Gluing of badges

[Gary Jucha]

I have seen and heard stories of soldiers gluing their badges to their BD's before having the stiches applied ...
Can anyone actually confirm if this story is correct and lay this question to rest please !

Regards

Gary J.

[leigh kitchen]

I have a post war BD set to a lt of the R. Marines, all the insignia (felt rank pips & woven straight strip titles) are glued but not stitcghed as I remember. But who knows when they were glued & why.

Gluing & stitching WWII period would be a sign of bad tailoring really, would'nt it?

[Gary Jucha]

Agreed

Leigh,
I do agree with you on the point of WW2 "gluing and stitching" ....
..But if anybody has any examples of this which are beyond doubt, I think "we" all would like to see them ..

Regards

Gary J.

[Guy]

Hi Gary and Leigh,

I have owned a few uniforms over the years that showed evidence of the badges being glued in place. I owned an australian BD a couple of years ago that I was certain was a put together. All it had were captains pips and an Army Pilots wing. The edge of the wing showed traces of glue which sort of confirmed my suspicions re it being badged up. I removed the insignia and sure enough the wing had been glued before being stitched. It was only later when speaking to a veteran of the Parachute regiment that he told me this was not uncommon. It held badges securely in the correct place for stitching with not too dexterous hands and on a walking out uniform looked good as no stitching was visible. Bugger

The badges photographed belong with the SAS dress uniform on my site. They were in the pocket in a paper bag when I purchased the set and all came from the same house clearance. Most of the insignia is hand applied (Badly!) but the wing has been glued in place and then tacked at each corner.

Hope this helps, Yours, Guy.

[Guy]

2

[Kevan]

For what its worth I have a damaged and stripped paratroopers BD. It had Captains' pips on the shoulders which had originally been glued on. When I took it to a seamstress to see if she could repair a large rip in it she pointed out another original repair which had been done with a patch glued over a hole. She considered it much more professional than having it sewn on.

[Rikster]

Why not? i used to glue my badges onto my uniform first to hold them in place while I sewed them on, and that was only a few years ago. made perfect sense to me, I am sure it did back then too.
Cheers, Rik