Sewing 101: How to Line a Top

Lining a garment provides several benefits: 1.) great to add opacity to sheer fabrics 2.) finishes all of your raw edges 3.) if your outer fabric is itchy, lining can provide a smooth barrier.  I'm currently in midst of creating an embellished nude shell (thinking of adding cascading petals at the moment) and figured I'd show you the process of lining my top while I was at it.  2 birds, 1 stone :)

What You'll Need:

• Shirt fabric and lining fabric (In my example, I'm lining my shirt with the same fabric.)
• Shirt pattern: tutorial on how to create your own OR buy a commercial one

Steps:

1.) Cut out 2 complete tops using your pattern

2.) Take 1 top and align the front with the back.  Make sure the right sides of the fabric are together and sew along each side of the top from the underarm to the bottom.  Do the same with the lining.

3.) Place the lining inside your top with right sides together. (Ahem, I took a picture of it with wrong sides together, sorry!)

 4.)  Sew along the armholes and neckline.  Do not sew the shoulders yet.

5.) Flip your garment so that the right sides are facing outwards.  Tuck one shoulder inside the other shoulder.  (This helps me orient myself)  Flip the exterior layer over.  (This makes more sense if you look at the picture below)

6.)  The shoulders should now be sandwiched together like the photo above with the right sides of the shoulders together.  Stitch the shoulder closed.  Do the same for the opposite shoulder.

Both sides of the shoulder should now look like this.

7.)  Just hem as desired and you're finished!  The best part is that you can use this tutorial to line your tops OR to create a reversible top since each side is completely finished and no raw edges can be seen on either side.

Hope this was helpful!