What to wear under there

So I was looking at an image in my German Binder which I have renamed "The Bible" , and there was an image of a landsknecht with his hosen tied on from Osprey's Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560. This image looked very much like a guy wearing Boxers Briefs with Hosen attached...Of course instead of where there would be a fly opening, there was a codpiece.

Well if it looks like a pair of boxer briefs, and it has the same function as boxer briefs....maybe just maybe IT is a pair of medieval boxer briefs.

I passed this idea on to Lukas, and he agreed with my assumption, and mentioned that we should try it out.

Well what better way in my opinion to draft period boxer briefs then by using real boxer briefs. I took a clean pair of Lukas's undies, and cut them up (I guess at this point, everyone knows what kind of underwear my boyfriend wears.)

Here is a picture of the once modern undies, in the basic modern undy shape.


I cut the undies up to where I would have 3 pieces, a front piece/leg, a crotch piece, and then another leg piece. Here are the odd little shapes I got.



This is the Front piece with the attached undercodpiece thingy..that's the technical name for it. This piece covers his front, and the one leg. The codpiece will go over the front opening.

This 2nd piece covers the back area as well as the under crotch area.

This final piece is the other leg.

I then copied the pattern pieces on some Black Linen ON THE BIAS and added a 1 inch seam allowance. Here is a picture (sorry about the quality) of the fabric right before I was to cut it out.

Now the reason I put it on the bias, is because modern underwear has stretch or knit in it, and Linen does not. However, I assumed that if I combined the give of the bias, with an additional inch seam allowance, that my new undies would fit.

I sewed them up, and started to fit them on Lukas. To be honest, I sewed some of it, forgot how it went together, then continued to sew it some more. We did this about 5 or 6 times, to get a good fit.

I thought that I didn't add enough seam allowance, however Lukas thought they felt good. I made him wear them around for a while. He said he liked them but....wants me to add 1-2 inches at the waistband to help keep them stay up...Which I agree with. I will therefore seam rip this pair and trace a pattern.

When it comes to actually wearing them, I will put in holes that will match the holes in the over hosen and the doublet, and all will tie together. Very period :-) and one asks....what if he must use the restroom...well that's why they invented the codpiece.

My goal is to make him 2-3 pair of these unterhosen (underhosen) in which he can attach his hose to. He will be able to mix and match the color hose he wears. Then he will wear his hosen over his hose :-) Each pair of the unterhosen takes 1-2 yards cut on the bias.