How to Cut a Jacket Lining When You Don’t Have a Pattern

Have you ever made a jacket and wished you could line it, but didn’t have a pattern and weren’t 100% sure what to do? Here’s a tutorial to bookmark for when you do.

There are many ways to make a lining pattern, partly depending on the type of jacket.

To keep it simple and give you a starting point, here’s how I like to cut a jacket lining. Note that this is only one way to do it. It’s for a jacket with a collar, one or two piece sleeve with non-working sleeve vents, and princess line or darted front. It’s not necessary to make a new pattern for the lining; you can use the main pattern pieces as you cut the lining. At most you might need to make one new pattern piece.

Let’s take each part of the jacket piece by piece.

Back

The back lining has a pleat in it. It’s for movement for the wearer, and to stop the lining from tearing. Lining fabric is generally less pliable and less stretchy than wool or whatever the outer fabric is.

Note this lining goes all the way up to the back neck and is joined at the collar.

1. Place the back pattern piece on the fold of the lining fabric, a bit away from the fold so that the stitching line is 2cm from the fabric’s fold (this will give you the pleat).
2. Put a tiny snip at the top and bottom of the the lining, on the centre back stitching line, to indicate the pleat.
3. Remove the hem allowance (just fold it up on the pattern). Why do we do this? Because it stops the lining from being longer than the jacket.

When you sew the pleat, stitch about 4cm down from the top, and up to the waistline from the bottom. Then press the pleat to one side.

Side panel (if it has one)

Easy! Cut it the same as the jacket, just with no hem allowance.

Sleeves

Same idea for the sleeves: cut them the same as the jacket but with no hem allowance.

If the sleeves are two-piece sleeves with a vent, cut the vent off too.

Front…and what to do with the hem at the centre front

Where the lining meets the jacket’s front facing is sometimes a controversial area, as there are a couple of ways to do it. However, this method is the easiest I know – it practically does itself. I haven’t seen this often on jackets made in Australia, but I have on European-made jackets.

If you have a princess line jacket:

1. Use the centre front panel for the jacket’s facing, cut in the main fabric.
2. On the side front, draw a line as shown on the hem allowance, and cut off the triangular wedge.

If the front is in one piece with darts, you’ll already have a facing for the jacket, but you’ll need to make a pattern for the side lining.

1. Trace off the front of the jacket.
2. Lay the front facing onto the tracing, and draw the edge of the facing (below, left).
3. Add twice the seam allowance to this line (as shown below right). The dash line is the side panel’s cutting line.

4. On this new pattern piece, cut off the hem allowance at an angle as shown.

How to sew

It would be remiss of me to describe the cutting if I didn’t include the sewing.

• Often a jacket lining is sewn with a slightly smaller seam allowance (say, 1.2cm (1.2″) instead of 1.5cm (5/8″)), so that the lining is a little bigger. It’s okay to have the lining bigger than the jacket (as the lining fabric typically has less stretch), but not smaller.
• There’s no need to neaten the seam allowances, unless they fray badly, since everything is enclosed inside the jacket.
• The lining seams are generally pressed to one side because it’s quicker and the fabric is thin enough not to create bulk.
• Jacket hems are usually sewn by catching the seam allowances together on the inside. ie the hem is only held up where there’s a seam. The exception is for long lengths of hem that are uninterrupted by seams, such as one-piece sleeves or one-piece backs. In these cases, you’ll need to blind hem them so it stays in place.

1. Assemble the lining, stitching the back pleat as shown above. In the sleeve seam, leave a gap as big as your fist, so you can access the final stages of sewing the lining to the jacket.

2. Sew the top collar to the lining neck so you can make the collar.

3. Before you sew the jacket and lining together, fully press both so they’re crease-free. The jacket should have all the hems interfaced and already pressed up.

4. Sew the jacket and lining together, all the way around the edge. At the centre front, stop the stitching when you reach the lining:

It should look something like this:

5. Press, understitch if required, and complete sewing the collar. Sit the lining inside the jacket, they way it will be worn.

6. Attach the sleeve linings to the wrists, with a 6mm (1/4″) or 1cm (3/8″) seam allowance. IT’S VERY IMPORTANT that you access this from inside the jacket. Don’t just put the right sides together and stitch! Reach inside from the jacket’s lower edge and grasp the two edges to be sewn together. Pull the sleeve through; it will looks something like this when you sew it:

7. Sew the sleeve hems (see note above).

8. Sew the lining to the jacket at the hem, accessing it through the gap you left in the sleeve. At the front, bring the lining and jacket together like this:

Only a few more things left to do!

8. Hem the jacket’s lower edge (see note above).

9. Inside, catch together the underarm seams of the jacket and lining, so your lining doesn’t pull out when you take your arms out of the sleeves. Make sure both seams point towards the sleeve. You can also attach the sleeve lining at the shoulder, using a couple of long 2.5cm (1″) long hand stitches.

10. Close up the gap in the sleeve seam by pressing the edges together like a pair of lips and machining along the edge.

Just to say again: this is merely one way to cut and sew a lining. For more ideas and how to line other types of garments, please let me to direct you to The Dressmaker’s Companion.

Cheers!