A challenge, a bodging

Several weeks ago Mr CB found a beautiful cashmere/wool mix coat in a charity shop.  It's lining was shredded but at £6.99 it was too good to leave behind.  Since loosing lots of weight since having to give up gluten he's been in serious need of a new coat and this one fits beautifully.

But oh, that lining:

The cost to have it re-lined is beyond our means so I decided to try and reline the bottom part (the only really damaged bit) myself.  Actually under the arms need reinforcing but that should be simple enough to do with some cotton tape.  I bought a meter of lining fabric for about £2 then unpicked the lover half of the lining and used it to cut out a replacement from the new fabric.  

There have been several unexpected hurdles so far.  Firstly, lining fabric is one of the slipperiest materials in the known world and working with it has been a challenging experience;  I've done a lot of pinning and readjusting.  Secondly I failed to notice that the inside of the coat has a wider hem on one side than the other.  I cut both sides the same then pinned them in place and realised my mistake, so I had to unpick one half and re-sew the hems all around to try to eak out more fabric and make it fit.

Now I'm here:

I've sewn the two halves together and pinned them in place.  Hurdle number three has just loomed up in front of me tonight though.  I got Mr CB to try the coat on and I could see that the lining was pulling the hem of the coat upwards, making it bunch up.  I've unpinned the lower half of it and am going to have a hot bath to ponder my next bit of bodging.  It's been a funny stop/start process so far, with me making progress, hitting an obstacle, walking away until I get my head around it then coming back and making a little more progress.  I'm determined to finish though, it will be held together by thread, determination and bodging.