Janome 1110DX

My ‘New’ Serger

~ Michelle

Many, many years ago, my wonderful husband bought me a serger. He surprised me with it, so I hadn’t had any input into the decision. He just wanted to make me happy. And he did!

The serger, however, did not. It was a Kenmore. I don’t remember the model, but it was nothing but trouble. It would not stay threaded no matter what, and that was only one of its problems. I’d taken it back for repairs three times while it was still under warranty. Finally, the last time I took it in, I found out there had been a recall on it. The store replaced it on the spot. That was wonderful!

The big problem was, I wasn’t in love with the idea of a serger anymore. Yes, they can be great, but after three years of nothing but trouble, I didn’t even want to use it. I wasn’t using it. It sat for years. I finally sold it.

There were times I did regret selling it. Every once in a while I’d borrow one from a friend, because they are great in finishing everything so quickly and neatly. When they work, they’re the greatest.

Do you remember a while back I mentioned a friend had let her serger and Cover Pro machine come and stay at my house? I was going to let the Cover Pro stay here, but her serger didn’t work very well. I had taken it in to be repaired and the repair man said it wasn’t a very good machine – it wouldn’t hold the thread, it was loud and it shook a lot. Hmm, that was not what I was wanting… again. After struggling with it, I called her up, thanked her for her kind offer and gave it back to her. Now, in her defense, she’d never even used it, so had no idea.

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     I wasn’t having the best of luck with sergers, was I? However, if you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know, I don’t give up.

Just a few weeks ago, I called another sewing friend to ask if I could borrow her serger. She said, ‘Yes, of course.’ Then she said she’s selling it and wanted to know if I was interested.

Well, to make a long story a little shorter, look who came to stay at my house:

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This is the Bernina 1300MDC. Just to assure me she’s a great machine, she came with a sticker on her front saying she’s the Consumer Choice 2010.

I just (finally) had time to sit down and start reading through the manual. I didn’t get very far before I was absolutely stunned by what I was reading. I was reading how to insert the needles, and it said how to change the Left Needle for Cover Stitch, and the Center Needle for Cover Stitch, then the Left for Overlock, and the Right. I stopped reading. I read that all again. This is a Cover Stitch machine too? I had no idea!

I called my friend and asked her. ‘Yes,’ she said. I must have sounded a little odd because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had no idea when I got the machine that it was both. I simply thought it was a great serger.

She went on to say, she’d just had it serviced to make sure it was in perfect working order before selling it. I’m thinking my serger luck has changed! Woot woot!

Happy creating!

‘My’ New Serger

~ Michelle

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to bring home my friend’s serger. And then to be told she wasn’t in any hurry to get it back; that I could just keep it at my house; that she’d never used it even. Thrilled would be a good place to start.

I found a great tutorial with really clear instructions on how to oil your serger, and where to oil it. It was much clearer than the manual’s instructions. You can read it here.

The machine really sounded terrible when I serged that first test swatch. Imagine the sound of metal grinding against metal. That was pretty much how it sounded. Once I oiled it, it did sound better. However, my second test swatch still sounded rough to me.

My plans to finish the scarf for my Mum went out the window, as well as a camisole I wanted to make for my Mum. At least as far as using the serger for those projects went. So the machine was packed up and put in the trunk of my car to make a trip to the repair man.

The trip to the repair man was good news on one hand – there’s nothing wrong with the machine. It is usable. He said it could use a tune up, but the blade is still sharp and it was working as it was. The not great news is he said this model is a noisy model and it vibrates a fair amount. He said it also sometimes skips stitches. Hmm, as I said, not great news. So, it’s back home with me, but also still sitting in the box awaiting its fate. I’m not feeling quite as thrilled.

So to finish one of my projects I decided to use my overlock stitch on my sewing machine to sew up the camisole. It turned out so nice.

Cami for Mum

This is a lovely shaped camisole pattern. It’s Kwik Sew 2286. And it actually has shaping to it – it curves in at the waist.

The material I used is a burnout knit. I was wishing I had more of it. I only bought a 1/4 of a meter when I first bought it a couple of years ago, as at that time I was only planning on using it to cover foam bra cups with it.

Black burnout knit on beige cups

Here’s an older photo of a foam cup bra I made when I first started making bras, and I used the burnout knit to cover the cups. This was the burnout knit over beige foam cups from Bra Makers Supply. Such a pretty material! You can read about the bra on my blog here.

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And here’s how the material is over my hand. This will be a fun and flirty camisole, but not likely one to be worn showing. It’s a little too transparent for that I think.

As for the scarf clone? Well, I’m still contemplating doing the hem by hand AND contemplating oiling up the serger again and giving the rolled hem a try. I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to finish that one yet. I’m encouraging myself right now even, that I as I type this; I have the serger here, and it does work… I just might be leaning towards the serger rolled hem.

Happy creating!

A Pirose Clone (Look What Came to Stay)

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

I really wanted to make a copy of one of my favorite scarves – The Pirose scarf. I have two of these, and just love them both. However, they are rather expensive as scarves go. Then I saw a Sewing with Nancy episode: Sew Amazing Scarves. You can read about it here. And she was talking about the O Sew Easy scarf. Well, that’s pretty much the same as the Pirose. I decided I’d make a clone.

Here’s one of my originals.

Pirose

I really love this scarf. And I often wear it just like this – on the diagonal. I find it a fun and flirty this way to wear it. I cut out my clone after making a pattern, and then tried a few ways to finish the edges. Nancy says you can just overlock it with a serger, but I prefer the original finish on it – a serged rolled hem done with woolly nylon thread.

Here’s my clone.

Pirose copy

The edges are still unfinished as of yet. But not because of lack of trying on my part. I went to the fabric store and bought some woolly nylon to try in my sewing machine. I’ve read a few times that the bobbin is the problem area using woolly nylon in a sewing machine. That was not the case for me. For me, the upper thread kept breaking. I started entertaining ideas of a hand-sewn rolled hem, but didn’t act on that.

Then I decided to call a friend – and just like on the TV show, I hit the jackpot! My friend, whose husband happens to be a Producer, had a serger I could borrow.

How does the hubby fit in? Well, he produced a sewing show for a few years, and the machines went with him when the show was done. Doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?

I went to pick up the serger and my friend said she wasn’t in any hurry to get it back, but I could just keep it at my house. She said she didn’t even know how to use it!

Serger

Here’s the newest member of my sewing family. I can tell you, I’m really hoping it lives here for years! This is a Janome 1110DX.

My friend and I continued to chat and she said she had another machine I might want to take too. I asked her what it was and she said it was called Cover Pro. I’m sure my mouth fell open. I could not believe what I was hearing. Not only was I going home with a serger, but also a cover stitch machine? Really, I hit the jackpot!

Here’s the other newest member of my sewing family. This is a Janome CoverPro 1000CP. This one I’m buying from her so it can stay forever.

Cover Pro

Oh, I am such a happy sewer right now! Or is it sewist? I read on another blog a suggestion for sewster. That sounded fun. Regardless, I’m really happy!

I found the manuals online and printed them off so I have a hard copy to help me through any things I don’t remember. I haven’t had a serger for years. And the one I did have years ago had problems. I remember taking it back to the dealer to be fixed at least three times. And the last time I had it in, I mentioned I’d had the same issue repaired already. They looked it up and sure enough, I had taken it in more than once. At that point, they told me I could exchange the machine for a new one! That was amazing, but by that time I had really fallen out of love with the serger. It came home with me, and sat. I finally sold it to a dear young woman who was getting into sewing.

Back to this serger, I cleaned it out, and started it up and ran a test strip of material through it. Boy, it needed some TLC. I got some oil and oiled it. It does sound a bit better, but I’m still concerned about how it sounds.

Hmm, I’m not sure when that scarf will be finished at this point but I’m really looking forward to learning all about and using these newest members of my sewing family.

Happy creating!