I try to make a coat every year, but this year, I was really stumped as to which one to make. Originally, I’d planned to make the Quart coat from Pauline Alice, but I procrastinated buying wool until it was far too late. One of my least favorite thing about living in Cincinnati is the severe lack of fabric shops. We have Joann’s, quite a few quilting stores, and a few small fabric stores that sell apparel fabric (looking at you, Fiberge), but ZERO big, quality fabric stores. As far as I know, there’s not a single place to buy wool coating in the area! I mean what the fuck, Cincinnati.

So with fabric needs in mind, I settled on the Sewaholic Minoru. My dear friend Amy of That’s Sew Amy made one awhile back, and it’s awesome.  I love that it’s really a good daily wear coat, unlike my houndstooth coat. It also doesn’t hurt that Tasia posted a killer step by step sewalong. While my coat is far from perfect, it’s the most professional looking garment I’ve ever made, and that’s 100% thanks to the sewalong.

I knew I wanted my Minoru to be more of a coat than a jacket, so to make it warmer, I interlined it with snuggle flannel from my stash. I hate snuggle flannel, but it’s warm, so hiding it in inside my coat seemed perfect. I followed Tasia’s recommendation and basted it to my lining fabric. Snuggle flannel is printed on one side and white on the back, so I basted them wrong side to wrong side, as I was afraid the flannel print would show through. If you’d like to see progress shots of that kind of thing, I tend to post it on Instagram. For my main fabric, I used a black twill, with no stretch. All of these fabrics came from Joann, and I can’t find a single one on their website. Sorry! I can tell you the lining is part of their “silky prints” collection, and I swear I’ve seen it there recently.

I made very few changes to the pattern, other than the interlining. I opted to do pearl snaps instead of velcro on the inner pockets, because that’s what I had on hand. Like many others, I also added side seam pockets, because a coat without outer pockets is just silly. I also sized down quite a bit. According to the size chart, I should have cut a size 12, but I went with an 8 instead.  I tried on Amy’s jacket in a size 4, it’s zipped but was a bit too snug, so I took a gamble and cut a straight 8.  Everyone knows I love close fitting garments.  You guys…I didn’t have to add ANY length to the arms. That is unheard of! I think the fit is really good, though I wish I’d shortened the waist a bit. The waist elastic is just a little too low. As mentioned above, I also added a double zip. Totally unintentional, that’s just what I accidentally bought so of course I used it.

Overall, I’m really stoked on this coat. That said…the twill attracts dog hair like nothing else. While it doesn’t wrinkle nearly as badly as I expected, it does look wrinkled in these photos. I’d worn it a few times since finishing it, and it could really do with a good pressing. Whatever, it’s a great coat, I’m even wearing it right now. I’m running out of things to say, but I still have more photos for you guys, so prepare for a boat load of photos below. I do realize Tonks is much much prettier than me or my coat, so feel free to be distracted by her! Happy sewing 🙂