Kuspuk

 

This is a size 4 kuspuk. I used the serger for some of the seaming, the regular sewing machine for the rest. I really liked using the 4 thread overlock over the gathered seam of the flounce. The serger just hums like trouper. There's no going back, would hate to be without one now.

Kuspuk & things

I am sewing a size 4 kuspuk for my granddaughter. I'm using the serger when appropriate, 4 thread overlock. Mostly i'm using a sewing machine. And my God, my regular sewing machine (Viking 435 Interlude) is so incredibly simple to use, now that I have a serger! My sewing machine is like reading "Fun with Dick & Jane' in first grade. My serger is like reading War & Peace. In Russian.
Truthfully, learning my serger has inspired me to learn to use the regular sewing machine better as well. I can tune the tension better, sew the seams straighter, everything I'm doing is more precise. And I'm researching and shopping for more feet for both machines. My grandparents would be proud.

3-thread rolled edge w/fishline!

I flipped through pages of the book to see what to try next. Since I'm set up for 3 thread flatlock, I see I can try the 3 thread rolled edge with only minor adjustments, one of which is removing the multipurpose presser foot and putting on the "S" foot. S for standard? I don't know. Reading further, and see that I can put something inside the rolled edge like a cord, wire or fishing line. I remember in Georgie Melot's book the flower made with wire inside the rolled
edges of the petals. I found some 40 wt. fishing line and gave it a try. You see the result in the picture, and it wasn't hard at all, even w/o a specialty cording foot.

Still, I am shopping for feet. I found a pintuck foot already and it's on its way. I watched another episode of Sewing with Nancy where her guest demonstrated the nifty applications of this. My DVR is beginning to get filled up with Nancy's shows now.

 

Yuck!

Maybe it's threaded wrong, ya think?

Panty repair practice

Putting the 3-thread flatlock stitch to practical use. I know it looks funky, but it's my first repair.

My Serger

Another view of my Huskylock; I am a BLOGGER virgin too. i wish I knew how to combine and arrange these photos artistically.

Coverstitch Practice

2-thread and 3-thread coverstitch samples

My Huskylock 936

Back to 4-thread settings

OH NO.... now how do I go back?   I'm drunk with pride after my success with the coverstitch and chainstitch. so I want to go back to the original settings.  Should be a breeze, no?  NO!   I can't figure out how I threaded the lower looper!   I understand where the thread has to go, but I had to remove the throat plate and the presser foot, plus guide the thread through the little hole from back to front with a # 9 steel crochet hook.  I'm sure that's NOT how I threaded it before.  Minna, Georgie, Nancy... I need you!
But I did get it threaded in my own way, so I forge ahead and try that 3-thread flatlock with the multi-purpose foot.  After several  attempts that looked awful, I finally get a nice neat flatlock.  And I even put it to good use on a pair of undies whose (chinese) factory flatlock stitching missed one side of the elastic in several places.

Coverstitch Conquest

OK maybe conquest is too strong a word.   Back homer and armed with new enthusiasm and encouragement from Minna, I brace myself and go about changing the settings for coverstitch.  There are a lot of things to change, but it isn't so hard.   You only need the one coverstitch looper, and the threading for that is no big deal after you've been threading for the 4 thread overlock.

After carefully changing the needles to A & E, My first attempt is the wide coverstitch.  The result is not so good on the looper side.   Then the A needle thread breaks.  In order to re-thread, I figure I better unthread E as well and thread A first.   Back in business, the result is better, but still not good.  I try again, and no serging happens at all. No thread in the fabric!  Then I find out my looper is no longer threaded through that very last hole.  Try again, better, but still messy.  OK now I see I omitted one point in the middle of the looper threading.  AND, one of the needle threads is not snapped into the tension disk on top.

So this is how it goes, trial and error, but eventually.... eventually I DO get it right and I see a lovely impossibly neat stitch on my fabric!  I am SO exhilarated because I've figured it all out by myself.  Quick, I want to try the narrow coverstitch.  Hell, it's just exactly the same with the needle position changed from A to B. Duh!  And one tension adjustment, I should add.
I get it now.  I get the tension adjustments.  I get the stitch advisor recommendations too.  it's all coming together. I am SO happy!
Hmmmmmm now I can try the TRIPLE coverstitch.  It must be impossibly complex.  But NO, you just add another needle so you have 3, A, B, and E.   Dang, I'm sewing with 3 threaded needles at once, and the stitch looks incredibly perfect!

Question to serger gods: Why aren't the front 3 needles positions A, B, and C?   Just asking.

OK now I'm going back to try the double chainstitch again because it didn't really look right before.  Since I now have the looper threaded correctly.  And this time it looks good.   How amazing is that!!!

Help in the "Clutch"

After Christmas, I go to see Minna at JoAnn's again.  She remembers me with my list of questions from Homer.  I've been trying to set up the serger for the chainstitch and coverstitch, but the book mentions moving the "clutch" and nowhere can I figure out where or what that is.   Minna has the answer right away. It's the slide at the bottom behind the cover, the "chain/cover select lever."  We talk about needles and optional feet.  I am beginning to realize that those who sew very well and produce beautiful creations are those who pay attention to needle sizes, thread types, and optional feet.   I ask about a pintuck foot for my regular sewing machine, and I'm aghast that it costs $41.95!  For a sewing machine foot!   I decide to buy the expanded instruction book for the Huskylock 936 for $32 instead.  This time.  I can easily spend another $800 on attachments and optional accessories for my 936.    I ask Minna about all the thread cones I inherited from my grandmother.  Can I still use them.  She says no, which is what I figured she'd say.  Don't know why I even asked.
    

Needles & thread Education

In Anchorage, I find Minna right away and read off my questions.  I tell her I bought a Huskylock 936, but I don't say where.  She doesn't ask and she is just happy that I bought one. She has an answer for all my questions, and the foot replacement was the easiest.  I was just pressing the wrong way, down instead of in.  It's a little tricky snapping in the presser foot, but I've done it a few times now and I know how it works.
     When I get home, I change presser feet and try the flatlock stitch.  It doesn't look too good.  I start thinking about trying the chain stitch, and I see that you need #90 needle in position A, and # 80 needle in position C.  Well here's a problem:   I took needles out of the case which contains both those sizes without any thought to which size they are.  So now that they are out of the case, how do I know?   My friend Jim is visiting, so we figure there must be SOME marking on the needle.   If there is, it is not visible to the naked eye.  Eventually with reading glasses PLUS magnifying glasses, we find the miscroscopic size engravings on the needles I remove from the machine.   I take a permanent marker and dot the flat side of the #80s.
     The needle positions A and C are a revelation too!  I didn't know there were actually 5 different needle positions.  Through my lifetime of casual recreational and not very serious sewing projects, I never paid much attention to needles except for ball point ones for knits, and heavy duty ones for jeans.  I also never thought about thread types.  Now when I watch Sue Hausman on PBS, she rattles on about 30 gauge thread or 80 gauge thread, and holds up fabulous variegated color threads, and even recommends one weight thread for the bobbin and another weight for the needle.  I am in sewing machine minutia (sp?) overload and my head begins to hurt!  And Sue isn't even talking about a serger this time.  Nevertheless, I also want Sue Hausman for a next-door neighbor as well.
     I go back to work on finishing a little fleece jacket for the girls.  The serged seams look SO pretty! I am definitely gaining confidence with the 4-thread overlock.  But I'm also writing another list of questions for Minna on another upcoming trip to Anchorage.
  

I reach the Wall

I meant no offense to Peggy Huff!   I love having her as my closest neighbor, and she DID come to my rescue in my neediest time of serger ownership.  But wouldn't it be fun if Georgie and Nancy were our neighbors too?

I marvel at so many differences between serging and sewing;
1.  After serging to the end of your fabric, you keep your foot on the pedal and serge several inches of thread past the needle.
2.  You can't turn sharp corners, you can't "stop-needle-down" like on a sewing machine.
3. You have to mind that knife cutting off the edge of the fabric.
4. You don't need to start with  fabric under the presser foot.  You just set it close, and the feed dogs suck it under and through.
5. And I don't think you ever want to rip out a serged seam and do it over.  Seems like it would be such a mess, plus that knife has cut off your seam allowance already.

After performing those 2 stitches, I leaf forward through the guide and decided to try the flatlock stitch.  But you have to change to the multipurpose pressure foot for that.  How do I remove the presser foot that's on there?   The guide says to press the button in the rear and the foot will fall off.  I press, nothing happens.  I press harder, I try to pull off the foot, but it's on there for good.  So I decide I'm at a wall and decide to wait.  I'm going to Anchorage in a few days.  I'll stop at JoAnn's and ask Minna Ponte.   Minna is the very nice lady who manages the Viking center there.  She knows all, and she's the one who convinced me the 936 is such a terrific machine.  I have to admit I am a little embarrassed I didn't buy it there.
       In the meantime, I try 4-thread overlock serging on some simple fleece patterns.  And I realize that's OK, but there are some areas of the patterns that simply must be sewn with a regular sewing machine, not a serger.   And I'm keeping a list of more questions for Minna too.

    

Practicing.....

So I started making 4 thread overlock seams.  They are so pretty and professional.  The serger just chunks along and makes this tough neatly overlocked seam.  Next I watched an episode of Sewing with Nancy with a whole new interest.  Her guest was Georgie Melot and by golly they were showing simple beginner serger projects for people just like me, serger virgins!    I scribbled directions and proceeded to make about 10 potholders as demonstrated by Georgie.
     A short time later, I actually found & purchased Georgie's book full of these little projects.  Next I made a cloth gift bag for a bottle, as in wine or brandy.  The "stepped up" version included a fabric flower.  The flower needs finished edges requires you to try a new serger stitch, the "rolled edge."  Although I am full of trepidation, I begin to follow the directions for setting up this new stitch.  I  pull out one of the needle threads, yikes!    I rummage in my stash of fabric,  select a likely candidate, and cut it into a long strip.  I hold my breath and press my foot on the pedal.  Damn... here comes a perfect rolled edge along the strip, I am SO inspired!
     Then I try making a little neck purse.  Georgie said this is for your credit cards so you can shop without being encumbered by your purse.  I gotta say, that Georgie is the master of folding and turning layers inside out and then ending up with something useful and beautiful.  The "stepped up" version includes some cute curly dangling ties you make on the serger, but I decide to forego those for now since I don't have the decorative nor the stretch nylon thread you need.
     But wow... 2 stitches now in my serger vocabulary.  That Georgie, how I wish she lived next door. Same goes for Nancy Zieman!

Serging in the Wilderness

Since I live in Homer, a little southcentral Alaskan coastal town, there are no Viking dealers within 200 miles, unless you mean Viking Husqvarna chainsaw dealers. And even if there was, I bought my machine on EBAY which does NOT offer classes with purchases of sewing machines. So I asked around my neighbors. One neighbor warned me to "never change the thread." Wow, that's quite a warning! I corresponded with my ebay seller a few times, and he offered the helpful advice that I could change thread by "tying on" new thread to the old.

Frustrated, I went on facebook and told everyone I bought a serger and I couldn't figure it out. I was surprised that many of my facebook friends also have sergers. All of them confessed to having problems with them. One said that he bought a serger for his wife, and she never took it out of the box. A non-serger owning friend recommended going to youtube for instructional videos. To my surprise, there are LOTS of these, even on serger operations. So I looked at a few of those. They were very helpful, and I began to understand the basics of the loopers vs. the needle threads and how each appears on the fabric. But when I tried to serge, my needle thread broke every time. I pored over the threading instructions in my Huskylock user's guide with reading glasses. With a magnifying glass I tried to relate the tiny parts on my machine to the parts pictured in the user's guide. I decided the guide is essentially useless because more often than not, I cannot establish these relationships!

Then I learned that my closest neighbor has a serger. In desperation I begged her to come by for an instructional visit. She's a great gal and I learned she does lots of beautiful sewing. Calmy she walked me through the threading charts in my Huskylock guide. And she figured out the problem; Although each looper and needle thread was threaded correctly, they were not threaded in the right order! Who knew you have thread each one in order? Thank you Peggy Huff!

How it All Started

I started watching crafting shows on the DIY network. First I watched knitting and crocheting. Then I graduated to sewing shows on public TV, as recommended by the saleslady at JoAnn Fabrics. I've been sewing recreationally since junior high school. I never got particularly serious about it or very good at it either. About a year ago, I decided I wanted to get a serger, or overlock machine. I shopped in stores and online for several months. I learned I could get a simple one for about $250. But the more I read, the more i wanted one with MORE capabilities. Jon encouraged me to go for the greatest of all sergers, the Viking Husqvarna huskylock 936.

I saw it in Jo Ann's for $1500. Then I tried ebay, and eventually I "won" an auction and got my 936 for $810! Boy did I feel proud! I was an ebay newbie and never bought anything for over $25. Within a week, my 936 arrived via UPS at my door. What fantastic machine! I took it out of the box and studied it along with the book that came with it for hours. And then I realized, I am serger virgin; I have no experience with such a machine and I could not figure out the first thing to do with it. What have I done???? And why didn't I just get the simple serger for $250? But I have to learn to use this thing considering my $810 investment.