Saturday, January 24, 2015

A Little Surge of Hope For My Serger

It's a sad week in my sewing room.  On that messy table, which you'd think I'd clean up at this point, there's an empty spot where my Bernina Funlock serger usually sits.  I say usually because while I was threading it to make this:



it broke.  In this diagram,#13 should be in front of #14 at all times as they move back and forth like scissors opening and closing.  As I was almost done threading, the only part of serger use that makes me want to throw it out the window, #13 suddenly smashed into #14 and nothing would move.  It's like it completely jumped the track!

I was so shocked and immediately devastated that I just sat and looked at it for a few minutes, speechless.  When I started really looking, I was beyond mystified.  I still don't know what happened.

It could be the fact that in almost 20 years of ownership, I've never had it serviced.  Because if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Who can be bothered with yearly cleanings?

Once I collected myself, I called the nearest store that has a repair person and they put me in touch with the repair woman herself.  She was so nice on the phone and seemed to know exactly what I was saying.  She said that over time, the vibrations from use make things loosen and they can slide around and it sounded like that was what happened.

She thought she could just unscrew things and put them back where they belonged.

So, I trudged out on an hour long trip to leave it with the hope that I'd have it back within the week.

I have 22 of these to make, after all.
After 5 days of waiting with baited breath, she called to say that the looper  is broken but for $30 she can replace it and all should be well.  But that means ordering it.  And waiting some more.

And I have 22 of these to make!

After my trip to drop off the machine, I had collected myself enough that I sat down to make the prototype of the costume to pass it by the judges.

I should have cleaned up my serger area, but who has time for that?

It's a long sleeve t-shirt, minus one sleeve, with gold, silver and red.  And then a terrible hood that I can't convince them to get rid of.

My grand plan involved cutting the side and shoulder seam so I could open the shirt and sew on all of the accoutrements with ease.  Then I'd sew the side and shoulder seam back up.  The hood would always be a separate piece and if I proved that I couldn't make it work, maybe they'd drop that idea.

And when all was said and done, the only thing I'd used the serger for would be the side and shoulder seams.  Everything is stretchy costume/bathing suit material so none of it needs serging.  It's so funny to use a material that doesn't fray!  I can't sew them to the shirt with the serger.  And really, I could just use my regular machine to sew up the seams, which is what I did in this case.

Having using a serger for seams since 1996, it seemed like a raw, crass way to sew when I did it with  my good old Bernina 1001, but I suppose those less fortunate souls who don't own sergers get by just fine, and so will I.

But I sure would love to just whip out those seams with my serger and tidy them up.  I'm losing my mind with all of the stray threads and jagged seams.

Oh, and that hood.  That is simply one piece of material with a seam to join it and they managed to do a double wrap so the hood did what they wanted and it stayed on.  Again, a beautifully serged seam would make that sooooo much better.

The costumes are due in February.  The serger might be another week in the infirmary.  I'm not one to leave things to the last minute.

So, I'm currently chewing on my options.

And in the process, this is what I did.

Not too shabby, I'd say.


 Of course, a black unitard would have saved the day but they don't want that.

Linking here:
http://www.withablast.net/2015/01/freedom-fridays-64.html 
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/01/clever-chicks-blog-hop-123-with.html 
http://www.thesitsgirls.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.sewcando.com/

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