Lining

I’ve been working on my house lately. Also, I’ve been making some basic things. I’ve made 4 long-sleeve tshirts and a fleece jacket. But I’m back now and I want to finish writing about my tweed jacket. I love it. I’ve worn it. It is perfect! There are 2 subjects to discuss – lining and finishing. Today, I’m going to describe my method for inserting lining. I am always so pleased with my lining. I always use this method and I recommend it 100%. Here goes:

You might remember that I quilted long lines of topstitching to mount the tweed to the lining. It helped to stabilize the tweed. If I had not done that (and very few fabrics actually need it), I would have started by placing the wrong side of the lining to the wrong side of the fabric. I always start center back. I make columns of diagonal basting stitches starting very close to the top and working down towards the bottom, but stopping a few inches short. Then I add more columns, spacing the columns a few inches apart, until I have probably 5 columns of diagonal basting stitches. I’ve saved some space at the bottom so that I can make the hem. Now I’m sure that the drape of the lining will be correct.

Still working on the back piece, I use a running stitch to mount the seam allowances of the garment to the lining together.

I make sure the running stitch is on the far side of the seam, so that when I go to mount more lining pieces, I will cover these stitches.

The next pieces are the fronts. I use the diagonal basting stitch as I did for the back piece, making columns of stitching starting very near the top and stopping a few inches above the bottom. Then I turn the seam allowance under so that it comes right to the seams. I usually line all the way to the opening edge, so I turned under at the opening edge too. At the collar, I can use a running stitch because later I will cover it up. But on the side seams, shoulder seam and front edge, it is the final layer, so I use a blind stitch. Small stitch – 6 to 8 stitches per inch. I don’t want to see any gaps between stitches.

Next, I do the collar, using the same method. And this will be the final layer, so the blind stitch is the best stitch to use. These next photos show the process of mounting lining, using the collar as an example.

Next are the sleeves. I started with the diagonal basting stitch again, followed by the mounting to the seam allowances. Then I did a blind stitch at the shoulder.

Lastly are the jacket and sleeve hems. I turn under a seam allowance and pin that to the edge of the turned under hem. Then I make sure that the hem will not hang out of the jacket by finger pressing the hem down. I trim off some length if needed because I want the lining to fall about 1/2 inch short of the garment hemline.

First I sewed the lining at the garment hem. Then I folded it down and sewed the front edge. I continued with the blind stitch.

I look at all of these steps and it seems complicated and involved. Honestly, I enjoyed the heck out of it. Yes, it’s a lot of hand sewing. And yes, it takes a while to do. But this fabric was so easy to sew that when I finished, I was looking for where I needed to sew next and when I couldn’t find anything more to sew, I was surprised. It was a pleasure all the way.

More to come – finishing.