee to hide it
DO NOT tie any sort of knot. If the tape is tied and tucked correctly they won't unwrap themselves but if the tape gets wet you'll have a helluva job unpicking a knot.
There are lots of other ways to wrap puttees but this is the only method I know of that you can do on your own as it doesn't require having a third or fourth hand.
For a smart look you want to avoid having the puttees gaping anywhere along your calf. How well this works depends on the shape of your calf and the elasticity of the wool your puttees are made of. One solution is to soak them in warm water for a couple of minutes before wrapping and allowing them to fully dry whilst on your legs. Doing this will make the puttees slightly curved, so the same puttee must always go onto the same leg in future.
Hope this helps
