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The Barcelona | lining tutorial – part 2

How to add a lining to the Barcelona Dress | part 2

| sewing the dress lining |

This is part 2 of our lining tutorial, in which we are adding a lining to the Barcelona dress. This is where we find out how to stitch her up!

You should already have your lining pattern ready, but if you missed it, off you go and do your homework! We’ll wait here for you…The Barcelona | Lining tutorial part 1

CUTTING & SEWING VELVET | Our dress is in (woven) cotton velvet, or as it’s sometimes called velveteen, so all the usual rules apply regarding sewing and cutting fabric with a nap (a pile). If you are working with a silk velvet or similar, these are even trickier, slippier fabrics and you are going to want to take more steps than I’ve listed below! Threads magazine has a good guide here. Of course, you are not obliged to use velvet, I’m sure your fabric of choice will be most delightful!

NAP | If you brush your hand up and down you can feel one direction feels smooth and one is rough. The smooth is the direction of the nap. I like to cut with smooth up and rough down as the fabric looks darker when it’s worn. Not everyone is going to agree with me here, many prefer to have the smooth running down the body, especially on a skirt as it does feel nicer when you smooth your skirt down during wear. With smooth running down it appears lighter, and I think it’s a bit too shiny, but it’s also supposed to wear better in the seat area. Whichever you choose, BE CONSISTENT and have all the hems of your pattern pieces facing in one direction.

CUTTING | Cut in one layer and one direction. Pin in the SA only so as not to mark the cloth.

PRESSING | Even though it’s velvet I did chuck it in the machine on a quick 30° pre-wash, as per the washing instructions. I was using curtains from Ikea with a washing label, so not really a risk, but do check the washing instructions of your fabric first! I then followed with a gentle pressing on the reverse only so as not to flatten the pile and make it go shiny. Use a spare bit of fabric as a pressing cloth underneath so the pile of your garment is always face to face with another piece of velvet. And PRESS rather than iron – lift in an up and down motion rather than dragging back and forth! Use steam, avoid over-pressing and use the tip of the iron when pressing seams. Gently press seam allowances (SA) open, avoid pressing the edges of the SA so as not to create an impression on the garment. If you do, lift the SA up and steam gently underneath and the impression mark may press away. And for the love-of-all-that-is-sewing allow your garment to cool before moving it after pressing! 

*In industry we used a needle board for pressing, which has hundreds of tiny needles poking up to support the pile of the fabric. I haven’t found it necessary to get one for domestic use, but useful to know if you are planning to sew a lot of this type of fabric.

POCKET BAGS | Cut them in lining – the velvet is will be too bulky.

SEWING | The seams can get quite thick, so press seam allowance open and grade the SA whenever necessary. Tack seams to prevent them from moving and shifting. Hold the fabric taut during stitching, but don’t stretch it. I used a walking foot to stitch the whole dress to help with creeping seams, but test to ensure you don’t get marks from the foot on the pile. A Teflon foot and a roller foot are also recommended but I don’t have either of those! With velvet be very careful with pins and pin in the SA. I pinned horizontally across a seam (as usual and without thinking) and it left an impression on the velvet. Test your stitching and choice of needle on a scrap of fabric to get the optimum results.

FUSING | The general advice is to use a sew-in interfacing so as not to crush the pile. I broke the rules and used a lightweight tricot iron-on interfacing, placing a scrap of velvet underneath so the pile is face to face before fusing. Again TEST on your fabric first!

Abbreviations |

SA | seam allowance    RS | right side    RSU | right side (of fabric/garment) up    RST | right sides together    CB | centre back    CF | centre front    WB | waistband

MAKE! | Start by making the main shell of the dress following the Maker Instructions included with your pattern.

THE MAIN SHELL |  Make the outer shell but leave side seams unstitched and the hem unfinished.

A little more info | I did not neaten the shoulder seams or the front darts. I neatened all the other seams open, as even though it’s lined the velvet was dropping messy bits everywhere. In a different fabric, I would have neatened the skirt seams open as the lining is loose at the hem, but would not neaten the bodice or waist seams.

  • Make the front bodice. Make neck dart tucks as instructions. Press front waist darts OPEN, do not neaten. (*If not making in velvet press darts towards CF as usual).
  • Make the back bodices with darts pressed towards CB.
  • Make the front skirt and attach pocket bags.
  • Make back skirt and attach pocket bags.
  • Attach the skirts to the bodices, neaten waist seam open.
  • Neaten back side seam (but not the front side seam) and CB seam.
  • Close back seam and insert the invisible zip (remembering you have a 6mm SA at the top edge).
  • Close shoulder seams, press open but do not neaten.
  • DO NOT CLOSE SIDE SEAMS

THE LINING | Make the lining but leave side seams unstitched and hem unfinished.

A little more info | Neaten the skirt seams open and the CB seam. No need to neaten the bodice lining seams. Press the darts in the opposite direction to the main shell to reduce bulk.

  •  Make the front bodice. Press the neck dart tucks towards the armhole. I pressed the front waist darts towards the side seam; if you are not pressing the main shell darts open, the lining darts will lay in the opposite direction to the main shell to reduce bulk.
  • Make the back bodices, making tucks instead of darts pressed towards SS.
  • Close the CF skirt seam and neaten SA open.
  • Attach the skirts to the bodices.
  • Close shoulder seams.
  • Neaten the side seams and centre back seams.
  • Close the CB skirt seam from hem to the zip notch.

ATTACH LINING | Now the fun starts!

This lining method bags out the neckline and armhole creating a clean finish with no exposed seams. The front and back armholes are sewn separately as it’s not possible to turn the dress through the armhole as with some other methods.

STEP 1 | NECKLINE

  • Place the shell and the lining with RST, and pin the neckline together, align at CF and shoulder seams.

  • To finish lining neatly at the zip; fold the CB lining SA to WS of lining. Place folded edge of the lining so it is set 1cm back from CB of the main shell.
  • Ease the back neck lining to fit the main shell if necessary.
  • At the CB/zip, fold the SA of the main shell to WS, so it lays on top and covers the folded edge of the lining.
  • Stitch neckline with 6mm SA.

  • stitch all the way around the neckline and gently press.

STEP 2 | ARMHOLES

The clever part of this method is that the front and back armholes are stitched separately.  It works really well as the dress is too bulky to pull through the armhole using a “burrito” method, and we have already closed the back seam with a zip – I always prefer to put a zip in a flat garment.

  • Line up the shoulder seams
  • Fold in SA at the shoulder so RST and pin to hold.
  • We are now working on HALF an armhole at a time – either the front or the back, it doesn’t matter which one you do first.
  • Follow your way along the edge of the dress from the shoulder to the armhole and at the underarm pin the SA so RST, making sure you haven’t twisted the bodice.

Hold together the bodice where you have pinned at the underarm and shoulder and pull the dress through so the WRONG SIDE is now facing you. Pin or tack lining and body RST along the armhole until you get to the shoulder.

  • Stitch the armhole seam closed with a 6mm SA from underarm and stop at the shoulder seam. Press the seam.

  • Pull the dress back through to the RS.

  • Now repeat to close the other side of the armhole, finishing your stitching EXACTLY at the shoulder seam to meet your first line of stitching.
  • Once you have completed both armholes, understitch on the lining. Start at the underarm and stitch towards the shoulder – you won’t be able to understitch all the way to the shoulder seam just go as far as possible.

SIDE SEAMS|

  • Pin the side seam of the lining and main shell RST, taking care to line up the underarm seam.
  • Close the seam with a 1.5cm SA – stitch around the pocket bag in the main shell as described in the instructions.
  • Neaten the front side seam (as explained in the maker instructions) but stop the neatening when you get to the lining.
  • Press the seam open
  • To stop the lining rolling out at the underarm it needs to be attached to the main shell. Line up up the side seams of the shell and lining so they are sitting on top of each other. Pin in the groove of the seam. Stitch in the ditch of the side seam just below the underarm for about 1.5cm (1/2″) to keep the layers together. Alternatively, you can stitch by hand on the inside of the dress through the SA to hold the layers together.

ATTACH THE LINING TO THE ZIP |

Turn in the lining SA at the CB and pin to the zip tape so it sits approx 1cm back from the zip coil.

Slip stitch the lining to the zip tape. You can then sew your hook and eye at the top of the zip.

HEM |

  • Allow the dress to drop for at least 24 hours before levelling and hemming.
  • The lining has a 2cm hem allowance and just needs the hem to be double turned and stitched; that is press the hem up once at 1cm, turn and press again so a total hem of 2cm hem has been taken and machine stitch. You can use the same method that is used to hem our Maria Apron pattern, shown here in this tutorial.
  • The main shell has a 3cm hem and is finished by hand.
  • Your Barcelona just needs a light pressing and you’re finished!

Don’t have the Barcelona pattern yet? Don’t leave it too late, party season is nearly upon us…


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The Barcelona | lining tutorial – part 1

How to add a lining to the Barcelona Dress | part 1

| the lining pattern |

I had really wanted to include a lining pattern in with the Barcelona but there is only so much I can fit into a pattern and had to abandon that idea, but I decided to keep the idea for a lining tutorial. By adding a lining it means the Barcelona pattern can be made in a wider variety of fabrics, some fabrics just deserve a lining. Adding a lining can protect your modesty if your fabric is a tad sheer, or it can elevate a casual summer dress to a grand gown, just through the choice of fabric! And as you know, I’m all about getting the most use and variety from your sewing patterns.

I decided to make the Barcelona dress pattern in velvet and started to hunt around for some fabric as you do on the internet but was being quite lazy about ordering any swatches, so actually made very little progress. And then I found it – in Ikea! A pair of lovely green cotton velvet curtains – £40 for 5m. I shouldn’t have been surprised as I have bought quite a lot of fabric from Ikea over the years. Now, of course, a velvet dress really does deserve a lining, so a lining pattern was my first task.

Abbreviations |

SA | seam allowance    RS | right side    RSU | right side (of fabric/garment) up    RST | right sides together    CB | centre back    CF | centre front    WB | waistband   SELF | main fabric

TRACE | The first step is to trace off your original pattern and then put it away safely.

You need to trace these pattern pieces, but don’t cut them out yet.

  • front & back bodice (whichever version you wish to make)
  • the front & back skirt
  • bodice zip interfacing

The pocket bag pattern (to be cut in lining), pocket mouth interfacing and skirt interfacing patterns don’t change, so they can be used without alteration. You won’t need the binding pattern pieces!As the original pattern has a bound edge, we need to add a seam allowance (SA) to the neck and armhole to attach the lining. I always use a 6mm (¼”) SA on any seams that will be bagged out, or enclosed. That is a standard industry SA, if it’s bigger you just end up cutting it down again! If you make the lined version without adding any SA, the shoulder will be narrower and the armhole lower.

MAIN PATTERN | On the front and back bodice of your traced pattern add the 6mm SA and cut out the bodice patterns. These will be cut in your SELF (main) fabric to make the outer shell of the dress. Annotate the patterns with the name/LINED VERSION, the pattern piece – state clearly these are the MAIN pattern pieces to avoid confusion when cutting out your dress later, the size, cutting instructions and the date (helps keep track of alterations!). It would read something like this;

LINING PATTERN | Now trace another set of bodice patterns from your newly traced MAIN pattern with the SA, but don’t cut them out yet.

To make the lining roll inside of the dress at the shoulder, the lining pattern needs to be narrower than the main pattern. We are going to reduce the shoulder width by a total of 3mm (1/8″).

Mark the shoulder SA of 1.5cm (5/8″) on the pattern. Now make 2 marks on the shoulder seam, 1.5mm (1/16″) from the edge of the neck and again from the edge of the shoulder.

Then it’s just a case of drawing a new line, joining the marks to the neck and the armhole. You can use your MAIN pattern as a template, place on the mark at the shoulder and pivot it to draw and blend the line in further along the curve.

DART TUCK | Extend the lines of the dart tuck so they intersect with your new SA. The dart tuck in the lining will be pressed in the opposite direction to the one in the main body to keep bulk at a minimum.

SIDE SEAM | As lining fabric tends to have no ‘give’ like most fabrics it’s good to have a little extra ease. That’s why jackets have a pleat at the back, but that’s going to be too bulky for our fitted dress, we need just a little extra ease for movement. A lining that’s too tight is really uncomfortable and can rip quite easily too!

To add a bit of ease, measure out 5mm (or ¼” for imperial users) from the waist and then redraw the SS blending back in at the armhole point.

Repeat for the back bodice.

BACK DART | On the back bodices, the dart will be replaced as a tuck to give a little more movement. That’s not complicated, ignore all the dart markings except the notches along the waist line. The tuck will be made with the bulk towards the side seam, so it sits in the opposite direction to the dart of the main body.

BACK BODICE ZIP INTERFACING | The original pattern will now be too short as we have added a 6mm SA, so just add you SA on, and then check it against your pattern.

CHECK! | Compare your LINING pattern against your MAIN pattern, by laying it on top. The shoulder should be narrower and the waist should be wider.

Now just check your front lining bodice pattern against the back lining bodice pattern. Check the shoulder and side seams are the same length!

ANNOTATE | Remember to write all the relevant pattern info on your lining pattern pieces, especially that they are to be cut in lining!

SKIRT LINING | You can use the original pattern to cut your SELF fabric.

Take the traced skirt pattern and add 5mm at the waist so it will still fit onto your bodice! Blend the line down smoothly to the hip curve. Often linings have extra ease over the hips to allow some ease of movement, but it’s not really a concern with a bias cut skirt.

Move the notch on the CB seam, that indicates the base of the zip, down 1cm.

You obviously won’t need pocket bags in your lining layer, so you can block the lower pocket notch and use the top notch to help match your side seam.

Shorten the lining pattern by 3cm, this will give us a 2cm hem that we can double turn and stitch. This still may need to be shorter if the lining drops more than the main fabric after hanging.

So that’s the pattern done!

Go grab yourself a cuppa and biscuit and then on to the LINING TUTORIAL – part 2!

Not got the Barcelona pattern yet? Click below!

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How to add a Lining Tutorial

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_

A Dress Lining Tutorial

I wasn’t planning to do a lining tutorial at all, but happily finding 2 metres of the perfectly coloured gold lining in my stash to match this beautiful Barkcloth, set me off on a path….and I thought it might be useful! So, let’s add a lining to The French Dart Shift pattern

SUPPLIES:

You will need The French Dart Shift Pattern (or similar style dress pattern) and the fabric and haberdashery listed plus

  • 1mt lining
  • paper to make a lining pattern (if you don’t have pattern paper, improvise…wallpaper, newspaper, A4 sheets taped together)

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_

 STEP 1: PATTERN

Firstly, you need to make a lining pattern. Yep, really you do. You could cheat and just cut the body of the dress in the lining but as lining fabric doesn’t ‘give’ and you may well find that it all gets a little tight across the back. Sometimes you can add a pleat at the back (like inside a jacket, go on take a quick look at one, I’ll wait) but ideally, you don’t want any extra bulk at the back of a dress, just a little extra ease for movement.

So here’s what you do…The finished lining pattern will be WIDER and SHORTER than the main body pattern, and the sleeve is going to stay unlined, so no sleeve lining pattern needed!

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERN

Trace off the front and back body pattern, marking all the notches and darts. Extend the shoulder seam by 3mm and mark with a cross.

Next, mark a point half way down the armhole and 5mm OUT from the pattern and again 5mm OUT at the underarm.

Draw a GRADE LINE on the lining pattern 5mm away and parallel to the Centre Front Line (CF).

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_

Redraw the armhole: using your original pattern piece as a template to join the points you just marked together.

The side seam needs to move OUT 5mm as well: Take the main pattern and lay on top of the lining pattern. Line up at the underarm (U/A), remember to use the new U/A point on the lining pattern, and the CF with the GRADE LINE (keep the patterns parallel with each other) and re-draw the side seam and bust dart.

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_

Make the lining pattern 3cm shorter (which is the hem allowance of the dress) than the main pattern. The lining pattern will have a 1.5cm hem allowance so it will finish 1.5cm higher than the dress hem because you don’t want your lining on display when you strut your stuff!

Repeat all the above for the back pattern.

Check your lining patterns against your originals…line them up at the C/F’s and C/B’s, are the lining patterns wider and shorter?

Do the front and back lining patterns fit together at the side seam? Yes? Good! Label them as your lining pattern, the size, and to cut them on the fold.

Now cut them out in lining.

STEP 2: MAKE

Make the body of your dress as described in your Maker Instructions. (Tape the neckline, make front and back darts, shoulders, pockets and side seams and hem.)

Make and hem the sleeves and put them to one side.

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS

MAKE THE COLLAR: close the centre back (CB) seam and press open, fold collar in half and pin so raw edges are together. Be sure to line up all notches so the collar is not twisted.

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_03

With right sides together (RST) pin the folded collar into the neckline of the dress, align notches to prevent the collar from twisting. Tack in 6mm seam allowance (S/A) to hold.

LINING:

MAKE THE LINING: Stitch and neaten bust darts, make back darts, close and overlock side seams together. Close shoulder seams and overlock open.

FDS LINING TUTORIAL_MAVEN PATTERNS

Double turn hem lining: Press up the hem 1.5cm, and then fold up the hem again so raw edge meets your pressed line, and press in a second line. Re-fold the hem along the pressed lines so the raw edge is enclosed and top stitch the hem.

FDS LINING TUTORIAL-02

ATTACH LINING AT NECKLINE: With RST, place the lining body inside the main body, align notches and pin. The collar is now sandwiched between the body and lining. Stitch the neckline with a 6mm S/A. Press neckline, with the S/A down and pressed AWAY from the collar. Understitch the lining around the neckline.

LINING TUTORIAL_MAVENPATTERNS_06

Pin armhole of body and lining together, aligning all the notches. Tack to hold.

Follow the Maker Instructions and set in the sleeves.

Overlock armhole together to neaten, treating all layers (sleeve/body/lining) as one. Give it a press.

That’s it, you’re done…wear and enjoy!