Such Treasures

Since serging is new to me, I experience excitement with every project because for 20 years I’ve done things more slowly and less refined. The serger is not only faster but it produces a more finished product — and it can do things like gather and attach in one pass. Yesterday I used my serger in a new way (for me) on the nightgowns I made for the girls.

I used the gathering attachment to gather a skirt and attach it to the matching bodice in one pass. This must have saved me about 1/2 hour for each nightie. I avoided the usual steps — basting the skirt, gathering the skirt, check skirt circumference to bodice circumference until they’re even, pin them together, sew them together, and zig zag the edges. All this was accomplished in one pass through the serger. Awesome!

To get the differential setting right, I first measured the circumference of one skirt and its matching bodice — in order to determine the ratio between them.

For example, for one nightgown, the bodice was about 80% of the circumference of the skirt. I found this out by dividing the bodice circumference by the skirt circumference and moving the decimal point to the right two spaces. It is okay to round this percentage off to the nearest 5%.

Then to practice, I took smaller strips that exemplify the same ratio but on a smaller scale — in this case, I used 10 inch and 8 inch strips.

It is easy to figure out what the practice strips lengths should be if I start with a 10-inch strip for the longer strip. The length of the other (shorter) strip will be the same as the ratio number, only with the decimal point moved to the left one space. For instance, to preserve an 80% ratio, I should cut an 8.0 inch strip for the shorter strip. To maintain a 75% ratio, I should cut a 7.5 inch strip for the shorter strip.

In a 4-thread application, I set the differential at 2.0 and lengthened the stitch length to 4. One should also tighten the needle tension, but I didn’t do this because I usually have the needle tension higher than what is normal. I could also have started the differential at 1.5 or 1.75.

I practiced running pairs of the practice strips through the serger, using the gathering attachment until I got the differential setting correct to gather the 10-inch strip to the 8-inch length. The strip to be gathered went on the bottom underneath the strip that would not be gathered. The gathering attachment separated the two layers, holding the top layer up off the front feed dogs and keeping it from being gathered.

If the bottom strip wasn’t gathered enough, then it needs to be gathered more. So the differential value should go up, or if the differential is as high as it can go, then the needle tensions should be raised. If the bottom strip was gathered too much, then it needs to be gathered less. So the differential value should go down and/or needle tensions should be lowered. Adjustments made to the differential were on the order of .25 at a time.

When the practice strips came through correctly, I knew that the serger settings would work on the garment, and it did.

As a further precaution (and because I had rounded the ratio to the nearest 5%), I quarter-marked both the bodice and the skirt with pins. Then when I got to each quarter-mark I knew whether I needed to fine tune the differential dial — either up in value (to gather more) or down in value (to gather less).

If, at a quarter-mark, the skirt wasn’t gathered enough, the differential value should go up. Or if the differential is as high as it can go, then the needle tensions should be raised. If the skirt was gathered too much, then  the differential value should go down and/or needle tensions should be lowered.  Adjustments made to the differential were on the order of .25 at a time.

I was sewing in the round, so when I got back to where I’d begun the gathering, I turned the differential back to 1.0 and finger-gathered the remaining skirt (only about 1/2″ or so) as it passed under the presser foot. Voila! All done.

If I was sewing flat, then I would have let it finish at the settings determined using the practice strips.