For almost two decades, I have worked as a sewing machine technician. While most of the repairs and services I do deal with standard sewing machines, about one service out of five involves a serger. At first, I was threatened by working on sergers, because I was unfamiliar with them, but over time they have become much like any other service or repair.
Sergers are a bit mysterious. Many people sew for years and never even touch a serger. Indeed, many people have no clue what a serger even is.
After hearing several sewing customers indicate they did not know about sergers, I decided to find out what ordinary (non sewers) knew about sergers. I asked at Walmart, What is a serger? You might be surprised by the looks and answers I got.
At the department store, people are busy looking for stuff themselves. They usually, look past you and ignore your presence. When you ask them a question, some people appear shocked or they just look past you in a blank stare. Fortunately, a few people were friendly and really tried to help me figure out what a serger is. People had some truly original opinions. A young boy thought it might be a team logo or a new video game. A lady thought it was a new type of fruit. One of the workers pointed me to hardware and said what I needed was a special kind of electrical fuse.
So, just what is a serger?
A serger is a specialty sewing machine that sews a seam, overcasts the fabric edge, and trims the fabric all in a single pass at a speed usually twice that of a standard sewing machine. There are essentially two types of serger sewing: utility and decorative. Utility serging is commonly found inside garments, pillows, and other projects where the serged seam is generally hidden from view. Decorative serging is just the opposite. Decorative serger aims to add distinction by serging seams that are obvious to the onlooker. Decorative serging can be found in many home dcor items as well as clothing items.
In 1846, Elias Howe patented the first practical sewing machine, but it was not until 1881 that the first serger was introduced by the Merrow Sewing Machine Company. This machine produced a two or three thread overlocking stitch often called a Merrow stitch. This provided a huge advancement over the typical straight stitch machine. The Merrow was able to sew a hem or seam while overcastting the edge of the fabric. In some cases this was done without trimming, but usually it included blades that trimmed the fabric leaving a beautifully finished edge.
Today the term serger has largely replaced its synonyms overlock and Merrow. Words like overcastting, overlocking, serging, and overedging are used (interchangeably|synonomously|the same.
Sergers were the domain of industry and factories until 1964, when the Baby Lock brand of home sergers launched. Several professionals at Juki had envisioned a scaled down version of the heavy industrial serger, but the Juki company was not interested. So the professionals formed their own new company and launched Baby Lock home sergers.
Sergers are different from regular sewing machines which use hook assemblies and bobbins to produce locked stitches. Sergers, on the other hand, use a set of loopers, multiple threads, and stitch fingers to produce overlocking stitches.
While the home serger is based on the heavy industrial sergers of the past, they are far more user friendly and offer a wider range of stitch options. Industrial sergers typically only sew a single overcastting stitch at between 5,000 and 9,500 stitches per minute. Home sergers may produce a handful of stitch variations up to 80 some different stitches. Home sergers are far easier to thread, adjust, and use than the industrial sergers. Home sergers operate between 1,500 stitches and 3,000 stitches per minute which is roughly twice the speed of a regular home sewing machine.
Most of the major sewing machine brands offer sergers today, but the Baby Lock sergers are still considered the industry leaders. Individual models will have different designs and configurations involving between two and eight different threads. The Imagine Serger by Baby Lock is described as a three " four thread serger because it can produce overedging stitches using two, three, or four threads. The Evolve Serger by Baby Lock is described as an eight thread serger because it can produce overlocking stitches using a variety of thread combinations between two and eight threads yielding up to 86 different distinctive stitches.
If you do not already have a good serger, you need one to make your sewing center as productive as you should. Not only does the serger enable you to speed up your sewing production by a factor of two; it empowers you to produce a far superior product for almost any application. Why not make a good serger part of your sewing experience.
So, how do you respond to the question, What is a serger? Is it your super sewing machine that seams, overcasts, and trim at the speed of light? Is it your creative finishing machine? Is it your overcastting, overedging, overlocking, serging machine? Of course it is your serger.
Originally posted 2009-03-18 17:13:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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