Serger Workshop

On Saturday I took a Serger Workshop class with my mom and aunts at Steve's Sew and Vac in King of Prussia.  I've had Mr. Nilsson for about a year now, but I've really only used him to finish seams.  It was really awesome to see the different things you can do with a serger!

There were about 10 people in our class and almost everyone had a different machine.  I am SO glad that I got the Babylock Imagine, which has automatic tension and a very easy threading system.  Using it seriously couldn't be more simple.  I can't imagine having to deal with tension knobs and the very complex threading on some of the machines.  One poor woman brought her serger that was made in 1982 and ended up beyond frustrated with it.

Our instructor was Pamela Leggett, who has her own pattern line, Pamela's Patterns, and has written quite a few articles for Threads.  She was very patient with all of us and our different machines and shared a bunch of great tips for using our sergers.  She gave us a few sheets of different techniques and as we completed sampes of the techniques, we pinned them onto the pages.

 

This way we have a working notebook of the techniques and can refer back to them later.  Since I have automatic tension, my Tension Control sheet was super easy to complete!  If you have a serger that doesn't have automatic tension, this sheet works as a cheat sheet for what tension settings your machine needs for different types of fabric. You record the tension settings for each type of fabric and then you have a logical starting place when you work with that fabric in the future.  It's a great system but I am so glad that I didn't have to bother with all of that fiddling!

We used this worksheet method for a few different techniques in a my very first sewing class and I think it's a great idea.

  

The Serger Workshop was from 10am-4:30pm, so it was a lot of information to remember.   Being able to have an actual example of the technique is so much more informative than just taking notes.

I highly recommend taking a class with Pamela and at Steve's in general.  But remember to wear layers—it was freezing in there!

Meet Pippi, Mr. Nilsson, and a New Pillowcase

Around Christmas, I was checking out sergers so I could have nicely finished hems and be able to work with a wider range of fabrics, but decided that one just wasn't in the budget at that moment.  A few weeks later it dawned on me to cash in the credit card points that I've been saving since I got my card in 2005.  I had enough points to cover all but $100 of the machine.  Score!  I shopped around and found a Babylock Imagine at Steve's Sew and Vac (which is in a new location and is HUGE) that was both on sale and included an extra package of presser feet, trolley, and workbook.  That serger was mine! 

I brought him home to live with my sewing machine, Pippi.  I love Pippi.  I got her last year after the machine that my Grandmother gave me died, and as soon as I started sewing with her, it was like I shed 500 pounds and was able to instantly run a marathon.  Isn't she a beauty?

The case to the right is an accessories case that attaches onto the back of Pippi.  It holds presser feet, needles, bobbins, and cleaning tools, among other things, and it's really convenient that it always stays with the machine.  Don't get me wrong, I was upset when my first machine died because it was a Singer from the 70s and it looked awesome.  Plus there is something romantic about using my grandmother's sewing machine, but the reality is that it was really hard to work with.  When I first started looking for a new machine, I didn't think I wanted an electronic machine because I didn't think I needed 200 different stitches and programming and everything that an electronic machine has to offer.  After trying out an electronic machine, which are actually called sewing computers (haha), I was sold.  Pippi makes sewing so easy! 

When I brought the serger home, it only made sense to name him Mr. Nilsson.  You know, Pippi's monkey pal.  The best thing about Mr. Nilsson is that he self-threads using jet air!  It is AWESOME!  You just stick the end of the thread in the hole, press a button, and whoosh—it's threaded.  This takes awat the hardest part about using sergers.  Check him out.

I was a bit nervous to try Mr. Nilsson out, so I decided to make a pillowcase for ConKerr Cancer since you can't get much easier than sewing straight lines.  I had some stretchy jersey-ish material that I found in the clearance section at Joann when I first started sewing and didn't realize that it would best be used with a serger.  I held onto it until the time was right... and the time was right this past Sunday! 

I wish I could see the reaction of the kid that picks this pillowcase out of the stash.  I love this fabric and I'm sure that whoever receives the pillowcase will love it as much as I do.

If you're completely new to sewing, pillowcases are a great place to start.  The cutting and the sewing is simple, there's very little that you can mess up, and the entire project can be completed in a short amount of time.  Plus, ConKerr provides the instructions for you!

The first step is to cut out the body and border pieces.

Then, fold the border longways in half, wrong sides together, and press.

Next, pin the border to the body of the pillow case, raw edges together.  Sew along the raw edges.

Check out those serged edges!!

Then you'll fold the pillowcase in half, right sides together, and sew along the side and bottom edges.  And you're done!

Next time I'll try and line up the pattern a little better, but I had a pretty easy time putting this together using Mr. Nilsson for the first time.  The serger feature that totally blew me away was the knife system that cuts the fabric as you feed it through the machine to serge.  Whoever thought of this was a genius.  I am very excited to have Mr. Nilsson as the newest member of my sewing family!