Lining pants will help keep them from stretching or wrinkling. There are two ways to line pants - the traditional lining that is only attached at the waist, or underlining, which is included in all of the pants' seams. When choosing fabrics, organza is great for underlining, while rayon or china silk work well for regular lining.
Another tip when lining pants is to line only the front, as is done with men's pants. This keeps the knees from stretching the pants and prevents lots of wrinkles from sitting down.
To Create Underlining
- Cut out lining from the pattenr exactly as you did the pants, but without the hem.
- Then, pin all pieces of the pants and underlining together.
- Baste in the middle of each pleat so that as you sew the pleats, the pants and underlining will be one unit.
- Finally, serge the underlining and pants fabric together so that as you sew, you work with one piece.
To Create Lining - Cut the lining from the pattern, just as you did the pants, but don't add the hem.
- This time you will make the pants and lining separately. (Many people feel that the lining should be smaller than the pants. This is wrong. Instead, make the lining a little bigger.)
- When sewing the darts in the lining, even though they are marked full size, sew them only half their size. Do the same for any pleats.
- Put pants lining right sides together.
- To add more room in the lining, don't sew full seams. Instead, make them about 1/2". Sew all seams of the lining together, and then sew pants together.
- Press everything open in the lining (darts, seams, etc.) because you won't get another chance to later.
- Lining will be larger at the waist than the pants, so run an ease line along the top of the lining. (It will look slightly gathered.)
- Take pants, right side out, and turn lining right side out. Next, slide lining inside of pants. You want both lining and pants to have their wrong sides touching.
- Pin lining about 1/4" away from teeth of zipper on both sides. Then pin lining to pants along the waist.
- Now, go back and make another ease line for both the pants and lining about 1/2" down from the waist.
- Hand-stitch the lining to the pants along the sides of the zipper.
