Monday, May 27, 2013

Conquering My Serger - I DID IT!

Oh yeah! Oh YEAH!!!

I bought my Brother 1034D around April 17th, and as noted here, it sat and sat and I was so scared to use it. And then, my awesome husband - who knows that I *hate* being challenged - did just that. We tease that I don't like "my manhood challenged" LOL!  He told me he was going to use that serger before I did and hmmph. I was determined to figure it out.

So I did! I tried to watch the dvd but it wasn't friendly with my MacBook - Boooo! And then, good 'ole YouTube got me going. The first time I threaded it, it took nearly 30 minutes. Oh boy! Overwhelmed again.

You have the upper and lower looper threads and then left and right needle threads. But of course, the order of threading is not straightforward. It's #3, #4, #2, #1. Makes sense, right? Sheesh.


I got it figured out and ran some scrap fabric through


WOOOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

And then I was ready to get going on real garments. And I was serging and serging and uh oh. Something isn't right...My upper looper thread is broken. How did THAT happen? So I examined it and yours truly made the biggest mistake ever - when I opened the spool of MaxiLock using a pair of scissors! Noooo! As I tried to salvage the thread, I soon realized that it was cut too deep. There was no telling how many layers of thread I cut through. So I had to give up on that spool, luckily JoAnn was having a sale, on ToldiLock by Gutermann. It feels a bit thinner than the MaxiLock and was about the same price yet is 2500 yards vs 3000 yards. I'll probably stick with MaxiLock for now, and use white or black for projects unless I really want to match thread color.

After buying the new cone of thread, it took me about 3 minutes to thread it. At one point I switched to white thread and again, had it threaded in just a few minutes.

I was serging the seams of my NL6035 skirt and something went haywire, and I broke a needle. I called in my husband for that one, and he had it replaced in no time. And again, I had it rethreaded in a matter of minutes.

Next up, I have to play around with 3 vs. 4 thread overlock, rolled hems and the like.

I am pretty stoked that I *FINALLY* conquered my fear of using my new baby and I shall name her Scarlett! :)