Plenty of skirt patterns do not come with separate pieces nor instructions for adding a lining to the skirt. And often you want a lining; particularly in a winter skirt that you wish to wear with tights.
In a nutshell: my own method for adding this is now to generally to cut a skirt lining using the same pattern pieces as the skirt, and — critical difference — sew them together using narrower seams. So your lining has a wider girth than the skirt itself, i.e. a nice dose of extra wearing ease… this is a small thing but makes a big difference for slimline or pencil skirts particularly! Why? well, a few ripped linings later…! haha! I jest! but seriously; in my experience sometimes I would find that linings would habitually start to pull away from the zip tape right at hip level. I re-stitch them back on, only for them to pull away yet again.
When I did start making my linings just a touch roomier than the skirt itself, this pesky little problem has not recurred!
I just sew the side seams using the narrowest possible seam allowance, around 6mm(1/4″). For a plain skirt pattern with a standard 1.5cm (5/8″) seam allowance, this alone gives around 3.5cm (1 1/4″) extra wearing ease in there.
Another, equally viable option would be to cut the lining just one size bigger instead.
The CB seam of the lining; stitch with the regular 1.5cm (5/8″) seam allowance up to the bottom edge of the zip opening, then re-enforce the stitching line at the lower edge of the zip opening with stay stitching; stitching each side separately and keeping the seam allowance free of the stitching. Snip into the corners, fold the seam allowances under and press.
With wrong sides together, pin the lining to the skirt at the side seams. Pin the zip opening of the lining skirt to the zip tape of the skirt.
Also; do not stitch waist darts but merely fold the excess width of the lining at the waist dart point into a pleat and pin. As expected, thanks to those narrower seams, these will be slightly deeper pleats than the skirt darts. Pleating the wait darts rather than stitching them down also builds just a touch more ease into the lining.
Hand-stitch the skirt lining to the zip tape around the zip opening.
Attach the waistband as normal, and hem. I generally hem a lining to 2.5cm (1″) shorter than the skirt, but this is a matter of personal taste.
Is it weird to say you are my sewing technique doppelgänger on the other side of the planet? Those are such good explanations. I do linings that way as well. Also it is quite a timesaver sometimes to not sew or mark the darts in the lining. Have you ever made test V1247 in a color block version? I keep thinking of it but haven't yet.
Great tips, thank you! I haven't had the Problem with the lining pulling away from the zipper yet, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, right?!:-)
Thank you so much for this! I was wondering why after I put in a lining that sometimes it felt as though my skirt was *smaller* fitting to me. Ugh. The skirt fit fine and plenty of ease till I sewed my lining in, which made no sense to me at all.
This is a common problem for me I tend to put two narrow pleats in the back pieces to cope with the strain.. As lining is fine I find it doesn't add bulk. I like how you did the squaring for the zip. nice finish will use that method thank you.
Thanks for the tips & explanation Carolyn. I've got some lovely wool I am planning a few V1247 skirts for winter with & was wondering how I was going to line them so I've bookmarked this post for winter sewing.
As usual, your posts are either super informative and/or inspiring and/or funny! The only thing missing was the lovely shadow named Sienna. 🙂 Back to sewing – Indeed, I lined my first V1247 and the lining pulled away from the zipper. So now when I start my next one, I will definitely use your method because your tutorials have never, not once, failed to be successful for me. I am curious, do you ever do linings around zippers completely by machine without hand stitching? Does that not work as well for you? I am so new to doing linings that I'm still trying to wrap my head around different ways to accomplish the same thing.
thanks Angela! I have attached linings to the zip tape by machine before but it's always tricky to get the very bottom bit, the box around the "stop" looking really nice and neat and tidy. Hand-stitching gives you total control, because you're going along stitch by stitch you can get it looking near perfect. That's just my personal preference though 🙂
Excellent tutorial!
I love to see how other people do things. I have never put that much ease into a lining, or left the lining darts unstitched.Thanks for this!
Great tips Carolyn. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. Just today I heard about not sewing the darts in a skirt lining in a craftsy class. This is completely new to me, but makes so much sense. I will use your method for the lower edge of the zip opening, I always have problems there.
Hmm… I do pretty much the same thing. I cut my linings a bit bigger and also fold pleats instead of sewing darts. My zippers tend to be different though. I mostly use invisible zippers and apply them to the lining basically in the same way as to the outer fabric, just further out on the zipper tape.
Lauriana: just to clarify; do you mean you sew the lining to the same, top-side of the zip tape as the outer fabric, with the tape's underside edge showing on the inside of the garment? And I should mention, this IS an invisible that I've used in this skirt too, but I ALWAYS sew the lining to the underside of the zip tape as above; regardless of whether it's an invisible zip or a dress zip. Actually, I'm like you, and rarely use dress zips anymore either!
As a newcomer to the world of garment sewing… these are the little details that are so useful….. that I neeeeeeed!!! It's like having a sister share the finer points of sewing that make a garment more wearable and well-made. Love your tutorials and tips post and always appreciate that you take the time to pull these together. 🙂
aw, thank you so much, Lisa! that is so very sweet of you! (mwah) Thank you for taking the time to say so :))
Thank you for that tip! It makes a lot of sense and I will definitely follow your advice for all skirt lining. I think this would work for the patterns that require lining, as often the instructions tell you to make the lining exactly as the skirt!
Thanks for your clear instructions, I'll give this a go as my default method of machine sewing, then leaving the end of the lining around an invisible zip looks yucky and tears after a while.
Hello Caroline! I have been reading your blog for quite a while but never commented! Todays’s post sent me to this old post.
I have started sewing a lined skirt, have only just cut it, it has no darts and side zipper. I wonder in that case what do I do with the lining ease ? Do I make pleats in the lining with it?
You are such a talented sewist! I always get very jealous at how many garments you manage to sew and how easily!
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