When I was in college the only fabric stores I had to choose from were JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics. Several times during college I made the three hour drive to Minneapolis to visit SR Harris fabric warehouse.
This store is amazing! The 30,000 square foot warehouse located in Brooklyn Park, MN is packed from floor to ceiling with fabrics. They offer a lot of cottons for quilting as well as upholstery fabrics and filling. So while their selection of apparel fabrics is smaller, they have a great selection to choose from.
On a recent trip to Minneapolis I picked up a Tahari black wool fabric with a green floral pattern for $24.99/yd. The unique part about SR Harris is that at their warehouse location, you can cut your own fabrics. So I cut 3 yards to take home with me to New York.
Inspiration struck and I chose to make McCall's pattern #M7848 view C - a medium-length coat with a high collar and full-length center front metal zipper. I chose this coat in particular because it is fully lined and included pockets!
The coat also features princess seams on the bodice and skirt, side seam pockets, standing collar, ~30" metal zipper, and full lining. For the lining I used a lightweight woven black fabric.
The collar is interfaced but I chose to use interfacing for both the collar and facing to ensure that the collar would stand straight with this heaver-weight fabric.
Originally I had cut out a longer skirt with the view "C" skirt pattern. However, with the print and emerald color the full-length coat looked a little theatrical. While I love Wizard of Oz and Wicked, I was not planning on visiting the Emerald City anytime soon; so I decided to cut 11" off.
The end result is a much more spring-appropriate and effortless accent coat:
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