Serger Education – Your Guide for National Serger Month

We can’t get enough of serger education, so we’re excited to dive right in for National Serger Month. If you don’t own a serger yet, now might be the time to add one to your sewing room and experiment with all the functions and fun stitches you can create with this multi-needle machine. And if you already own a serger, we may convince you to use it more often with our great serger education.

About Sergers

A serger is a sewing machine that typically has two needles at the top of the machine bed and two loopers underneath, inside the machine body. The needles create the stitches while the loopers wrap around the fabric edges to finish them at the same time the seam is sewn.

Sergers aren’t just for seaming and hemming garments (although the hems you’ll create will be second to none)! A serger also allows you to create decorative exposed seams. These are particularly beautiful on unlined garments, such as wool coats and fleece wraps. Also, learn flatlocking details to insert ribbon through, and much more. Sergers make sewing knit fabrics a breeze, as the mechanics of the machine allow you to feed the top and bottom fabric layers at the same rate without shifting, bunching, puckering or stretching. Now, if you WANT a bit of stretch in the seam or hem (think lettuce edges), all you have to do is make an adjustment to the differential feed.

As shown above and below, sergers are also great for Sulky Blendables® Cotton Threads! Use 30 wt. in the needles and 30 wt. or 12 wt. in the loopers to produce really unique effects.

Many people express a fear of sergers. It’s often a fear of threading, a fear of switching between functions or simply a fear of the unknown. But we’re here to tell you that YOU CAN DO IT. And you will love it! A little serger education is all you need to boost your confidence!

Serger Education at Your Own Pace

Our popular Serger Sewing Session, with instructor Katrina Walker, teaches you the very basics of your serger and goes beyond to dip your toes in the waters of decorative serger applications, too.

She takes the fear out of threading the machine, so you won’t have to live with the same four thread colors until they run out! Whether your machine has a manual threading operation or an auto/air threading capability, Katrina provides tips for both.

Here’s an excerpt of the Session, focusing on serger anatomy.

While sergers may look scary, they are really fun and amazing to use. In this lesson Katrina will take you on a tour of the main components of sergers. Learn what the different parts are and how they work together to become a creator’s best friend. From the thread rack to the feed dogs, learn all about the anatomy of these wonderful sewing tools. Learning about how all those moving parts work together is very helpful in building confidence in using your serger. 

Serger Parts & Functions

The image below is from a Baby Lock Imaginé manual. This is just an example of a machine and its anatomy. Your machine brand likely has different parts, functions and more. Be sure to have your serger manual handy so that you can use it to help identify the parts of your particular serger.

All machine brands, makes and models are different, but the functions are often similar. Stitch Width and Length Dials, Cutting Blade Lock and/or Cutting Width Adjustment, Differential Feed & Tension Adjustment Knobs are the main serger parts to really understand to get the most out of your serger experience.

Learn More

Register for the Serger Sewing Session today! You’ll learn more about your serger, evaluate your next serger purchase and make a fun project, too! Katrina takes you through a beautiful table runner project that’s completed entirely on the serger. (The pattern is included with purchase of the Session!)

REGISTER FOR THE SERGER SEWING SESSION>

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