I want to make myself a pair over shorts, my last lot have gone through at the arse. Are the myriad of army surplus options on eBay all much of a muchness? What about the ones with braces? That’s a useful feature on some standard shorts I have.

Your experience is appreciated. 👍

I have had a pair of these and have been great!

https://www.britishmilitarysurplus.co.uk/shop/trousers/british-army-dpm-waterproof-mvp-1122244.html

I bought a pair of RAF surplus from ebay 3 weeks ago. £19 quid. Zip to flare out base of legs for on and off over shoes. Navy rather than camo which I preferred.
Originial plan was to make shorts but have borrowed my mums sewing machine and tapered the legs from the knee down similar to most other riding trousers. Only tried them once so far it was a disgusting day so they were great. Going to try them as riding waterproof trousers for the winter. I suspect i will eventually decide they’re too hot and they will be turned into waterproof shorts at some point.

I use a pair of 2 quid clip on braces with them too this helps massively with keeping them in place.

Got the same, took a pair of scissors to them to make shorts. That could well have been almost a decade ago now, they’re still waterproof.

I don’t actually wash mine very often just leave them to dry out in the garage until the next time the weather looks minging.

One think I keep intending to do is buy some braces for them to try and keep them up, the fit is a little odd (YMMV) and I find I have to pull the waistband halfway up my torso and pull the draw-cord quite tight and they’ll still slowly work their way down occasionally leaving you with a baggy crotch that can catch a saddle if you’re not careful…

And yes, DPM shorts do look a bit ‘special’ at least until covered in mud…

If for riding, you want a set that have over-the-shoulder braces built in (or use a separate pair of braces).

I have a spare set of full-length, genuine GoreTex, olive green army trousers in a Large size if you want them for £15 posted? I bought 2 pairs years ago, cut one pair down to use as shorts, thinking I’d maybe need a 2nd pair, but the original ones are still going strong so the 2nd pair are surplus (no pun intended). 🙂

Can send pics if you PM me.

Yep i must cut mine down too or something as can be a bit flappy.

How do folk find that these sizing up?

As they are meant as over trousers do you buy as per waist size?

Equally could you size down if you were wearing them over say bibs?

Thanks for the info gents, really very helpful.

@Digger90 – large will be too big on me I think.

@letmetalktomark – also very good questions!

@tthew – no worries

@letmetalktomark – You wear them as over trousers, so need to account for whatever you’re wearing underneath.

My ex-MOD camo gore-tex trousers have side zips that go all the way up to the waist band so don’t lend themselves to being cut down.

I have both the army camo and raf blue. The army ones are a lot baggier and I find the crotch catches on the saddle which is annoying. The raf ones were a much better fit.

I’ve got the RAF ones and they size up fairly reasonable. It shortened them with a scissors and then made a hem with the iron-in hem glue tape stuff.

TBH – they are cheap – and very waterproof. But the fabic is ‘stiff’ and noisy. I only use them for filthy warm days. Also – the ‘pockets’ on mine are actually just cut outs designed to allow access to the pockets on whatever is worn underneath. I made that mistake once or twice.

I got some navy ones from eBay. surplusandsupplies. Very flappy on my chicken legs so up to mums and after cutting them down and narrowing with sewing machine I got some iron on waterproof tape to tape seams. Excellent in wet and with knee length seal skinz last winter stayed dry