Need help with your serging? Do you like to serge and would like to share your experience?

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by SewingForAll on Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:42 am

Okay, I have a confession….I bought a serger in 1994, used it all the time to finish seams. My DH bought me a serger last year for Christmas and the same thing, used it for finishing seams!! Well, I was making the pj tops for the grands and realized that I was making each top twice…first on the machine and then on the serger. SOOOOO, I make the last 5 completely on the serger except for topstitching and hemming. I need to learn the blind hem on the serger but at least I made them on the serger!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Nonie for the tip on collars!! Do you use your serger for making garments or do you use it as only a finishing tool like I did for so many years?

Do you have any tips for ‘sewing’ with your serger? I would appreciate any info you have to offer…..Thanks

Blessings >
Angie

SewingForAll senior member
  Posts: 762 Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:02 pm Location: W. TN

by westbrook on Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:42 pm

I use my serger to make everything! well almost everything.. won’t do button holes… I haven’t tried zippers yet… on my list of to do’s. tips? Get to know your serger! start a sample notebook of everything you do. Learn to recognize a balanced stitch.. put balanced and unbalanced stitches in your notebook. Somewhere around here is a form to use.. or make up your own. needs to have a title.. what stitch it is. Balanced 4 thread or Balanced 3 thread right needle or balanced 3 thread left needle. Perhaps it is right needle too tight or lefft needle too loose. Rolled hem, Longest Stitch, Lettuce edge and so on. So the title is what you are doing. needs to have lower looper, upper looper, right needle and left needle with the type of thread used in each lines.. you fill in the blanks. These blanks will have the number on each tensioner and the type of thread used in each tensioner. you need a place to write the tension numbers for length and width, if the diff. feed is on what is that number. the type of fabric being used is really important. add anything else to this form you think is important. Since I have a 5 thread and 5 needle positions, I have a form that includes those. This new machine has a pressure foot adjustment for how much tension is applied for thicker fabric so I have added that to my form. It is really about saving time in the long run. If you save samples in a notebook of all the stuff you do, in no time, you can go to the book, look up that stitch with that or similar fabric, dial in the tension, fine tune it and serge! no longer spending an hour trying to get it right only to have to spend another hour trying to remember what it was set at. Make a copy of your manual. Many times they come in several languages and is way more pages then necessary. I also feel better about writing in my manual if it is a copy. And I do write in them!

just have fun!

westbrook senior member
  Posts: 318 Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 5:35 pm

by nonie on Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:46 am

angie, I so agree with Brook about doing a notebook. I have been using my serger more and more for clothes. I was like you and just used it to finish seams. I have played with the blind hem but have not put the time into it to master it yet. I did figure out how to do ruffles and attach them at the same time.

nonie Super Sewer
  Posts: 7589 Joined: Tue Jun 22, 2004 9:36 pm

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