About Sergers

To make these Halloween bags, I used all three machines:

1) embroidered the orange canvas fabric

2) serged the raw edges

3) sewed in handles and the black and white lining  

What is a Serger? 
Sergers, also called overcast machines, finish raw edges. They are particularly useful for finishing the raw edges of knits. Look inside any t-shirt and you will see a serged raw edge on the sides as well as a bottom hem that has then been turned back and sewn down - probably with what's called a cover stitch. A cover stitch looks like two rows of parallel stitching from one side, and a zig-zag of several threads on the back. On an overcast seam, the machine cuts the fabric with a little blade and then does a sort of zig-zag-like stitch using 3 or 4 threads around the cut edge. Both seam finishes are designed to protect the seam from fraying or raveling. It's especially useful for knit fabrics of all kinds and woven fabrics that fray, shred, or ravel.

Some machines will only overcast, some machines will only cover stitch (though these are usually industrial machines), and some machines will do both. Most sergers will also allow you make rolled hems on lightweight fabrics - though they may need to be threaded slightly differently. Sergers are also less maneuverable than sewing machines. They do best on long, straight seams. On a sewing machine, you can easily turn on a dime and then go backwards, or go easily around curves. Sergers will go around curves and can turn sharp corners, but it can be a little tricky. And since sergers Industrial sergers (such as those made by Juki) are configured differently than home sergers, which allows them to get into tighter places.

Babylock makes sergers with auto-threading capabilities.

Originally, I was going to buy a less expensive serger, until I talked to my mom and a few other people. Sergers must be threaded in a very particular order or they simply will not work correctly. A lot of people I know have to reference their manual every time they need to re-thread their machine. (My mom, in fact, just gave up on hers and sold it to someone else while I was still a little girl.) From there, you may have to serge a few test strips on scrap fabric to get the tension right (depends on if your model has auto-tension). The Babylock machines have both auto-threading and auto-tension and can do both overcast and cover-stitching. I figured it was worth getting a machine where I could spend my time making items instead of fiddling with the machine's settings.

This pillow was made entirely with my serger. 

As an example of what a serger is really capable of, I recently made a pillow entirely with my serger. I used the cover stitch function to decorate a central satin panel. I used overlocking to insert lace to some dupioni silk, then attached them to the satin. I also added pre-made piping using a piping foot. On the back, there's a zipper (again, added with my Babylock serger). If I had wanted to, I could have easily ruffled the lace with my machine as well.

Sometimes I have trouble deciding whether I love my serger or my embroidery machine best.

Since Christmas

The holiday season is always crazy for me. There are craft fairs to go to. Gifts to make for my family (such as the sweatshirt my son is wearing). Gifts that various people ask me to make. And last-minute requests of all kinds in addition to all the usual stuff. Once the crazyness ended, I was able to enjoy a little bit more time with the kids and even remembered to grab the camera for a few shots.

Wearing one of my sweatshirts, of course.

You'll notice my yard consists mainly of dirt, weeds, and kid's tempera-splattered fence. You can probably blame Gavin for much of the current status of the yard. Gavin ...and the local shade trees, gravelly soil, the winter weather, and the fact that I found and removed an entire bolt's worth of buried weed block fabric when I moved in.

Once New Year hit, it was back to business. I feel like I've put in a ton of orders in the past two weeks:

* An order for more thread and stabilizer.
* A dedicated bobbin winder that can wind off of king cone spools for free standing lace.
* At least 4 separate shipments for blank shirts and totes.
* Customized catalogs that I can hand out to business clients.

Normally I don't have quite so many boxes arriving within such a short time frame. (Particularly since I thought that the beginning of January would be on the slow side.) In the past week, I've noticed that the UPS truck has at least 3 different employees that work my route, depending on the day. Is it normal to notice just how many UPS employees are working your street in a given week? 

It may sound odd, but I still get excited when I get boxes - even if those boxes are full of things that are ultimately going to go to someone else.  So every other day or so, it's been a bit like Christmas all over again. My most recent bit of excitement is a box I received with the following canvas totes:

The totes are really sturdy, have an inside pocket with a heavy duty metal zipper, and came in several different colors. Some are natural canvas while others are black, pink, or butter yellow; the trim/handles are generally navy, black, or charcoal grey. I'm trying to decide what to do with them. They strike me as a bit nautical somehow, but it might be best to reserve them for monogramming at fairs. The totes also come in two different sizes. The one at right is about the size of a typical purse, but I also got a couple that are a larger beach tote size.

Every now and again I'll get something to test it out and see what a given product is like so I'll know whether it would be worthwhile to recommend them. The totes above are a bit of a test. I also decided to test out a backpack, such as at left.

When I conduct tests, I do test small runs to verify quality. If the item proves to be popular, then I'll invest in more inventory. We'll see how much I create this next year. 

Thanksgiving Day Weekend

Now that Thanksgiving is over, what do you do with all of that turkey?

Lots of people resort to making turkey sandwiches. With plain old mayo, it can be pretty boring, so I decided to try my hand at homemade cranberry mustard this year:

*leftover cranberry sauce
* Dijon mustard

If you're using cranberry sauce from a can, warm it up a bit first on the stove or in the microwave so that it's no so gelatinous. It mixes best when it's warm.

You will want to have about 3 times as much cranberry sauce as mustard. I mixed mine to taste, and I can tell you that if you start out with equal parts of each, the mustard is way too overpowering.  My final result ended up being quite cranberry colored.

From there, spread onto sandwiches and enjoy.

While you're enjoying your sandwiches, I suppose you can try doing some online holiday shopping. If you've been eyeing anything in my shop, I'm offering free shipping and 10% off everything at the moment.

Fashion History Resource

If you're interested in fashion history, there is a blog on tumblr that may be of interest to you called Old Rags.

The blog updates almost constantly with photos of extant clothing from various time periods. Each entry has at least one photo of an antique or vintage garment, the year it was made, the country, and the maker, if applicable. It's a great visual history of western fashion and has some great eye candy, like this embroidered, green velvet 1888 Russian Court Dress by Worth:

http://oldrags.tumblr.com/post/11227656518/court-dress-by-worth-worn-by-marie-maximilianova

The house of Worth has pretty much disappeared as a fashion design house. (It was replaced by more modern high fashion houses like Channel.) However, it created some exquisite gowns during the Victorian and Edwardian era. I noticed a book devoted Worth gowns that had appeared in issues of Harper's Bazaar while I was at Costume College; I very nearly got it and may still do so in the future. The embroidery on them is usually enough to that my husband has to grab a mop to take care of the drool when I see them.

Computer Up and Running

New computer is up and running. MasterWorks and most of my other programs have been installed and are working properly. There's one program that I'm waiting for an updated disk on (my old version wasn't Windows7 compatable), but I should have it by the end of the week.

The best time of year to buy sewing stuff

When is the best time of year to buy sewing supplies? 

Quite possibly right now, during September/October.

Lots of people will consider buying fabric for a Halloween costume even if they've never touched a sewing machine before in their life. They'll wander into a fabric store, check on the prices and weigh whether it's cheaper to make a costume or to buy on off the rack. If they think they can make it within their budget, they'll try it and maybe continue sewing in the future. But if it would clearly be less expensive to buy a costume off the rack, they'll march right out of the fabric store never to return.

The fabric stores are well aware of this, so they do everything they can to get people into their stores leading up to Halloween. I watch the sales fliers all year long & I've been amazed at some of the recent deals, sales, and coupons.

For example, the monthly sales fliers usually have one or two coupons good for 40% off a single (non-sale) item. Sometimes it has a coupon for 50% off a single item. It's rare to get coupons for X% off your total purchase. In the past year, I have gotten one coupon for 15% off total purchase coupon (Labor Day weekend) as well as one or two coupons for 10% off total purchase (one was for Memorial Day). I may have also gotten a 5% off everything for a particular random weekend, but I'm not sure. Either way, you don't see them often.

However, in the past two months I've been sent not one, but TWO coupons for 20% off my total purchase. One was in honor of National Sewing Month (September); the other was for Columbus Day Weekend. This is 20% off everything, including things that are already marked on sale. This is a great deal, and if I weren't already stocked up to the gills with fabric, I'd definitely be checking out the local fabric store right now.

Moral of the story: if you're planning to make your Halloween costume, make sure you're on the mailing list for your local fabric store starting in August so you can get the September and October fliers.

When is the best time of year to buy sewing books?

Now isn't a bad time for that either.

I've known for some time that fall is a good time of year to buy fabric and supplies. However, I hadn't given much thought to sewing books until yesterday when I received an Amazon.com gift card to celebrate my birthday. The first thing I did was check my wish list. Unsurprisingly, there are quite a few sewing books on it; I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were all on sale.

Lots of sewing books seem to go on sale
leading up to Halloween during Sept. and Oct. 

Frankly, I shouldn't have been surprised all all. It make sense for sewing books on sale for the same reasons that fabric is on sale this month. Lots of people are willing to tackle special sewing projects during October in preparation for Halloween.  Presumably, they might also be more interested in getting a book for tips on how to sew, so why not entice them with a sale?

It certainly enticed me. I was originally planning to only get as much as my gift card would cover. However the prices were better than anything I'd seen over the course of the past year, so I got an additional book.* I'm now impatiently waiting for the following:

*The Costume Technician's Handbook 3rd edition by Rosemary Ingham
*Blackwork (Essential Stitch Guide) by Becky Hogg
*Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised and Updated by Claire Shaeffer

I'll write reviews on them once I've had a chance to look them over. Each of these books is for intermediate to advanced sewing level. I already have one or two books that are focused on beginners, which I'll also try to review at some point in the future.


*If I had anyone on my holiday gift list who's interested in sewing, I might have gotten something for them too. It's not unusual for me to buy gifts months in advance and then save them until Christmas/their birthday/etc.

Technical Difficulties

I'm posting from a different computer than usual. Windows somehow managed to get corrupted on my machine. It's not something that can be fixed short of wiping the computer completely and re-installing windows.

I'll be taking the harddrive in this week to Salem Geeks to have them pull my various documents, files, and photos from the drive for $30. Assuming I can get my files, I'll be happy. If not, I have some things backed up on an external harddrive and on my camera's memory card, but I've made quite a few changes to some important documents since my last backup. I'd really rather not have to re-create them all. 

The computer was a dinosaur, however, so I'm not going to bother re-installing windows. It wasn't powerful enough to handle having two heavy-weight programs, like Quickbooks and MasterWorks, open at the same time without locking up. I've been thinking about getting a new computer to speed up my workflow anyway, so now's as good a time to do it as any. 

Once I have the new computer, I should be able to complete certain tasks more quickly because I won't have to wait on my computer to process (something I've been spending more and more time waiting on over the last 2-3 months).

In the meantime, I won't be able to create custom logos for clients until I get MasterWorks up and running. This should only affect new business clients who need an embroidery design created off of a drawing or another graphic. All of my existing embroidery designs are already on a USB drive to communicate with my BMP8 embroidery machine, so I can still fulfill orders of existing designs without a problem. For example, I can still stitch out custom orders for everything in my Artfire shop.  

I'll post once I have the new computer up and able to digitize again.