A New Machine

I love my Janome DC2007LE, and will probably remain faithful to it until the day it makes its last stitch. But lately, I've been wishing for some things it just can't do, like creating rolled hems and finishing woven seams quickly and efficiently. I've been making garments for 2 years now, so my habit is well established. Tenuously, I stepped out into the market for a serger.

...And promptly stepped back. Why? Because in a stunning bit of luck, my mom found a used serger at her local quilt guild's auction, and won it for $22. Here's her story. It seemed to make the trip out to my place without incident, and when we plugged it in, it started right up.

We couldn't figure out how to adjust it in order to make the stitches look like they were supposed to, though, and a quick trip to the dealer told us why: the stitch finger was broken (I'd thought it was a screwdriver!). We also learned that this machine was made in the early 90s before Babylock parted ways with Juki. We left it there for servicing, feeling reasonably confident that a good once-over by a qualified technician (and a new stitch foot!) was exactly what it'd need.

It came back stitching great, and I've loaded it up with color-coded thread, so that I can learn my tensions per the manual.

I've already used it to finish the seams on a nap mat cover for my daughter, and it did the job with amazing speed and accuracy.

I still have some room to grow: the knife isn't cutting like I'd expect (not with wovens, anyway), and I have only threaded the thing from scratch once since I got it (I think I was correct, but it's possible the tech re-threaded it and didn't tell me). But, I'm signed up for a "Serger Basics" class on July 20th - and I have plenty of time to play with it beforehand.

And I'm excited... if I like sewing with wovens, I can patronize my local quilt store again!