A Fashionable Stitch

didyoumakethat - I absolutely love my serger/overlocker. It’s some of the best money I’ve spent on sewing. It was a third the cost of my sewing machine and I emptied a coin jar to pay for it. Best decision I ever made.

Maggie - Thank you for this post! I have a serger, but rarely use it. I can totally relate with feeling a little guilty about wanting to use it and have instead pinked my seams until my finger ache!
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Diane @ Vintage Zest - Well, I took a serger class to see how I would like working on a serger. I’m hooked! Right now, I have it on my birthday wishlist, but it would have to be a lower end one because no one is going to give me a $1,000 present!

I’ll make do.
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Irene - To be fair, I think everybody has different priorities and preferences when it comes to sewing, and if someone wants to take the extra time to finish seams/hems “the old-fashioned way” because they prefer it over the serged finish look, more power to them (though there’s no merit in getting preachy or snobby about it).

For myself, I also prefer the clean-finish look over the serged look, but how much time I’m willing to spend to make that happen depends on the quality of the fabric and how excited I am for the finished object. I’m planning out a couple dresses made from Liberty Tana Lawn and you can bet I’m going to clean finish all the seam allowances. But a quick sundress from quilting cotton probably isn’t going to get the same treatment.

Staci - Here! Here! To lower ground sewing! I’m a serger convert and will never go back. I too used to dread the thought of finishing seams and have on several occasions, ended up with sore and bruised fingers from hours of pinking. I absolutely love my serger and use it constantly. Besides using it for finishing all my garments, I can’t imagine sewing knits without one.

My recent Tiramisu and Pavlova (Cake Patterns) were completed almost exclusively with my serger. It has truly saved me hours of time and I rather like the look of all my nicely pressed and finished seams.

Thank you for posting this article Sunni! More serger love is definitely needed on the web

For those interested, I purchased the Brother 1034D Serger from Amazon for $265 about 14 months ago. I use it several times a week for a few hours at a time and have never had a issue with it. It does a 3 or 4 thread finish and beautifully small rolled hems. I also purchased Anglea Wolf’s class of Craftsy “Creative Serging: Beyond the Basics” and wow! what a difference its made in my serging. You would not believe how much you can do with a serger~

Happy serging everyone!

Kathi Giumentaro - Some people are sewing snobs. There is a time and place for everything. I like French seams when they are called for and I have time to sew them. I do have a serger and would be lost without it. Jeans are a perfect example. Who the heck is not sergering the seams on jeans? You do what is right for you and the people claiming to be sewing on “higher ground” are snobs.

Rachel - love love love my overlocker (I’m a brit!) I did make the mistake of buying a used none-branded one off ebay first, which I could never get to work properly, about a year later I got an unexpected work bonus and splurged on a Brother 4234D, worth every penny! after it arrived I spent a week in sewing isolation and ‘OVERLOCKED ALL THE THINGS’. I don’t understand some of the sewing snobbery which goes on in the blogosphere, in my opinion there is no ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ ground, you find a technique that works for your circumstances, you go with it, along the way you learn new things and re-evaluate your techniques.

Ruth - Live outside the US, I meant. (And love too, of course!)

Lauren - I have one of them fancy self-threading sergers (the Babylock Imagine, to be specific). And yup, it cost me almost as much as my sewing machine (which is a pretty nice Bernina… aka not cheap haha). I know not everyone can justify spending $1000+ on a machine that basically only finishes seams and sews knits, but let me tell you… that self-threading mechanism was worth EVERY penny. I had the standard/inexpensive sergers in the past – and I’ve used them even up until now, as every time my friends buy one they ask me to show them how to use it – and it’s just so much easier to let the machine do the threading itself. The automatic tension is the real star, though. Also, I’m lazy and I could afford it at the time of purchase :B

At any rate, I totally agree with you – sergers are fabulous and I think every sewist should have one, or at least have the opportunity to sew on one so they can decide for themselves if that’s something they need in their sewing space. And people who poo-poo on serged seam finishes? BOO GO AWAY, YOU WILL PRY MY SERGED EDGES OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS. Party poopers!
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Barb Barna - I have owned a serger since the eighties. I am on my second serger and I don’t know what I would do without it. I use it for finishing seams, making loads of knitwear and many a new mom has recieving blankets that I have finished with the serger.
It is well and good if you can finish your seams by hand or with bias tape or any of the couture methods, but I don’t have time. I would still be on the first item, LOL.
Keep calm and Serge on!!
Barb from Canada

Cherie - I also have a serger. It is the Brother 1034. I love it! I put aside money every month to save for it. When I had saved enough money, I was so excited to purchase it. It has made a difference in my sewing. Now I am thinking about saving for a coverstitch!

CarmencitaB - Put me in the cave with the rest of you! I serge and I don’t care what anybody thinks.
I had a bout of “Couture Police Fright” recently whilst considering serging fine lace and I did and I was right because in the end your are the one making your design decisions, it’s your sewing project and it should be finished the way you want. As I did say in the accompanying blog post, if Vuitton can coverstitch an entire collection, I can do what I want.
I did splurge and buy a Baby Lock Enlighten and I too didn’t blog about it at first because it’s an insane amount of hard earned cash, but like Ladybird, it’s Baby Love for me too.
CarmencitaB recently posted..How To Hem a Full Skirt Without Help

Mary K - I have a Babylock that is at least 15 years old and I am intimidated by it, too. I really need to take classes on using this specific model (my local sewing store only offers classes on the Bernina).

When I took it in to be serviced, the repair guy said the reason it was skipping was because of the low quality of my threads. So, if you’re having problems with your serger, try different brands of threads and consider spending way more on the thread than you might usually do—it may make all the difference in the world! It worked for me. (My WalMart brand thread cones were thoroughly dissed!)

crystalpleats - Thanks for sharing. I have a serger I want to learn to use better. And you are more and more convincing me to get the Threads subscription every time you mention it! Thank you for being a reasonable voice regarding quicker methods. There is probably no reason to make sewing harder and longer than it needs to be.

Alex - Ain’t it the truth? There is a kind of snobbery against projects that have been serged. That snobbery started to creep into my mind and I batted it way over the left field fence. My first serger was a teenee, tynee Singer Tiny Serger I got 15 years ago. It’s like a toy. I still us it along side my Brother 1034D Serger. Both serve an important purpose. The Singer Tiny Serger for small, delicate serging and the Brother Serger for heavy duty, fast serging. I’m glad to have both.

Dinah - I am in the machine-quilting business and think of this serger vs. “higher ground” old-fashioned seam finishing very much like what I have run into with the hand quilting vs. machine quilting saga. I do machine quilting.. it’s faster and beautiful. There are traditionalists who say that it’s “cheating” to machine quilt and our grandmothers are rolling over in their graves in disappointment. Not me! IF my grandmother had had a machine that would have quilted, you can bet your bottom dollar she would have used it! Yes, there are times that doing a quilt by hand, or finishing seams the traditional way can be useful, but really times change and technology improves and I am all for it! I have 2 sergers. A basic model and a 5-thread one that has the cover-stitch capability. Love, love, love them.

Lewis - I’m sort of in between on this one.

I own a Brother 1034D too and I almost never use it. Each time it takes me like 30+ minutes to get it set up and adjust all the tensions etc when in most cases i could have felled or frenched a seam in much less time.

I think the source of the serger snobbery comes from RTW garments/fashion industry types. If you are looking at a RTW garment with no serging it is generally perceived to be higher quality since serging saves time/money in production. If you go to a high end store it is hard to find much serging. Now go to Old Navy or H&M and every seam in there is serged.

For home sewing I agree its more about making yourself happy with each project. If serging a seam makes you happy about your project then go for it! That’s what its all about right?

Jane - I love this post! I bought my overlocker for my 21st birthday and it is still going strong over 15 years later. It was a bottom of the line Bernette but still holds its price. I am looking to upgrade as I want a few more features (self threading is a must) but I couldn’t imagine sewing without one these days.

Lynn - I LOVE my serger. Honestly, I’m still a little afraid of it, but really, it’s either serging my seams.. or no finishing at all. I’m amazed by how much cleaner it is inside.
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lisa g - couldn’t do without my serger! i divide my sewing life into “pre-serger” and “post-serger” because it made that much of a difference to me. i see the serger shaming occasionally and it’s nice to see you preaching that serging is not a lesser finish. i like slower hand finishes as much as the next person, but it’s just not realistic to do it all the time.
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Barbara J - I don’t have a serger … yet. But I’ve been using the overlocking stitch on my sewing machine. It’s not as pretty as a serger of course. All I need to do is change my foot and it’s a bonus when my thread colour already matches the fabric!
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Melanie - Wow, that’s a lot of overlocker-love! I prefer vintage style and to me, serging just spoils the effect you are trying to emulate. Home sewers have only had access to domestic sergers since, what, the 60s? That’s a couple of hundred years in which we coped without them. So, I’m happy with my pinking shears, and the odd french seam or zigzag edge when necessary. I went to a beginner sewing class a few years ago and the teacher was telling the students about overlockers – these were people who were just beginning and hardly knew yet if sewing was for them. So the fact that she didn’t even offer pinking shears as a quick and cheap alternative irked me. You don’t always need a super-sophisticated machine to do something. Its like chopping an onion in a blender when a knife does the same job. And isn’t it a massive waste of thread?
That said, I don’t sew with knits…and clearly I’m in the wrong forum to be dissing overlocking…so live and let live I say…

Kay - I bought a Juki decades ago and still use it today. It’s a bit complicated so I only use two of the four threads and don’t adjust anything — I just change the thread to match my fabric. Even my son uses it when he hems his own trousers!

Becky - I love my serger! After I got it was really the first time I started to have any success in sewing knits, and I use it on a lot of things now. I didn’t use it on my wedding dress that I made recently, since I was purposely doing that as a more couture project, but it made me pretty happy when I sewed some things since and got to use it to finish all of the seams! So much faster! (Mine’s an entry-level Babylock, too.)
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corinne - I waited a long time before I bought my first serger. It was a mid-range Janome 634 D, have had it for 20 years, works like a dear. I still use it. A couple years ago I went for the big dog Bernina. What an amazing machine! It is also a cover stitch machine. (I have not used that function yet, sadly, way too much work to set up!!) So the take-away here is buy the serger. Prices now are more reasonable. Buy a separate cover-stitch machine. While the new machine does an absolutely perfect stitch, every time, way too much money to include the cover-stitch function. I am also a Threads Insider. Sunni is right. A great platform for information and tutorials. Go there, I think it only costs $12.95 per year.

Ann Belcham - I have a Husqvarna 936 and love it. It is a top end machine and I can do 3/4/5 thread serging and cover stitch. I haven’t done the 5 thread or cover stitch yet but plan on it. I made piping using the serger and that was interesting.

Though I will never stop using my serger as it is perfect for finishing seams, I plan on making a shirt for DH without using the serger at all. Just for the fun of it.

I have to say, don’t be afraid of a serger. Play with it and, if possible, get a couple of lessons on how to use it. I took a two day course and learned a lot.

VictoriaR - Thanks for the serger info, I toy with the idea of buying one. I have a serger that I inherited from my sister-in-law. It doesn’t have differential feed, but it finishes seams just fine and I use it often. The thing bout seam finishing is that I used to not do it at all! I have been sewing for years (learned in the late 60s) and I never finished seams on anything except the fanciest or raveliest fabrics. Never. I think the need for finishing all seams is over-rated. It is nice to do, but not necessary. I guess that puts me in the lower than low-ground camp on seam finishing!

Sarah - I’m of mixed feelings about sergers (although not morally, psht, just personally). Years ago one was gifted to me, and it gave me nothing but trouble. Eventually it was so infuriating with tension problems and wavey stitching and everything that I passed it on, and have never regretted it. However, I think it was rather low end, and maybe a better brand would handle more nicely. Since I have started working with knits more frequently it sometimes seems like a good idea to give them another try, especially if I got one with coverstitch functionality, but my sewing machine WILL work for these things. And while there is certainly nothing wrong with serging raw edges, I genuinly enjoy using seam binding (that’s weird, isn’t it? I just love the lines of pretty colours inside of my clothing, and find it very satisfying to make everthing smooth and clean).

silvia - I too love my serger and wouldn’t sew without it. But I don’t make historically accurate or vintage clothes. I make stuff I like to wear. It’s a choice whether you need/want a serger. I bought mine in the mid 90s while at FIT and it still works great today (Bernette 04D I think) so I’ve got my money’s worth.

eronoe - Since I am a pro-seemstres I always use the serger! Straight stitch and serger are usualy the only two machines used on woven fabrics (exept for specialls like buttonwholers and trensing). For stretch its sergers and flatlock/coverstitch machines.

I inow some people think it’s cheating, that pro’s go the easy way but acctualy the modern zigzag came AFTER the industrealisation of garmentmakeing. In other words, it’s a myth. Only amature homesewers have ever zigzaged their hems! HAH!

The old fashion pro way of doing it is by french seem or handmade heming, there are ways of heming on straight stitch machines also but it only works on a few fabrictypes.

ClippedCurves - Finishing seams properly is just sewing snobbery! An overlocker (my family wouldn’t know what a serger was, they barely understand an overlocker!) is top of my present wish list for my just around the corner big birthday. I can’t wait.