Hello fashion sewers and welcome to our Fashion Sewing Blog.
In today’s article and FREE fashion sewing video tutorial, I’d like to look at the sometimes confusing world of threading our sergers / overlockers.
It’s a subject matter that I do get a lot of requests for, so I hope, by the end of this tutorial, you’ll find yourself reaching for your sergers, happy to give it another try, and even better, being successful at it.
So where do we begin?
Before we begin to thread our sergers, we must know the sequence in which the threads will run. I do explain this in the video but as it’s imperative to get right, I wanted to talk about it here also.
The Sequence of Threading
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Look at your serger / overlocker from the front as you would when you sit at it to sew.
Now visualise its centre point.
If you do this, you’ll find that you have two threads to the right of centre, and two from the left.
Happy so far?
When we thread our sergers / overlockers, we will always start with the thread nearest the centre point on the right.
Once that is threaded, we will then thread the furthest thread from the centre point on the right.
These two threads are the sergers ‘loopers‘.
Only when the right threads have been properly attached to your machine, must you then begin the left hand side.
As with the looper side, start with the thread nearest centre, and end with the thread furthest away.
These two threads are for your segers ‘needles‘.
Try to remember the sequence as follows -
4, 3, – 1, 2,
Once we are happy that we know the sequence, we can begin to thread our machines.
Threading a Serger by Colleen G Lea
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All sergers / overlockers are different. However, most will have a colour coded mapping system, printed on one of the serger doors, near to the working parts.
Do refer to this colour coded diagram throughout and please take your time.
The threading of a serger / overlocker need not be a frustrating process.
As you can see from the video, a little time getting the threads in the correct sequence and ensuring all parts of the machine are threaded correctly, saves a whole lot of hair pulling and head scratching.
Remember to use those tweezers for the ‘hard to reach‘ places and once you’re happy that you’ve got it just right, have a few practice stitches on your serger to test your handy work.
Do let me know how you go!
If you have any questions relating to this article than please feel free to contact me.
Happy fashion sewing
About the Author: Colleen G Lea is the founder of Fashion Sewing Blog and co-owner of DC Media Productions. Get more from Colleen at YouTube and Google+.
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Many Thanks for this I was at my wit’s end and my overlocker was about to be thrown! The manual supplied was of no help at all, thank goodness I have you saved on my desk top. You have saved the day yet again
Haha, thanks Carole.
It’s a good idea to show novices how to thread the serger, but once I saw the amount of lint on your machine, I was completely turned off. Perhaps serger maintenance should have been taught first…we all know these machine will not function properly if they are not clean,
A good point, and that does feature in my other video if you care to look. thanks