Overlocker Tutorial

[Jamie Swearengin]

Anoverlocker or serger is a great investment if you want to take your sewing up a level. In this introductory class, we help you get over any fears you have about overlockers or sergers and help you feel confident using your machine.

Step 4. Sew the side seam

Fold the bag right sides together matching raw edges on the side and bottom. Change the settings on your overlocker to a 3-thread wide overlock. Changing from a flatlock to an overlock simply requires some tension adjustments shown here:

Stitch along the lines to box both corners on the bottom of the bag. On the standard presser foot there are raised marks on the front of the toe that match up with the needles. Align the drawn line with the left needle mark and guide the fabric through the machine.

I keep coming across instructions which say to either fray stop the cut edges of overlocking/serging, or to weaving it back in with a needle. I am not a fan of either method so would like to propose a third method, which is nothing new, but I thought it might be useful to do a mini tutorial.

You will have a tail at the beginning of the seam and you want to overlock this tail into the seam: Do a couple of stitches into the seam with the tail at the back as normal (use your handwheel if you need more control), leave the needles down to anchor the fabric and raise the presser foot. Bring the tail to the left side, smooth it out, and pull it underneath the presser foot. Drop the presser foot (how useful would a knee lift be?) and continue overlocking, letting the blade slice through the tail after a couple of centimetres. This end of the overlocking is now anchored into your sewing.

Now flip the fabric over and reposition it under the presser foot. You are going to overlock back over your previous overlocking. I am careful not to cut my previous stitches, but if in doubt, disengage your blade so there can be no danger.

I also overlock around the corners by stopping a stitch after the end, lift the presser foot, lift the needles, pull the thread off the fingers, turn the fabric 90, gently pull up any threads to remove slack, and then keep going. This is another skill to get practiced at.

I made a bundle of these little bags recently to give away with soaps in them, and each one took literally a minute including cutting out. Had I been fray stopping or sewing the tails back in I think it might have taken me a fair bit longer.

Overlockers were in fact, invented in 1881, shortly after sewing machines. But they were reserved exclusively for industrial use until 1967. That was when Juki introduced the first domestic overlocker. Even then and in subsequent decades, their use at home was rare. They were expensive to buy, and only available from specialist dealers, which again kept them fairly exclusive.

An overlocker is a type of sewing machine that sews seams, trims and neatens the fabric edges all at once. It is used extensively in the garment manufacturing industry as entire garments can be produced in minutes with a neat and durable finish.

Your overlocker will come fitted with appropriate needles and the instruction manual will tell you what to use. It will probably also be marked on the machine. Most modern overlockers use the same universal 130/705H needles that are used in regular sewing machines. These should work well on most types of fabric. But you might want to switch them for ballpoint/jersey needles (130/705 H-SUK) if you are sewing mainly jersey knit fabrics. Superstretch needles (HAx1 SP) are best for fabrics with a high-elastic content i.e. swimwear . And remember to change them often too.

For example, an overlocker can be used almost entirely for the construction of a traditional blouse that has a revere collar and set-in cuffed sleeves. A conventional sewing machine need only be used in areas with points to turn, for topstitcing, where seam allowances need graded, and for sewing on buttons and making buttonholes. Your instruction manual will describe what types of stitches are compatible with what fabric. Or you could invest in a good book about constructing garments using an overlocker.

Make sure that the needle in your sewing machine - or serger - is a stretch sewing needle, suited to either light, medium, or heavy weight knits, depending on what you are using - and have extras on hand.

- I sew all structural seams (sides, center back, shoulders) start to finish, with no break in the seam. I will sometimes come back and add a seam to camouflage a structural seam - more on that in a minute.

For example: The main part of the suit is black, but beige mesh was used in some parts, so the seams were sewn in white/beige. When opened up, the white/beige could show up in between sections of black.

Before you start sewing, stretch the fabric. I hold the fabric in two places: my left hand is holding on to the garment BEHIND the sewing machine, the right hand is holding on to it in front of the machine.

Unfortunately, a third tiny piece decided to lodge itself into my eyeball. Having a doctor hunched over you, using a Q Tip to try and dislodge a tiny piece of metal out of your eye is NOT a pleasant experience.

Seams should be more or less flat (some fabrics may ruffle slightly, and normal sewing machine seams will have more ruffle than sergers), and threads should not be puckering the fabric, or loopy on one side.

Generally speaking, I set my differential feed to neutral - NOT a stretch stitch - and use a medium stitch length for body seams (and a longer stitch length for elastic application). Again, use the stretching technique describe above, when feeding your fabric through the serger.

3 thread overlock is another option, but you will likely want to use a regular sewing machine to sew a straight seam first, using the 3 thread serger to finish the seam - much as you would with the zigzag stitch described.

... and always, be sure to check out our Table of Contents for a full, categorized listing of all of our posts and tutorials!Share the Love!Be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @OverlordMarie - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!

I sew for a ballet company and mostly sew tutus and bodices. Occasionally, I have to sew with lycra to made leotards and unitards. I loved your post especially on how to attach elastic to neck and leg openings. Thank you!

Absolutely wonderful instructions !!

No nonsense over the top frivolous discussions of other matters that do not pertain to sewing. I mean you did mention how you ended in the hospital because of over tightening the material to taut but again it pertained to the hazards of not stretching it correctly. Am I right? Smile

We had hardwood floors installed in our new house and the dust and debris it left in our basement (where my sewing room is) was unreal. I quickly made a serger cover to keep it clean and then tweaked the pattern and tutorial to make my Mom one for her birthday! This tutorial is really simple; you could customize it with applique, embroidery, patchwork, really anything. My Mom picked out the fabrics so I decided to keep it plain and let them shine.

I made this cover for my Brother 1034d Serger. When I was sewing on the first side panel, I got a bit mixed up and had to rip out the sewing and restart. I didn't have the long side panel situated correctly on the long piece of fabric. But I figured it out and it all went together pretty quickly after that. The cover didn't fit as snug as I expected, so when I hemmed it up, I made a casing and used 1/2 inch elastic to snug up the bottom of the cover. I also used the serger to overcast the raw edges of the hem. Thanks for sharing this pattern. Now my serger is happy!

Last night, I went to my first overlocker lesson. It is a course that goes for 4 weeks, and at the end of it, I should be pretty confident with my machine, apparently. I have absolutely zilch experience with an overlocker, or serger, so anything my teacher could teach was going to come in pretty handy.

The first lesson was about taking care of the machine, threading it (!) and learning how to adjust stitch length and the fabric feed. Threading the machine was so hard. It is so fiddly, you actually have to use tweezers. I managed to misread the instruction manual and thread the needles the opposite way as well, which means my classmates had to wait for my teacher to work out what I had done wrong. Sorry ladies.

Our stylish teacher was wearing a gorgeous Charlie Brown jersey wrap dress, which she purposely wore to show us the various overlocker stitches on the dress. It made me appreciate wrap dresses more and I plan for one of my first projects with the newly acquired overlocking skills to be a wrap dress. Like this one by Halston Heritage:

Rin is the founder of Sew in Love, where she helps busy women slow down and rediscover their creativity. She loves food from her Japanese heritage, coffee and bushwalking with her Aussie husband and two girls. More about Rin.

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Overlocker is another word used for serger. While overlocking refers to the action by which the thread loops are wrapped around the raw edge of the fabric, it is used synonymously with serging. Either word can be used to refer to this machine and the type of stitching it does.

As you can see in the photo above, a serger finishes the raw edges of fabric. You often see these type of professional finishes on ready to wear clothing. This can be done with an overlock stitch or with a rolled hem stitch.

An overlock stitch sews two pieces of fabric together at the same time it finishes the edge. An overlock stitch done on a serger is also inherently stretchy. Therefore sergers are very useful if you sew a lot of knit fabrics. You can also sew a flatlock stitch with a serger. Flatlocking joins pieces of fabric with a very flat seam on the wrong side.

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