Peacoat / Pea coat throat latch pattern

[Father V]

Some time ago, I was looking for a pattern for the detachable throat latch that was a feature of Navy overcoats before & during WWII (including the enlisted peacoat & officer’s bridge coat). These were needed to keep the fold-down collar in the upright position during windy, cold, and rainy weather. As they were detachable, they could be easily lost, and indeed the 1938 bridge coat I bought ended up without one included. I searched in vain for a pattern online (including here). Japanese companies & other reproduction outfits are also producing peacoats in this style, but not offerIng replacement throat latches. Resolving that no one else should go through the hassle of finding one, I talked with a local craftswoman who happened to have trained initially as a pattern maker so many years ago and had her draw up a pattern that people could take to their local tailors/seamstresses to have made. The included scan is the fruit of these labors. She took the dimensions from a kersey throat latch I bought on eBay or Etsy and fits on my bridge coat so the joys of interchangeable parts lives on. Feel free to use it, even for profit. Remember that the throat latch buttons are much smaller than the large visible peacoat buttons. The original pattern was on an 8.5”x 11” piece of paper.
View attachment IMG_2326.jpeg

 

[Doctor Damage]

Here's some photos to help visualization. The first two are from vintage USN peacoats:



The following two are vintage USN bridge coats (note two different styles, plus the latch actually buttoned to the inside of the coat when not in use).

 

[Father V]

I hadn’t realized there were different designs. Cool. The button sizes and distance between them is standardized so the pattern I had made still will function.