I’ve steered away from making a lot of clothing in the past because I didn’t have a serger to make those clean finished edges that you see on ready-to-wear clothing.  However, I think that’s going to change with the most recent addition to my sewing machine collection!

My main reason for not owning a serger was the cost.  While thrifting recently with my husband, he spotted the serger thread guide peeking out above all the items from an aisle away; you’ve got to love having a tall husband!  We rushed over and there she was, the White Super Lock 534 serger, sitting there waiting for me with a decent price tag of $49.99.  I had a 30% off coupon too so I was only $35 in.  I could not resist!

The machine is definitely not new, but it is in good shape.  I threaded it up with several different colours of thread so that I could see how the stitches came together and which ones needed adjusting.  There was a learning curve to threading the loopers, and I learned quickly that I had to thread them in a certain order in order for the stitches to actually lock together properly. When I started from left knob to right knob, every time I sewed the machine unthreaded itself from one of the loopers.  When I switched and threaded the machine from right knob to left knob instead (starting with the most complicated loopers first rather than the needles), instantly the machine was happy.

Serger Project 1: Red Polka Dot Knit Skirt

I have a box of sewing patterns in my craft room but as I’m currently pregnant, I didn’t have much on hand that would work for my recently rounder body.  I had a Simplicity 2608 knit skirt pattern available that was already cut out, so I decided to give it a shot. I hoped the knit material might be forgiving!

Other than sewing the two lines of gathering on the front panel of this skirt, I sewed this knit skirt entirely using the serger.  Here is the almost-finished product below.  Unfortunately my belly didn’t fit into the skirt, so I couldn’t actually get the skirt on.  I’ll have to save it for later!  I’ll hem it once I can try it on and see where I’d like the bottom of the skirt to hit on my knees.

Serger Project 2: Maternity Tank Dress

I was itching to make a project that I could actually wear, so I went to Fabricland and went through their clearance bin for some knit fabric to play with.  I found this purple snake skin printed knit for 75% off.  It has a lot of attitude so I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to pull it off!

I turned to the internet to find a pattern I could use with the fabric. I found the Women’s Tank Dress by Nap Time Creations  pattern which was a great starting point for my first serged dress.  I took the tank part of her pattern in size XL, but instead of attaching a skirt in the round to the tank, I extended the pattern pieces down into the trapezoid shape.  Stitching it up was easy-peasy since I only had the two side seams and the two straps.  I didn’t need a defined waist as in the original pattern, because well, what waist was there for me to define? Ha!

I learned a lot from making this dress.  For the neck line and arm holes, I serged the edges first.  Then I folded the serged edge over and sewed a line close to the edges to tack it down and act as top-stitching.  I used my sewing machine’s straight stretch stitch to do the job.

For the bottom hem, I used a more generous turn-under, but followed the same concept with the straight stretch stitch.

Here is a photo of the finished dress.  It’s not perfect, but not bad for my first serged project start to finish!  The bottom hem is a bit wavy.

The dress came together nicely!  With the pregnancy, my work wardrobe has been slowly diminishing, but I think this tank dress works well for an office setting when dressed up with a bolero and belt.  The knit is quite stretchy so it should do me for a few more months!  I’m planning on making this dress again, but I want to bring up the neckline a little and experiment with a larger flare on the skirt.

Serger Follow Up

So far, I’m loving the White Super Lock 534.  It is real work horse and feels solid.  It doesn’t have a differential feed or any of those features you might find on the upgraded modern sergers, but I think this machine will do me well for making fun clothing projects, costumes, and even home decor sewing for quite some time.