Serging progress

[boscopup]

Haven't been able to serge as much as I'd like, since my house is a complete WRECK. But I did progress to making baby wipes today. I'm doing ovals so I can practice curves on stretchy fabric (sherpa).

Playing around with the differential feed... I've got it sewing nice and flat on the straightish lines, and I figured out to increase the differential feed (from 1.5 to 2.0) when entering the curve at the end of the oval. So that first half of that end is perfectly flat, BUT... when I come back out of the curve, it's ruffling on me. I'm not yet sure if I need to be setting back to 1.5 at the end of the wipe (middle of the curve), or maybe even set it lower like 1.0 at that point? I'll have to play around with it some more.

So I now have 3 sherpa wipes.

Later, I'm going to make a bag for the Melissa & Doug cutting food set. I figured that'd be a good use of my serger. I've got a design drawn out, and I'm going to close the bag with snaps, of course! I also was thinking I might try adding some applique food to the bag, just for fun. I guess when I get done with that, I'll have to post it to the Sew, Serge, Embroider group.

[boscopup]

Oh, I forgot to say that my start/stop finishing is looking AWESOME on the wipes, thanks to instructions from Amber posted sometime back on the Sew, Serge, Embroider forum. So now as long as I'm starting and stopping in the same place (which is going to be the case for most diaper making stuff), I can get a nice, pretty finish. It's when I have just a straight line where my start is ok (using the backstitching method), but my finish is awful (again, trying to use the backstitching method, where you turn your fabric over and then stitch over it).

We'll see how my wipes hold up in the wash!!!

[capemom]

I got a serger for Christmas too! I managed to thread it correctly the first time. I played for a while with a scrap of flannel. I just cut out a flannel/hemp diaper a little while ago. I serged the lay-in doubler - 2 layers of flannel with a layer of hemp fleece sandwiched. The ends are slightly curved - I did pretty well. I'm still practicing my starting and stopping. I'm also struggling a bit with curves - I did fine with the ones that curve out like on the doubler or a wipe or something, but when I was messing around, I couldn't seem to do the curves that go the other way (like the leg openings on a diaper). The blades were cutting it too close (if that makes sense). I'm hoping that when I have a whole diaper, I'll be able to feed it correctly. I am starting with a flannel diaper with some flannel I bought on sale in Joann's - figure it isn't a huge loss if it looks terrible.

Wish I could just sit for a block of time, but the kids need me and my house is a wreck too. Oh well - at least there's leftovers for dinner...

[boscopup]

This is Amber's post that talks about how to finish the edges. I found it to be pretty easy for stuff like soakers, wipes, etc.