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Threads eLetter

An Online Extra to Threads Magazine

Add a Lining to Your Custom-Pleated Skirt

Here's how to draft and sew a lining for your chic, flowing skirt

by Jennifer Stern

In the August/September 2005 issue of Threads (#120, pp. 29-33), I explain how to make a fashionable, fun skirt using strips of fabric. The strips are joined to form a new fabric, which is then pleated and fused onto an inner yoke of iron-on interfacing. Adding a lining is even easier: just follow these directions for measuring and cutting, and you're almost finished.

Draft and sew a quick lining
A simple cylinder of fabric with a few waist-defining tucks will do the trick.

Draw a rectangle with dimensions as shown. Add seam and hem allowances. This is the pattern for the front and back of the lining.
  
Cut out 2 of the pattern, aligning the lengthwise edges with the fabric's grain. Sew the right side seam, and the left side seam up to the zipper opening; backstitch. Sew or serge a narrow hem.


Slip the lining inside the skirt and align the waist edges; pin the lining seam allowances to the zipper tapes. Pin several tucks at the lining waist edge until the lining waist circumference matches that of the skirt; position the tucks anywhere you feel you need ease or shaping. Remove the lining from the skirt and baste the tucks into place. Attach the lining either by incorporating its waist edge within a waistband or binding, or simply sewing it with a row or two of straight stitching near the upper edge of the skirt.

Jennifer Stern designs, teaches, and sews at Manchester Sewing Machine Center, Manchester, Connecticut.

Drawings: Carol Ruzicka
An Online Extra to Threads #120, pp. 29-33
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