Denim Month: Lining a Denim Sienna Maker Jacket

February 5, 2020 13 Comments
Liz walks her black puppy Vinnie down a snow-covered lane; farmland can be seen in the background, and snow is falling. Liz wears her goldenrod denim Sienna Maker Jacket, a beanie, a blue jeans.

Hello Sewcialists! When Charlotte approached me to write a post for Denim Month–after my knees stopped knocking–I was very excited!

Denim is pretty much my daily wardrobe. I tend to be a bit of a bull in a china shop, plowing through daily activities so I can get to the fun stuff: sewing. So I require sturdiness and ease in laundering from my clothes.

We recently acquired a puppy named Vinnie, through no fault of my own. Vinnie and I go on several walks a day. I wanted a jacket with ease of movement. But since we are out in the boondocks, it needed to be lined because it’s almost always windy.

When Closet Case Patterns released the Sienna Maker Jacket I was bogged down in holiday sewing, so I put this at the top of my “to sew” list after the first of the year.

Drafting a lining for an unlined jacket is actually not very complicated. I have done this before using information gleaned from an old Sewing With Nancy episode and a Threads magazine online article.

After picking some Cone Mills denim for the outer jacket and Robert Kaufman Mammoth Flannel for the lining, I was ready to make a perfectly useful and wearable jacket.

A piece of a goldenrod denim jacket is shown; the lower edge is turned back to reveal the wrong side of the fabric, and the underside of the seam finish. There are two rows of topstitching which match the color of the fabric, and the raw edges have been overlocked in white thread.

When sewing with denim, I like to serge the edges to finish them because the twill weave of denim wants to fray. My denim garments get a lot of wear and I’m not careful with them. Serging helps avoid fraying and strings dangling inside a garment. It is less of an issue in a lined garment since no edges are exposed, but I opted for “better safe than sorry.” If you don’t have a serger or overlocker, you can flat-fell the seams or finish them on a conventional machine.

Liz's jacket front lays on a white gridded cutting mat. The lapel has been fused with interfacing to the roll line; the raw edges of the jacket front are overlocked in white thread. The pattern piece for the jacket's front facing lays on top of the jacket front.

Because I prefer to fuse interfacing to the sides that won’t show, I trim the lapel interfacing on the roll line. This triangle of interfacing is fused to the front of the jacket while the rest of the interfacing is applied to the lapel facing. Facings, of course, are in the fabric of the outer shell rather than lining.

Two images. On the left, Liz's Sienna jacket is laying right side up; the top and lower pockets are visible, as is one end of the belt and the opening where it will pass through the jacket. The lining can be seen to the right of the frame; it is a plaid flannel in shades of gray, orange, and yellow. The right photo is a close-up of the lining fabric, with a welt facing in the goldenrod denim (from which the outer shell is sewn) sewn around the opening for the jacket's belt.

Usually with a bagged lining, the lining and outer shell are only attached at the hems and where the facing and outer jacket are joined. With the Sienna Maker Jacket, I ended up deciding to treat the two layers as one for the belt vent facing. The left image shows the marking for the placement on the outside and the finished vent on the right.

Liz's Sienna jacket is opened to show the lining; the seam in the lining is open, revealing the inside of the outer jacket shell beneath it. The seam is open in order to maneuver the jacket to bag the lining by machine.

One side seam of the lining is merely basted, then opened up to pull the shell through this opening to hem the sleeves.

Liz's Sienna jacket sleeve under her machine's presser foot. The jacket is inside out and the lining and shell sleeve hems are being sewn together as part of the process of bagging out the lining.

The only “tricky” part of lining a jacket is hemming the sleeves, at least for me. I got the first sleeve right on the first try. But on the second sleeve, I kept doubting and getting confused. I pulled the sleeve right side out and pinned it three times before sewing. I think that’s normal…or at least I hope so!

A closer photo of Liz wearing her Sienna jacket while walking her puppy. She stands in a snow-covered lane. Her goldenrod denim jacket features upper and lower pockets, and a belt that keeps it closed in the front. She is wearing a beanie hat and black gloves; it is snowing. She holds a leash in her hands, but the puppy is out of frame.

Thank goodness for easy-care denim! On this jacket’s first outing, our rambunctious pup got muddy footprints on the front. But it cleaned up fine!

Liz walks Vinnie down the snowy lane. Vinnie is bouncing and running as Liz patiently holds his lead and directs him along. Her Sienna jacket is seen from the back, with the belt crossing near the waist and around to her right side.

I’m Liz, @elruuska, and you can find me on Instagram where I share my sewing, knitting, and family adventures.

CategoriesDenim Month, Theme Months
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