Infotainment Resource

For almost two decades, I have worked as a sewing machine technician. While most of the repairs and services I do deal with ordinary 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.

Do you know what a serger is? Did you know that many people do not. It is true, many people including many who enjoy sewing and quilting have never used or even know what a serger is.

So, I decided to find out what ordinary people thought of sergers. To do so, I visited a local Walmart, with my shopping list. As I walked down the aisle of different departments, I stopped people and asked them (total strangers). Do you know what a serger is? or Do you know where I could find a serger?

You may not be as bewildered as I was by the range of bewildered looks and puzzling responses. One lady said, I think that is one of those new video games over there. An older gentleman answered, Sure, you will find that in electrical supplies. I stopped asking after my fifth point of confusion. Apparently, sergers are an electrical part, a new game, a special kind of clap on lamp, a team sweatshirt, and of course some people just said they had no idea.

Now, your question remains. What is a serger?

Unlike the standard home sewing machine, the serger is a specialty machine that sews a hem, overcasts the edge of the fabric, and trims the fabric all at one time. Almost any sewing project can be accelerated by use of a serger whether the application is for utility (hidden away) or decorative to enhance the project.

In 1881, the Merrow Sewing Machine Company pioneered a distinctive kind of sewing machine that achieved an overlocking stitch known as the Merrow stitch. This invention enabled factories to speed production and produce better goods by seaming, overcastting, and trimming all at the same time.

The terms serger, overlock, and Merrow all refer to this specialty sewing machine. The sewing is usuallydescribed as serging, overlocking, merrowing, overcastting, or overedging.

In 1964, designers from the Japanese manufacturing company Juki believed they could redesign the heavy industrial serger and make a lighter, more convenient model available for the home sewer. When the Juki company rejected the project, these professionals formed a new company known as Baby Lock to produce their home sergers. Today Baby Lock is the leading manufacturer of home sergers.

Unlike the ordinary sewing machine that uses needle and hook assemblies to create interlocking stitches, the serger uses devices called loopers. A lower looper and an upper looper assist interact with the needle to create the overlocking stitches. Instead of using a shuttle or bobbin, the serger uses multiple cones of thread guided through tension assemblies to the loopers and needle. Sergers also use special needle plates with stitch fingers or horizontal needle fingers to help form the stitches.

The heavy industrial sergers found in factories usually produce only one overlocking stitch at speeds approaching up to 9,500 stitch per minute. They are large and bulky work horses. By comparison, home sergers are far smaller, lighter weight, sleeker, creative machines. They offer far greater variety and creative potential with up to different 80 stitches all sewn at between 1,500 and 3,000 stitches per minute. This is far slower than industrial machines, but about twice that of ordinary home sewing machines.

Today Baby Lock offers a serger that uses up to eight cones of thread to produce as many as 86 different overcastting stitches. Sergers of many different brands today come in a variety of configurations, but generally you will find sergers that can sew using 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 different threads.

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 answer 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.