This section is the most time consuming and has the most steps. Work slowly and carefully. Nothing here is too difficult; it just takes a while. We're going to sew the shockcord channels, attachment loops, and reinforcement patches to the liner, then sew the liner darts.

Approximate time: 6 hours

We'll start with the reinforcement patches. They're the only parts that are going to be sewn to the wrong side of the liner, so lay it out with your X facing down. At each corner, make the reinforcing patch out of the scrap material you saved.

Make it extend about four inches down each side and three or four inches deep. I used to use a semi-circle, but have switched to a diamond shape because the finishing comes out a lot nicer. Use a pin on each edge to hold it in place.

When you've finished pinning all four corners, fold the liner in half from the bottom to the top so that the patches are together. Then roll it up from the bottom and clothespin it in place. That gives you access to all four patches and leaves the whole thing in a compact package so that you can easily manuever it around your sewing machine.

Be careful with the clothespins. When you have the material rolled up, it's a lot for them to handle. Be sure you're opening them all the way before attaching or removing so that you don't tear the fabric.

Sewing at last. I use a cone of thread because it's a lot cheaper. You want to use a nice 100% polyester thread. I look for one that's difficult to tear by hand. You can buy a special cone stand for your machine, but I save a few bucks by making one out of a coathanger and using some straws taped to the machine as thread guides. I've been using this setup forever with no problems.

Here's a detail of the cone holder.

I do double stitching on every seam. I usually sew the first with the foot near the edge of the fabric. On the second pass, I leave the foot in the same place, but set the needle farther away from the edge. That leaves two rows of stitching about a half-inch apart. When I start a seam and finish it, I use about a half inch of bartacking to help seal the ends. I usually go up, leave the needle in place, turn the fabric around and then sew back down, again using a section of bartacking at the ends. When you're done, you'll have two threads on each side of the fabric on the end of the seam where you started. I tie these together with triple knots.

Sew around the perimeter of each patch twice. Start at one side corner and go towards the liner corner. That will leave you at the same side corner when you're done. Sew across the body of the patch and then back to where you started. That leaves you a nice pattern that will help reinforce the corner and look sharp when finished. You're also left with two threads per side to tie off.

Here's the back side of the patch. This is the right side of the fabric (faces out to the world).

Do all four patches and then unfold the liner and lay it right side up. All of the remaing sewing will be on the right side.

Prep the drawcord housing. Put a seam on each short end of each drawcord housing strip. Be sure that you're putting the wrong side of the material on the inside. I make the seam a little wider than the foot of the sewing machine. This is the only seam on the whole thing that I don't bother pinning.

Fold the housing in half lengthwise and pin it to the right side edge of the liner. It's easier to fold it in half as you pin. Put a pin every four inches or so. Position the strip centered on the edge you're working on. Lay it out so that the housing is on top of the liner with the edges of each flush. We're going to turn everything indide out when we're done so that the housing will end up sticking out then.

I actually leave the lining showing by about 1/8" under the housing. That makes it easier to tell everything is lined up while sewing than if they're flush.

Fold and roll the liner up like you did with the reinforcing patches so that you can easily work with it on the sewing machine.

Unfold the liner each time and be sure you're sewing the housing on the correct side of it. Double check yourself. It's a real pain to do it the wrong way and have to undo all of that stitching.

Sew up one side and down the other, then tie off the threads as described earlier. Note that the foot is flush with the edge of the material. In this shot, I'm on the second row of stitching. You can see that the needle is set to the right, creating about a half-inch of space between the two lines of stitching.

Here's a detail of the corner. Note the zigzag stitches used to start and finish each line of stitching and the two threads hanging out ready to be tied.

Repeat the attachment for all six shockcord housings. I like to do the long sides first and the foot side last, just because it seems to make the time go quickest.

Cut your Grosgrain ribbon into six ten-inch lengths. Heat seal each cut end. On two of them, attach two Fastex slotted cordlocks. Fold the ribbon in half twice and feed it through each slot on each cordlock. Pull the cordlocks together to the very top of the ribbon. That will keep them out of the way while we sew.

The two ribbons with cordlocks are going to go at opposite corners. So, the top left corner will control the top cord and left cord and the bottom right corner will control the bottom cord and right cord. Again, attach the ribbon so that it's pointing in towards the center of the lining. Pin each end down about a half- inch from the corner and leave about two inches hanging off.

Take that two inches and fold it under and in so that the two ends form an X.

Here's the underside all pinned up.

And here's the top side ready for sewing. Note that the cordlocks are at the top of the loop and that they're sitting upright with the ribbon pretty flat.

When you sew them, use two lines of stitching, but this time use a wide, fairly close zigzag stitch on the ribbon itself. I don't bartack here because I don't want to poke a million holes in the ribbon.

Here's the liner with shockcord housings and corner attachment loops all sewn on. Next, we're going to sew the darts together.

Fold your liner over so that the seam will be on the wrong side of the fabric. Pin the seam. If you're careful, you can do the left and right side at the same time and fold everything up. Be sure you're going right to the edge so that you don't have a hole there when you're done.

I'm not sure why, but sewing the darts closed is when the fabric wants to wrinkle the most while you sew. Be extra careful that it's not happening underneath as you sew.

Sew only the liner darts. We're going to use the shell as a pattern for the insulation, so we'll do that afterwards.

After you've sewn the darts closed, take your last two Grosgrain strips and attach the side loops. Use the same type of stitching that you did on the corners, but this time just fold the extra two inches of Grosgrain straight back under the liner.

That's it for the liner. Here it is all laid out. If you did everything correctly, you've now got all six shockcord housings and the six Grosgrain loops sewn to the right side of your liner. You should also have the four reinforcement patches sewn to the wrong side, the darts sewn with seams on the wrong side, and two cordlocks on each of two opposite corner loops.