Sergers - Janome, Bernina, Husqvarna Viking, White or BabyLock/Brother

[abunchofus]

Hey ladies,

My dh says I can get a serger. My ? is what do you all like and why?

Our local Janome dealer has the 1110X for $499

When we looked at Vikings in TX they were running about $699

Bernina's were about the same.

I was told today that BabyLock is the way to go for self threading lower loopers and when one thread breaks you only have to rethread that one thread and on all other machines you have to rethread all 3 or 4 threads if one thread breaks.

So anyway - ladies tell me about your machines - what do you have and what you like or don't like about it?

[Kari_mom]

I have a Huskylock 905. I test drove lower to mid-priced Janome, Babylock, Brother and White machines before I bought it. It was the only serger that didn't choke on 6 layers of hemp jersey, so I felt confident that it was a good choice for making diapers. Diapers are probably the most difficult item I serge.

It has differential feed, variable cutting and stitch width and is easy to convert to a rolled hem. I almost never have to adjust the tension even with different threads and fabrics. If one looper thread does break, which is seldom, I don't rethread all four spools. I do just the one. The needles threads don't matter anyway, as long as you follow the path that is clearly marked. The lower looper thread does have to cross below the upper looper thread at one point, that is why you thread the upper looper first. It was easy, once I memorized how to thread, (and the paths are color-coded to make it easy) to know where they crossed and to make sure they cross correctly whichever was threaded first.

I love my serger, I highly recommend it. I paid a bit less than you listed, I'm not sure how much though.

[Queen Gwen]

I bought my BabyLock during their big fall sale, which saved me huge amounts of $$$$.

I was able to make a couple of things on it when I first got it, then had to put it away for several weeks while we had new floors installed and various other fal-de-ral going on. When I finally got it back out I couldn't even remember how to turn it on, but it is soooooo easy that I was able to re-figure everything out.

Moral of the story: if you need a serger that can be operated by someone who's about as machine-savvy as a chimp (that would be me), BabyLock is the way to go. It's absolutely mindless. That's important for me On the downside, I wish it had a free arm so I can more easily serge around the bottom and wrists of child-size sweats when attaching the jersey cuffs.

Husqvarna would've been my second choice, mostly because I adore my mom's Husqvarna sewing machine, and doesn't the serger have a free arm? But I think you have to be smarter to use it, which rules it out for me

[Dakota's Mom]

I have a Simplicity Pro. Very inexpensive machine. DH paid less than $150 for it on ebay. It works great for me. Maybe someday I'll upgrade, but for what I do this is great.

Kathi