Wednesday, November 16, 2011

It was NOT "Operator Error!"

Ever since I've taken my Babylock serger out of the box, I've had this feeling that I've been missing a guide or not threading it right. My stitches looked good, but I thought they could look better.

Today I had my "How-to-use-your-machine" serger class, and the instructor noted my samples were slightly different than everyone else's. She thought it was a tension issue. The owner was kind enough to test my machine and concluded it did have an issue. He took it right back to their top-notch service guy and...It was off by one whole turn! Which, according to the owner, is a lot. Boy am I ever glad I took the class today. My schedule is very busy, and I was thinking about waiting until December.

So, no. I'm not missing any thread guides. It wasn't "operator error." It was an issue with the adjustments done at the factory. Maybe tonight I can finish two more pairs of panties that are half done.

I have to edit this post. I will admit, rather embarrassingly, that I had an on/off problem with seams coming out differently. I'd sew a seam, and it was fine. Next seam would be all wonky. Today I figured out why. I was forgetting to put my presser foot down! Can you believe it? Rarely do I lift my presser foot up on the serger, but working with the different feet I was lifting the lever up and down a lot. The foot on the serger looks like it's all the way down, but it wasn't. It's not like a sewing machine where you can easily tell if the foot is up or down. On my Babylock, it looks like it's down all the time. So there you go. There WAS an operator error. I forgot about that. Probably because it's a silly, embarrassing mistake for an experienced sewer.

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