Winter coat interlining

My sewing machine is back! I finally called on Friday after it had been gone more than a week and was told it was "next in the line". Sure enough, they called on Saturday to say it was fixed and I prevailed upon a different friend to drive me over there to get it. In fact, the weather was so mild, I could have gone on my bike with the trailer but since he was willing to drive me, I took him up on it.

Here's my baby on the stairs to go up. It turned out that the bobbin case was the culprit - it needed an adjustment because every so often (every six inches of sewing), the needle would strike a part of the bobbin case when it went down into the bobbin area and so break the thread that way. I have now sewed for a while and there have been no broken threads! I am so relieved. It was really getting to me, I can tell you.

Here's a close up of the fabric and you can see how loosely woven and ravelly it is. (My spell check didn't recognize "ravelly" so I looked it up and it is a word - just not very well known.) This is why I am backing each piece with lining - or interlining we shall call it. Someone suggested in the comments that I consider lining it with flannel to make it warmer and that is certainly an option. However, flannel would also make the coat heavier and more bulky and I thought I would go for a lighter weight option. I can always add a sweater underneath on a colder day for warmth. And I planned this coat to be worm only to about minus 10C.

When I started cutting out the pieces, I thought that I would have a hard time making notches and that chalk marking wouldn't show up for the dots. So I made some (elaborate for me) tailor's tacks for both notches and dots. Then, when I cut out the interlining pieces, I realized that I could easily cut notches and make chalk marks on that fabric so all the tacks were for naught.

Here are all the pieces with fused interfacing - the front, front facing and both collar sections. I think the main seams I will have to trim will be the shoulder seams and I will use a zigzag on those and hope the threads won't eventually pull away.

I went through my stash of linings and found several pieces in the same colourways as the coat. The grey piece on the far right is what I am using to line the coat itself.

For the interlining (which will not be seen) I ended up getting the two back pieces out of the mauve, the side fronts and side backs out of the blue and the sleeves out of a pale green. I have almost finished sewing all those pieces together and it is a pain. The loosely woven wooly stuff moves all over the place and seems to grow as I move down one edge of it. I have to keep stuffing the excess under the needle so the fabric piece doesn't end up a foot longer than the interlining piece. But it is almost done so I can say I've been successful.

Once I have finished attaching the interlining to the two backs, two sleeves and four sides, then I can start putting the coat itself together.