Wow, polyester, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways: There’s the permanent factory crease down the center of your yardage that no amount of ironing will remove; the fact that you hate all thread tensions known to humans (and their machines); the way you equally hate all needles; not to mention the lovely way you perforate — permanently — everywhere a pin is placed.
There’s more, but I haven’t got all day.
I know; I did the wrong thing. I chose my lining for the color, not because it was going to be a good lining. It’s green, a lovely, leafy green which just happened to coordinate with the buttons I intended to use to close this coat.
Top to bottom: The tweedy wool, hardly visible; a strand of glass beads once considered for the closure; the now-rejected (sob!) green buttons; the rejected springs (ditto); oval elastic (still on); solid black twill, since rejected, originally meant for contrast; and the infamous poly lining.
Can I just mention how much I wish I had gone for a boring black, white, or ivory heavy acetate coat lining? And then move on? Live and learn; it’s the only way.
ABdPM has you use the same pattern pieces as the jacket for the lining; they just have you cut the body pieces shorter. A lot shorter, but this may have something to do with the way they finish the hem. More about that later.
I decided, though, that I really didn’t want to simply use the jacket pattern pieces for the lining, so I made the following changes:
- cut the back yoke and the lower back pattern pieces all-in-one, just as I did for the interlining
- added a box pleat to the center back, to allow for ease of movement in the upper back especially
- cut the sleeves (which aren’t curved where the back seam is joined) all-in-one
- cut the backs and fronts 3/4ths of an inch longer than the interlining, and the sleeves 1/2 inch longer
I traced my own lining pattern, building from the ABdPM pattern, and adding these changes to my new tracings. I might actually make this jacket again, so the extra effort is worth it; this jacket is actually pretty simple to make, once you know how.
I edge-stitched the box pleat, on the wrong side of the lining, of course. Doing this will help it to fall back into place as I move:
Satiny stuff photographs badly, especially in the hands of such an amateur as I am. This actually looks quite a bit better in person than it does in the photo, though I was never able to fully resolve the poly issues chronicled above.
When it comes to coat pockets, I’m all about utility, and I like lots of them. This led to one other change in the lining. As I’ve made it, this is kind of a swing coat, and putting pockets into the lining might have weighed the jacket down and inhibited some of that pizazz.
Instead, I sewed two self-fabric loops into the lining at the bottom of the armholes. My cell phone will go into this pouch under my left arm, out of the way, and not pulling on the jacket at all:
The picture’s not great, but you can see the silver hooks clipped onto the loops above the floating pocket. This pouch was kind oaf a quick and dirty mini-project, mostly to determine what length the loops should be. I may make a more polished one later. A “secret” wallet/pocket will attach to the other set.
If I ever have the misfortune of losing my bag in a city, I want three things: my cell phone; a twenty dollar bill; and my transit pass. I like having them all clipped into my coat.
I thought I’d bag the lining, since I’d never done that before, but quickly abandoned the idea, since the jacket is so bulky I’d have had to leave an entire side seam open to turn it. No matter; inserting the lining is very straightforward, and it’s almost done. Hurray!
Related:
ABdPM 20013: Fit and Interlining
ABdPM 20013: Miscellaneous Report
Rant alert –nothing that follows has anything to do with ABdPM, or this particular project (except tangentially). Read at your peril.
Adding to my polyester woes was the fact that I bought this fabric at JoAnn’s, and it suffered from all the usual JoAnn quality issues. I was laying out the pattern on the first cut when I realized that there was an oil blotch, very subtle, but very present, about 15 inches into the cut. OK, I kept cool — I understand JoAnn quality, so I’d bought an extra half yard just in case there were issues. I figured I could work around it.
So I changed the layout to work around the stain, but foolishly cut the front and sleeves before actually pinning the back (which is on a fold, of course). Then I realized that I had left an inch too little fabric. Aaaaargh!
I went back to JoAnn’s and discovered, amazingly, that they had gotten another bolt of the same stuff in. (Glutton for punishment much??) There was a spray of small oil-like stains on the start of this bolt, too, which I made the clerk cut off, but the piece I brought home appears to be fine — except for all the poly issues mentioned above.
I try to avoid JoAnn like the plague, but when color matching is an issue, sometimes I’m stuck. It’s never a good thing.
Sorry to hear that the lining fabric sucks. It *is* a beautiful color, though. And I *LOVE* that inside pocket secured with the swivel clips.