Woolen Mill Coats

This story should be of interest to all who wear coats! In about 1960, when the Merrill Woolen Mills was still in operation, we spent a lot of time there. Our mother had taught us all to sew, and at times the Merrill Woolen Mills had a fantastic sale, so we'd pick up bundles of wool yard goods, from which we could make all sorts of things. One thing that was popular in our family was the "bundle skirt". I believe we all made one. Since the style of skirts does not change that much, some of us are still wearing our "bundle" skirts, as we called them.

But this story is to be about coats, -not skirts. On one of our trips to Merrill, one of us discovered that they had wool plaid three-quarter length coats on sale for $l5.00. Since we always copy each other, we all made a trip to Merrill to purchase a coat. Seven of us ended up with a wool coat. One of the seven was our mother, and two were nieces. These coats lasted a long time, and some are still in existence. I later bought some material that matched mine to make a skirt. My coat is long over hill and dale, but the skirt material is safe and sound in my cedar chest, still waiting to be made.