My girls modeling new kuspuks

 

Coverstitch practice

I have a few king-size pillowcases. I'm never going to have those extra long pillows, so the I decided to cut off the excess length on the cases and serge the hems with coverstitch. It was good practice, but the pillowcases are a knit fabric which made it somewhat difficult.

I wanted the double seam to show on the right side, so I had to maneuver the folded raw edge on the underside. I guess I need the coverstitch hemming foot because it was very awkward the way I did it. So now I wonder should I buy the whole coverstitch kit to the tune of $200+, or just get the hemming foot.

Serging on a finished piece is always problematic because again you can't start & stop gracefully in the middle of a finished piece. With my pillowcases, my coverstitch hem began and ended 3 inches from the end of the case. So I just serged into it from the end and serged off to the end, making an extra curving double seam into the hem. It doesn't look too bad.

I also fine-tuned my coverstitch looper, noticing that I'd missed one hook in the threading below. The stitch looked better after that. I went back and tried the pintuck foot again, and the pintucks looked a little nicer too.

Pintucks

I worked out the problems, sort of: First of all, when thread breaks and pintucks don't look like I think they should, I go into a crazed troubleshooting mode. And with a serger, there are so many variables that may be causing the problem, you can fix one and then cause another.
I think the coverstitch looper wasn't threaded exactly right to start with. But I started playing with all the tensions at the same time I was adjusting the looper, and that made everything worse. In the end, I got pintucks with the recommended tensions...though that left needle thread did still sometimes break.
However, I learned something about pintucks: they aren't exactly what I though they were. They aren't like darts. I was trying to apply pintucks to a top that was too wide, and I expected them to draw in the fullness. But they barely do that at all. They really only draw in a tiny amount and make a little hill in the fabric.

Plus, the entire project was NOT suited to serger sewing at all because I was making the tucks begin and end in the middle of a finished garment. Anyone experienced with sergers would have told me not to use a serger for this project. Instead I figured it out for myself after I made the first tuck. DUH.... you can't stop in the center of a fabric with a serger!!!! But stubborn as I am, I went ahead and made 13 tucks, struggling to cut. the threads at the bottom of each one. Then I had to thread a hand needle multiple times to pull all those hanging threads to the wrong side.

Ridiculous...I will never do that again! But at least I know about serger pintucks now.

FRUSTRATION

I had a project in mind using pintucks, so i sent away for a pintuck foot for my serger. It's just 2 little pieces of clear plastic, $28.95!
I proceeded to unthread the setup for 4-thread overlock, and change to coverstitch mode. Even though I've done it before, I had to slowly take it step by step becauses, as Jon likes to point out, "I have the memory of a dead elephant." Once I had it all set up with coverstitch throat plate and all the settings, plus the new pintuck foot, I proceeded to try it out on scraps.
The results were not pretty. Either the left needle thread broke, or no pintuck was made, or both. By no pintuck, i mean the stitch just looks like a regular coverstitch, with no ridge between the needles for the tuck.
Must be something wrong with my threading that is causing the left thread to break. I may have solved that problem. But still no tucks are being made. After trying most of the afternoon, I had to give up. I'll start fresh tomorrow.

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.