Learn to Serge: How to Clean and Oil Your Serger
I have to admit something…. I owned my serger for almost a whole year before I finally figured out how to clean it! The manual says to clean & oil your serger about once a month or if you use it frequently (which I do), then increase to once a week!! My poor serger! But the only reason I haven’t cleaned or oiled my serger yet is because I didn’t know how or didn’t have the tools!! (okay, bad excuse) But I come to you today with a very easy tutorial (with LOTS of pictures) that will help you not wait 10 months to clean your serger!! Especially if you use it a lot!
This is our last lesson in the Learn to Serge Series! If you are new, make sure you check out the homepage there are a lot of great lessons to teach you more about your serger. Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson, so it’s worth the time to review all the great tips and tricks!
This post contains affiliate links. For more details please see my full disclosure here.
So without further ado let’s talk about How to Clean and Oil Your Serger!
these are the supplies you’ll need:
- screw driver
- spray duster
- vacuum (with the skinny hose attachment)
- serger manual
- Sewing Machine Oil
- pipe cleaner or small brush
Step #1 Unscrew:
First things first, you have to take off that side compartment. It’s called a looper cover and swivel plate. Mine had three screws…
{take a minute to see how dirty it was to start…}
Step #2 Vacuum:
Next get the smallest attachment on your vacuum hose and clean out as much of the big pieces of fabric as possible. I haven’t been able to find the needle attachment to the vacuum, so I had to use the larger hose. It got a little bit, but honestly the more you can clear out with this step the less messy it will be later on.
Step #3 Unscrew:
Remove the needles, pressure foot and needle plate. In order for me to take the needle plate off, I had to take off the knives too, so it depends on how your serger is laid out. The goal on this step is to get under your needle plate (there is a little space that collects fabric/lint that needs to be cleaned out as well).
Step #4 Small Brush:
Use your small brush or pipe cleaners to clear out any other fabric / lint that can be caught with those items.
Step #5 Spray Duster:
Use your spray duster to fine tune the cleaning. This will get everywhere if you have big pieces, that’s why it’s important to clean out as much as possible before this step. But honestly this was my favorite part. The spray duster made my serger really feel clean! I was able to get in every little crevasse, in every hole, and even on the outside of the machine on the front and back where it collects fabric lint as well!
Step #6 Oil:
Grab your serging manual and check out where it is recommended to oil. My manual wasn’t too helpful. The general rule of thumb is any moving part needs oil. If you can move it or see it move, put oil on it. Here is where I put oil on mine. You only need 2 drops on each part.
Step #7 Put your serger back together:
If you feel like you have oiled it good enough, now just put your machine back to normal
Step #8 Test your machine:
Run a piece of fabric through it and listen to it purr! Now you have a happy serger 🙂 Take care of your machine, and it will take care of you! With all the research I did I found that it is best to clean and oil your serger every 15 or so working hours. I definitely went way longer than that, but I won’t let it happen again!
Since the Learn to Serge Series has been so popular, I have put all of the lessons in one easy-to-read ebook. Click here to download your copy.
