Serger Session 2: Getting to Know Your Serger

Once you've got your serger home and you've taken it out of the box. The first thing you wanna do is open either your supplemental guide or your owner's manual so that you can start learning the basic parts and also become familiar with the various accessories that came with your machine. I've already got the machine plugged in. It has a dual power cord and foot controller so that I don't have to worry about two cords on this particular model. And so when it comes time to plug it in, this particular model plugs to the side some of them will plug to the back and then just above the outlet is my on off switch. And that happens to be the position on this model. Again, it may be in the back on your model. They're all a little bit different. As you can see I have the machine opened when you first get it, it will be close like this. Now we're going to go through the different items for you. So you can see what we have. This particular one over here to the right of the machine is for your differential feed. And the differential feed determines if the top and bottom layers of your project are feeding through at exactly the same speed, or if one is going through faster than the other which will create gathers or other decorative stitches. So on this model, that's where it's located. I also have a selector switch over here on this model that helps determine what stitch I'm going to be making. In this case, the A is for my four thread wide the B is for three thread and so on. So this is my stitch selector. I also have another stitch selector, which determines if I am doing what we call a wave stitch which is proprietary to the baby lock, or if I am in an overlock mode, which is for all other sergings. So again, you don't have to worry about that one unless you happen to have a baby lock model that does that. You have a thread holder here. It does telescope. It goes down for travel or for storage. You want to have it fully extended to ensure the smoothest thread path. It also ensures that your threads don't break as easily. If it's fully extended and also determines how well your stitches are being formed. The knobs over here, this is for the stitch width. You have a small number that is for the right needle and the large larger number, which is a higher number is if you're using simply your left needle. So depending on which needle you're doing or if you're using both, then you would come over here. If you're using both needles for instance for your four thread, overlock stitch you would use the larger number for whatever setting you you are in. And this one just simply moves like that. It's just very, very simple. Now, not all machines are the same. I used to have an elna that was a computerized model and all of that information was up here. And you just went ahead and incrementally changed the settings. The tensions were up here on this particular machine. I don't have to worry about tension. That's a nice thing. When I thread it through it automatically adjusts my tension. But on other machines, you may see a knob by each one of the thread paths and that. So you can individually adjust the tension for those thread paths. Up here on most machines. Again, I can't speak for all, but on most this is one to determine the amount of pressure on your foot. Very similar to a sewing machine. Back here, See if I can turn it on most machines you're going to have your up and down lever simply lifts up and down again. This is your foot and you will have most likely several accessory feet that come with your machine. Or if depending on the model, it may be a entry-level model. You may only get the basics standard selling foot and then you can buy optional feet. Underneath of course, are you feet doors. Those are in the up position. They do not retract. And then down here, this larger switch or rather dial determines the stitch length. Again that may be controlled up here, or it may be computer. That's why I highly recommend have your owner's manual out. And even though I'm showing you the basics, you are going to need that manual to learn the parts of your machine and the specifics of threading. But all machines are going to have some mechanism for a stitch with a stitch length most likely for your differential feed, and for selecting the stitch. Back here, this large knob is actually the wheel. And as it turns, the needles go up and down and I will show you how the loopers travel to make the stitch. Now, you also have doors that drop down on your serger machines to allow you access into the thread path, into the loopers. On a lot of machines on most machines, you are going to have to open these up in order to thread and your loopers and to follow the different thread paths. On this particular machine. I get to chid. I just get to thread it as far as this, and then I have a selector for my upper and my lower thread path. And then I lock it in and press a button and it threads it the rest of the way for me, I opted for this feature. It costs all a little bit more, but since I used my serger in a business and on a routine basis, to me it was a godsend because I'll be honest with you. The main reason people get upset with their serger or get frustrated is because of the threading issues. It is a lot more work to thread a serger than it is to thread a normal sewing machine. But I will show you a couple tips for that too. So I'll go ahead and open this up just so you can see the mechanisms. The only time you'll need to open this up is to clean in here. And as you can see, there's a quite a little bit of machinery where the dust can collect. And I'll show you in a later segment, how to maintain this and how to clean all of these parts. But what you really need to know about in the inside of your machine are the loopers. Now, if you will watch closely here as I turn the wheel of the machine, you can see the needles coming down and the loopers are going over the top of each other and over in front of the needles there and creating that stitch. And you'll see this a little bit better when I thread it up with different colored threads. When we get to the section on overlock stitching because I really want you to understand how the stitches created and which thread is creating, which thread path. It's very important to know that if it's going to a Looper or to a needle. So this is as it indicates your lower Looper, because it is underneath this Looper and that is your upper Looper. And it will always be above that. Typically your thread path goes over the top of that Looper. So that's why it's called the upper. And you can see as that lower Looper comes down it's taking the thread off the Looper. And letting it go to make a stitch. And then it picks it up and continues. And you'll see that much clearer when I have color thread on. In addition to your loopers, you will either have a separate attachment or in this case it's built in it's on Let's see if I can get this to work. It just slips over. And when it comes and you'll see this more when we do our two thread work. It has a little hook that goes into the eye of the Looper to prevent that from functioning. And that's important because you don't use your upper lip Looper. When you're doing your rolled hems, you'll only be using your lower Looper and threading it. So that prevents it from being part of the action. And then when I'm done I simply don't wanna break it. I simply lift it up and pull it back down. On other models It looks like a little cap that goes over that. So again, you're gonna have to look at your owner's manual and find out how yours is done. You also have at the same time, your loopers and your needles are making the stitch right here is what we call the knife. And as you can see, that knife is moving in concert with the loopers and with the doodles. And as it comes along, this is let me see if I can show you better. Right here is the knife edge. And it is sharp because it's going to be cutting your fabric as it sews. Now, there are times when you don't want to trim your edges and that's what it's for. It's actually trimming the edge so that you have a nice clean edge to be encased with the thread as you're doing an overlock stitch. If you don't want that there is in this case, on my machine, it's a little dial. And if you watch right here, let me turn. Let's see if that's the best way to turn it. You can actually see let me see what I can do it from over here. You can watch that knife come down. Well, I can't do it with that hand. So, now you can see that the knife is down. And when I turn the loopers, the knife stays steady. It does not move. So it is in what we call a lock position. And then when I want to go back to a regular serger, it simply comes up. Other machines may have a little bit different mechanism but the concept is still the same. All sergers will have two loopers upper and lower and a knife and then multiple threads with different thread paths. So that's your basic serger. And no matter which model you get those are the things you need to realize and be aware of. Now, one little tip after you've gotten it threaded. Sometimes you're going to find out that that machine is not going to sew it's not broken. You simply did not get one of your doors closed tightly. It's a safety mechanism that makes sure that the machine can not sew until its all buttoned up and ready for flights so to speak. With your serger, you will usually get some type of a tool kit that will have your oil, your brushes for cleaning some screwdrivers for changing the knife out. And for maybe helping you get your light changed and it will come with an extra knife. And again, this is what the knife looks like. This one was used so it's got a little bit a wear there but I just got it back from my dealer for service. And you can see the sharp edge there that is on the knife. The knife cannot be sharpened. It's not like a kitchen knife. It is something you will have to replace. And depending on how much sergering you do depends on how often it will have to be replaced. So those are the basic parts. And now I wanna take a minute and talk about your needles and threads. Your serger will use special needles that are made specifically for the serger. And these are by Schmetz. I like the Schmetz and the cloth say new needles. However, it depends on what your manufacturer recommends for your machine is what you're going to want to use. For my machine I can use either the Schmetz or the classy but as you notice, and it's a little hard to read here but it does say overlock serger. And that's what you wanna look for because they still will say 90/14 and 80 /12 which is what we use in our sewing machines. The 90/ 14 is your jeans needle and for top stitching. Your 80/ 12 is more of your all-purpose needle. Although there really isn't such a thing but that's the one that we do primarily for cottons and that sort of sewing. You also have, and I don't have any with me unfortunately there also is a knit serger needle and you'll wanna have that. If you're doing any kind of knits. If you use one of these needles, what happens is it let me take one out and show you the needle is very pointed and that's so that it can go through the weave of the fabric if you use that on a knit, because the way that a knit is and I can't do it with my fingers here very well the way it's woven it, the needle is going to literally roll over and find the hole in between the weave of the knit because it is a rounded tip. And so it won't Pierce. It actually rolls over and finds the hole. If you use the sharp needle on and that's literally what these are, these are sharp considered sharps. The pointed tip will actually cut the thread of your knit and it will start to ravel and you'll get holes in your creation. So that's why you wanna have a ballpoint needle for any type of knit, whether you're serging or sewing. And then you use your sharps for your woven fabrics. The needle looks very similar to a sewing machine needle. If you look at it and it's a little hard to see here it does have that flat side and on majority of sergers that is going to go toward the back. And I will show you that when we do our maintenance section. But while they look very similar to your sewing machine needles please make sure that you're using the proper needle. They are manufactured a little bit different and they're milled differently. And if you use a sewing machine needle in there, you can as a minimum, have poor stitch quality and at worse you can throw the timing off. So that's why needles are very, very important. They are awfully small, but they can make a big difference in the success of your sewing and serging. Now, when it comes to thread this is the typical thread that we see with a serger it's on the large cones. And if you notice it's a little hard to see but they are cross round and that's so that it will come off of the spool very neatly at a high speed. Typically your serger thread is polyester and the so that you will have the stretch with any type of knit and polyester works absolutely fine for cotton sewing. You don't have to worry about it. It will be just fine. The reason we have large cones for serger thread is because since you are going at such a high speed and quite frankly because it's a pain just to rethread the machines it's nice to have a spool of thread. That's going to last long time and doesn't need to be changed, For most garment construction You can probably put on one color of thread and leave it. It's not as critical to change all four threads for a serging. I will show you an example of that in a little bit. When we get into our actual stitches you don't have to have all of the match. The only one you really need to worry about matching your fabric is going to be the thread that goes through your needle. And for that you can actually use your smaller spools of thread. They will work just fine, but if you're doing a large project or doing a lot of serging the cones are definitely the way to go. Cone thread will have less lint to it or rather the serger thread that's wrapped on the cone will have less lint. It is a thin thread. It's typically a 50 weight. And the reason you want a lighter weight thread is because you just don't need all that bulk piling up with a four thread or three thread application, as opposed to a sewing machine, which only has a top and bottom thread. So that's why we have the cone threads. So these are the basic construction threads that you would be looking at. Now, if you're going to be doing rolled hems which I'm primarily showing you threads that you would use to get started the basic threads that you might want to use one that you will use for knits or for anything soft. Let me see if this one's open and I will be demonstrating these as we go through the thread portion is this is what we call a Willy nylon. And it may come under different names with different manufacturers. It is a nylon thread. As you can see on the spool it looks just like a regular thread. It looks fairly thin, but when you take it off you can see that it kind of expands and it's stretchy. This stretches quite a bit. And then it relaxes back to its wooly self. For lack of a better word. You want to use this quite frankly, with your fleeces you can use it for decorative work. It's nice for any of your knit work because its very very soft against the skin. And it does have a wonderful amount of stretch to it. So if you're doing anything stretchy you're going to want to use this in your loopers. And you can actually combine that with your other threads, for the needles, for construction or even for decorative work. For decorative work especially if I'm doing something where the stitching is going to show on the outer side of the garment, which is very common to search garments. It doesn't always have to be to the inside. Like a sewing sim is or one that's done on a sewing machine. You might want to use the silky 12 white thread. It's the thickest thread that you can put through any kind of a sewing needle, be it a serger or a sewing machine. And it gives more definition to what you're doing. You'll see the stitches a lot more than you will with this 50 weight thread. With thread the lower the number the thicker the thread. And I think you can see here, the difference in thickness it's not just in color. It's the actual thickness of the thread. I love to use the 12 white thread, especially when I'm serging napkins or I'm doing a decorative edge on something using a narrow hem or even a rolled hem. It just looks absolutely beautiful. So those are two examples of your 12 weight. And the final one that I wanted to show you today is the pearl crown rayon it's a rayon thread. As you can see, it's even thicker, like put this one back. It's even thicker than your 12 weight quite a bit. And it makes for beautiful decorative work. This will not go through the needle. Let me say it again. Pearl crown rayon is only for your loopers. The same with wooly nylon. The only one that you're gonna get through the needle that's a decorative thread would be a 12 weight. All these threads come in variegated varieties which can add another interest level to your serging. And then when you have mastered the basics of your serger you may wanna get into decorative work and with decorative work, literally the sky's the limit. If you can get it through the Looper, go for it. You can use couching thread. You can even use some of the finer ribbons. If it goes through the Looper, you can use it. So have fun and enjoy the new world of thread that a serger opens up.