Hallo guys. i recently bought a M 41 field jacket with quite heavy wear on collar. there is a rip of about 3-4 inches along the mid of the collar and a pair of holes. furthermore sleeves have usual wear and have to be stitch along the whole edge. i ask u if u know how i should repair the collar, cause i don t wanna risk the holes to keep ripping.

Thanks a lot for ur help guys!
unfortunately have no cam to take a picture of damages..but i hope u can still look at the pictures on the website wherefrom i bought the jacket.

here's the link:

http://44thcollectorsavenue.com/Militaria/WWII/US/Uniforms/US2-U-000002.html

 

This kind of wear is very common on used OD field jackets. I once had one with similar wear on the collar. To rectify and stabilise it, I had a piece of fabric from junked field jacket which I had neatly machine-stitched over the collar fold, like a long, narrow patch. I also have one on which the collar damage has been over-sewn by a zig-zag machine stitching to reinforce it...this is an old original repair. Finally, another alternative which I've seen done is for the collar to be carefully removed and flipped over. The only problem with this is that the undamaged underside is usually a slightly different colour, being less faded. Also, it has additional stitching. That pretty much covers your available options.

Examples of over-stitching to repair tears on an OD field jacket.

 

thanks a lot for ur hints sabrejet!!!

Britannia rules the waves! :-)

Hello,

 

IMO you are going to spend a lot of money and time in vain. The repairs won't upgrade the quality and value of your jacket, quite the contrary.

You'd better leave it as it is and get a better one in the future with the money you'll save.

My 2 cents.

 

Dan.