Flat Lining, Part One

Flat lining is a great way to line garments with simple lines like  straight skirts and  pants. It finishes the seam edges with a Hong Kong finish and underlines them at the same time. Today I will show you the basics using the back pieces of the March pants. These are a rayon poly but look a lot like a worsted. They definitely don't have that poly look. The lining is a poly anti static from JA's that I have used before. Not my preferred lining fabric but the fashion fabric is not the most expensive so I don't think it warrants Bemberg or silk.

I learned this technique directly from Threads. If you have all your old Threads like I do or if you are lucky to have the new DVD, it is in Threads issue #42 from 1992. I am sure others have put it out there so check your libraries.

The first thing you do is cut and mark your fashion fabric. You can use those cut pieces as your pattern or just use the pattern. Lay the pattern out on the lining. Cut all VERTICAL seams ONE HALF INCH BIGGER THAN THE PATTERN. Somewhere I have seen the directions for this calling for 5/8ths of an inch bigger but the Threads recommended half inch has always worked fine for me. If you are using a really bulky fabric I would cut them 5/8ths of an inch bigger to more accommodate the turn of cloth.

Do not cut the crotch seam bigger other than the fly extension.

Once the lining is cut out, place right sides together. Put the quarter inch foot on your sewing machine. Yes, the lining is bigger. Line up the raw seam edges of one of the vertical seams, right sides together. Stitch with a one quarter inch seam allowance.
Iron the seams together to meld. Cut off one eight inch of the seam allowance. I like my rotary cutter for this. You are now left with a 1/8 inch seam. It is important to remember this because if your garment has 5/8th inch SAs, now when you go to sew it you will use a 1/2 inch seam allowance instead. To be clear, you just cut off one eighth inch of the seam allowance. What remains is a half inch so that is your new seam allowance to complete all of these vertical seams only on the garment. whew---

Back to the ironing board. Iron the lining away from the fashion fabric on the right side. Use a cloth if needed. Now wrap the lining around the cut 1/8th inch seam to the wrong side. Pin next to the well of the seam to get a nice tight wrap. Iron in place.

Switch your machine foot to the edge stitching foot. Stitch in the well of the seam the length of the seam. Press. Do the rest of the vertical seams in the same fashion being very careful you don't get your right and wrong sides mixed up!

 

Once your edges are all bound, lay your fabric out. Do some diagonal basting on the straight of grain. Some styles may require more of this than others.

Once the diagonal basting along grain is done you can proceed to do your darts. Make sure you either baste or pin down the center of the darts to keep the fabrics snug.

On these pants I then taped the crotch with a strip of selvedge. The tape was cut to the length of the crotch on the pattern. It was sewn down but once I reached the curve I pulled it and eased in the crotch curve so that it ended at the exact correct length.

What I have shown you is on the back pieces of the pants. My TNT pants pattern has pockets and that beloved pants stay as well as the crotch curve and zipper.  There are also more darts in the front so the front is handled a bit differently and I will show you that in the next post.
One great thing about this technique is that when you are done sewing these vertical seams, your garment is pretty much all lined and the seam finished.

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The blocking board is dry. It looks a lot better. It seems I just rearranged the water stains but  they are also a bit  lighter. Bottom line, I got a couple more years added on to its lifetime...Bunny