Wow thats a question alright. Well, felt can be used. If you get a wool felt it can be soaked in water and stretched over a form to fit (maybe the outside of the same gourd). Craft felt will stretch a bit but isn't nearly as good. Other fabrics can be used as well. I would cut them into triangles so that they don't bunch up at the bottom, use a good white glue painted all over the inside of the gourd and then spread the triangles point down until the inside is covered. Cotton is good for this. Another method might be to use a stretchy material, cut into a circle and made into a sort of cone shape by cutting a triangle out of it (like old dunce caps kids use to make). Again, lots of glue painted on the inside of the gourd and keep spreading the fabric until it is as smooth as possible. Let it dry and trim off the excess that might be showing. Does it need to be fabric because I think a good quality heavy weight art paper or rice type hand made paper would work nicely. And that could even be torn into pieces and glued all over the inside. Hope that helped. (I've never actually covered the inside of a gourd. Boxes and stuff like that but no gourds.)
Wait, if you're doing a canteen gourd you can line it easily because its been cut in half for a purse right? That way an over-sized circle with maybe a little batting underneath for padding (get the iron on kind and iron it onto the circle of fabric first) then just glue and tuck a little and Bob's your Uncle.........what ever that means.
OK, that was a great response, Glo. I'm thinking more about stretchy velour and maybe cutting it into wedges. Then sewing all the segments down to a center point. Get rid of all the excess and clip the curves. I'd measure the circumference of the gourd inside and add the seam allowances for 4 or 5 sections. The white glue is a good idea but I think I would only glue the center spot and the folded under raw edges. It's actually a brain storm for the "Believe" gourd box I posted a few days ago (not a canteen). Thank you - sometimes I need a second brain (well all the time actually) HA!
Oh yeah, P.S. I have covered the inside of a gourd with pieces of torn paper. It's pretty much like a decoupage project and turns out nice with a coat of poly over it. Tissue paper is pretty, and so are torn up brown bags. But the coolest I did was with some pretty wrapping paper.
