Sewing Tip | Interlining a fabric |

I've been offering to interline a fabric for several times now and have been asked what it means and what it is for. Therefore, you will find all the answers and the procedure to follow in this post.

When choosing a fabric to make a garment, it may not be perfectly suited to the style of it and the interlining technique can give the desired rendering to a piece of fabric. In conclusion, interlining is a technique which makes it possible to modify the fall, the hold, the transparency or the thickness of a fabric. It is a method similar to fusible interfacing, but the big difference is that there is no glue and therefore it is more sustainable and of better quality. Not to be confused with a lining which encloses the garment nicely.

To do this, after choosing your outer fabric, you must look for another fabric to interline it, taking into account the rendering you want to give to your finished garment. Please take note to choose a plain fabric in order not to see the patterns in transparency and to wash the two fabrics well before cutting.

If you take a corset for example, you can select a light toile as the outer fabric, but in order to give support and body to this rigid garment, you will have to interline it with a large canvas type canvas. Another example is the transparency of the outer fabric, by interlining it, it will become opaque.

To illustrate the method, I show you the procedure to follow to interline the LISKAMM swimsuit. FYI, this swimsuit is cut double and, for most fabrics, does not need to be interlined. However, the fabric chosen here is quite transparent and an additional thin layer is not superfluous.

Choose the outer fabric and find a fabric to interline it corresponding to the desired stiffness.

Cut the necessary piece or pieces from the outer fabric and do the same with the interlining fabric.

Lay the wrong side of the outer fabric piece on the interlining piece and pin it flat.

Hand stitch with basting thread by starting at the middle of the piece from bottom to top.

If the piece is large, make another row about 10cm from the first row.

Hand stitch all around the piece.

And now work with these two pieces of fabric together as if it were one piece.

Remove the stitches by hand once the garment is finished.

Depending on the garment, it can take a lot of time and money to interline. However, it is an important step to achieve quality and durable clothing.