Learn to Serge: Meet your Machine
Let’s take a tour of your serger today! In our Learn to Serge Series: Meet your Machine lesson I want to show you different parts of your serger so you know what all those parts are for!
I have the Brother 1034D, so I will be using pictures of my machine to help you Meet Your Machine!
Meet Your Machine
Top of Serger
The top of your machine is where you put in your thread and you can adjust the tension with the colorful dials. To the left side of those colorful dials, there is a disc that holds your thread. The lower the number on the dial, the looser the discs will hold your thread. The higher the number on the dial, the tighter the thread will be pulled. You will find that those numbers (the tension of the thread) all work together. As you change the numbers it will translate to where your thread meets each other. We will go more into depth on this in our Learn to Serge: Tension Test lesson.
You’ll change these dials (the tension) as you have different types of fabric, or are performing different serging techniques. For the most part, mine stays right around four.
Meet your Machine
Stitch width:
Adjusting the stitch width will actually adjust the cutting blade. It moves the blade closer or farther away from the plate.
If your stitch width is TOO NARROW then the stitches will actually hang off the edge of the fabric.
By increasing your stitch width it will allow the stitches to meet at the edge of the fabric.
When to Change: The stitch width needs to be adjusted when you are changing the stitch length, when working with thicker fabrics, when removing the stitch finger, or when doing decorative stitches.
Meet your Machine
Stitch Length:
The stitch length is pretty self explanatory. It’s similar to the sewing machine stitch length. The higher the number, the farther the stitches are. The lower the number, the closer the stitches.
When to Change: If you find your fabric gathering, or want your fabric to gather more (like for ruffles), if you are working on a rolled hem, or if you adjust the stitch width then you will want to look at adjusting the stitch length.
Meet your Machine
Differential Feed:
My machine has two sets of feed dogs. The picture above shows how you adjust the feed dog. The feed dogs are what move your fabric. The two feed dogs can move the fabric (feed) at different rates. The setting for differential feed is expressed as a ratio. If the first feed dog is moving twice as fast as the second (a differential feed of 2.0) than the fabric will bunch up or gather.
If the first feed dog is only moving three quarters as fast as the second one (a differential feed of .75), the fabric will stretch.
At a differential feed setting of 1.0 the fabric will feed through the serger normally.
When to Change: You’ll want to adjust the differential feed if you want to do a ruffle, or have fabric like knit that is stretching or bunching under the serger’s presser foot.
Meet your Machine
Knife Release
This turns your knife (blade) on and off. I use this on a very regular basis. When I am finishing a continuous circle I turn my blade off to ensure I don’t cut the thread of the serging I started with. I overlock where I started and then turn my blade back on to cut the remaining thread. I will go further in detail about this in the Learn to Serge Lesson 4: Serging Circles.
Meet your Machine
Needles
Did you know those are two separate needles? It’s not a double needle. I didn’t know that until one of my needles broke and I had to replace it. I just use the universal size 90 needles.
I hope you feel more comfortable with your serger after our Meet your Machine review! Next we are going to review serger tension.
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 have all 12 comprehensive lessons at your fingertips!
