Learning to Sew—Lining pants and skirts (part III)

Sometimes skirts and pants have darts and other details that may seem to make inserting a lining difficult. Here some pointers to help you handle the details:

1. Linings don’t have darts because this would add bulk and bulges to the finished garment. Make your darts in the skirt or pair of pants as usual. Press the darts to the center front or center back of the garment. Sew the lining side seams and insert the two garments together, wrong sides facing; match the dart markings of the lining to the garment darts. Fold and pin tucks at the dart marking to take out excess fabric. To reduce bulk, remember to press your lining tucks in the opposite direction from the garment darts.

2. Sometimes you will have gathers to deal with, rather than darts. As I mentioned before, with a heavily gathered skirt it is best to use a simple pattern with few gathers for the lining. When your pattern is lightly gathered, you can use the same pattern for the lining. Before you gather the skirt, put the lining over the it, wrong sides together; machine baste at the waistline seam. Now, stitch your two lines of gathering stitches through both layers and pull up the thread ends as usual to gather the fabric. Match seams and markings with the waistband. Evenly distribute the gathers. Pin baste, machine baste, or hand baste the skirt/lining to the waistband. Sew in place and finish as usual.

3. Pleat-front pants or skirts are handled differently. You will put the pleats in the lining as well as the garment. This means you should separately machine baste the garment pleats and the lining pleats. Press the garment pleats as instructed in your pattern and press the lining pleats in the opposite direction. Slip the lining over the skirt or into the pants, wrong sides together and machine baste at the waistband. Attach the waistband as usual.

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Learning to Sew—Lining pants and skirts (part II)

Lining a skirt or pair of pants is easy, but there are few tricks that will help you create a professional lining.

Basic steps to inserting a skirt lining

1. After you have sewn all the skirt seams except for attaching the waistband, sew your lining together at the sides. Leave the seam open at a zipper and press it open. Now slip your lining over the skirt with the wrong sides together. Match the seams. At the waist seamline, machine baste the skirt and lining together. At the zipper edge fold the lining under.

2. Pin the lining to the zipper tape and slipstitch it in place. This is very important, because you don’t want your lining to be caught in the zipper.

3. Now apply the skirt waistband as instructed in your pattern. Finish the garment by hemming the skirt and hemming the lining so that it is an inch shorter than the skirt.

You can hem the lining either by hand or by machine depending on the look you want. The same goes for the skirt itself.

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Learning to Sew—Lining skirts or pants (part I)

Linings can make pants and skirts fit better and feel more comfortable against your skin. Most patterns for pants and skirts do not have a pattern for a lining, but linings are easy to cut using the same pattern pieces as the garment. Here are some tips to make well-fitting linings:

1. Use the front and back pattern pieces to cut out your lining. You won’t need facings, waistbands, or pockets. Remember to leave off any seam extensions for inseam pockets and straighten out the cutting lines.

If your skirt is heavily gathered you don’t want a heavily gathered lining since it would add too much bulk; the easiest solution is to make your lining from a simple a-line skirt pattern in the same size.

2. The lining should be an inch shorter than the pants or skirt after the hem of the garment and the lining is put in. If you will put a 1 inch hem in the lining, cut the lining’s lower edge at the hemline of the pants or skirt.

3. Transfer the pattern markings for the waist and zipper opening on to your lining. This will let you align the lining more easily with your garment pieces. Also transfer dart markings; you won’t be making darts in the lining, but you will be making tucks (more on this in another post). If the garment is pleated, transfer the pleat markings to the lining.

4. Before you attach the lining, sew the garment together except for the waistband. Press the garment seams open. With a lining you can spare yourself the work of finishing the garment seams, unless the fabric ravels very easily. In my next posts, I’ll have more tips on how to smoothly insert a lining.

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