7 Clever Overlocker Tips

[Music] hi i'm lucy from so essential and today i'm sharing with you some of my favorite overlocker tips so i'm going to help you solve some of those really annoying problems that you come up against but also show you some lovely inspiration for great decorative techniques you can create on your overlocker have you ever really struggled sewing your neckband with that weird bit at the end where you need to line the stitches up and it always just goes a bit uneven and bulky or struggled to get over a bulky seam or wondered how can i hem something if i haven't got a cover stitch machine how could i do that on my overlocker well i'll be answering these questions and more today in the video everything i talk about today is available on our lovely website where you'll find a great range of overlockers and the accessories to go with them so check that out and if you like what you see today please like and subscribe one of the things i've struggled with most when using my overlocker or cover stitch machine is getting over those bulky seams you hold your breath as you get towards it and then the machine starts hammering as you go over it and doesn't feed through properly well with this handy little tip that is eradicated so here i've sewn my neckband together at the shortest edges in the normal way and then you would fold that wrong sides together to attach it to your top but here you would have a lot of bulk where those seams are lots of layers of fabric to get through so to reduce that make a little crease where it's going to be folded and then snip to the seam line be careful not snip through the sleeve seam line and then this will allow you to push the seam allowances in opposite directions therefore reducing the bulk by half and making it much easier for your overlocker to get over that bulky seam so you finally got the technique right for adding a neckband to a t-shirt in jersey fabric you know just how much to stretch it and how to pin it in place but what about that annoying bit at the end where you have to line the stitches up and it just never quite goes right and you always end up with a little bit of bulk and a bit of an unevenness on that section well let me show you how you can prevent that from ever happening again so here i've pinned my neckband to the mock-up top in the usual way pinning it all the way around but it's usually really difficult to maneuver the stitches on and off the fabric because you haven't trimmed any fabric off yet so here i've trimmed a section of the fabric out ready i've trimmed the neckband and the top and the trimmed section is as long as from the needles to the front of the foot or a little bit longer and then i've calculated how much excess fabric will be trimmed off which is governed by my seam allowance and that's how wide you want that section to be and then you'll see why because this will allow me to position the fabric underneath the foot so that the stitching can start in exactly the right place and then i can line the blade up and make sure that it continues to trim off the excess fabric in exactly the same place as well and then i haven't got to maneuver the stitches onto the fabric to the right place they're already starting in the right place and it just makes everything so much more neat it makes everything line up beautifully you're not going to have that weird bulky bit at the end or an even bit at the end so i'm just going to start sewing and i'm just using my guides in exactly the same way as i normally do so the guides for where the needles are positioned and just trimming off that excess fabric sewing in the normal way stretching the neckband and it's going to give me so much better results than if i just try to maneuver the stitches onto the neckband and this can be used any time you're sewing in the round on an overlocker it's a really useful technique to master and you know the more you practice it the better and more confident you'll become at it and then i'm just going to slow down here because i want to show you this section which is the bulky seam that i showed you in the previous video just how easily my overlocker sews over that bulky seam i know it would struggle to get through that normally but because i've split those seam allowances how i showed you in the previous video it makes it so much easier for the overlocker to get over it and it's not hammering i'm not ending up with that issue there and then we're almost back to the beginning now where i first started stitching so this is the crucial stage so just slow down here make sure everything's lining up accurately you want to make sure that the stitches are going to line up with where you initially started them and then also that the blade's going to line up and just trim off the excess fabric to join it with that original trim section so we're just going to carry on stitching line everything up now it's up to you how much you overlap by i like to overlap by a good few stitches i just like to make sure everything's nice and secure and then i find that if i run the chain of stitches off almost at a right angle by maneuvering the fabric round this allows me better control of that excess chain of stitches and then i just use a tapestry needle to thread those through the stitches that are on the neckband just to tidy things up and just trim any excess off but you can see everything's nice and even there there isn't a big lump where i've tried to maneuver it on and off and it just gives you really neat professional results if you're anything like me you love a pretty gather or a pretty ruffle and it's great that they've been so popular in recent years but sewing the gathering stitches can be a bit time consuming a bit fiddly and annoying well like now i'm going to show you a technique where you can sew them in mere minutes on your overlocker it's going to be the easiest technique you've ever used for sewing gathers so i've got my overlocker set up for a standard four thread overlock stitch and i'm going to knock the differential feed up two and i'm going to increase the stitch length to the maximum which is four on my machine and then you literally just start stitching and it's as simple as that you're going to create lovely gathers on this fabric now the gathers are fairly subtle here so if you want to exaggerate those or manipulate them in any way just pull the middle thread gently and that will allow you to increase the effect and exaggerate the effect it is more effective on woven fabrics but you can do it on jersey fabrics very successfully as well and if you use this method of pulling that thread to exaggerate and manipulate the gathers oh my goodness how easy is that so much easier than sewing rows of stitches a rolled hem is a beautiful decorative finish often used on particularly delicate fabrics but it can be very time-consuming to sew by hand or very fiddly and difficult to sew on a sewing machine well now i'm going to show you how you can create it using your overlocker quicker than you've ever done it before and get that beautiful finish so we're going to use three threads to create this beautiful rolled hem effect i'm using one needle i've chosen the stitch width and chosen the rolled hem option on my machine i've selected d on the stitch selector and then threaded the loopers now your machine might not have some of these features so you'll need to refer to the manual you might need to remove the left or the right needle and you might need to just work with a narrow stitch and possibly adjust the loop tensions as well so check your manual and practice on scraps of fabric first but once you've got it right look how easily you can create that beautiful rolled hem effect i've used standard threads this time but you can use decorative threads like woolly nylon which we sell on our website for thicker and more decorative stitches and if you run off a chain of stitches you've even got little belt loops here that you could use as well ever heard of a lettuce edge hem no well it gets its name because it replicates that lovely frilly edge of a lettuce leaf and you can create this on your overlocker so so easily i've seen this technique used on so many garments in the high street this year it's lovely used on a turtleneck perhaps with a double layer for extra frilliness and also a lovely way to finish those sleeve edges as well so let me show you how you can create that feature quickly and easily on your overlocker so here's a lovely lettuce edge that i've prepared on some stretch fabric earlier it's just using the same setup as the three thread rolled hem but you need to knock your differential feed down so that it stretches the fabric as it sews through the overlocker so we just get that started off it's a little bit difficult sometimes getting started because the stitches are so short and dense but if you just sew through there in the normal way i've used a contrasting thread so you can see the effect but if you were doing it on a garment i would probably i would use a matching thread and as i say i've seen this effect on so many garments on the high street this year and it just looks really pretty it's a lovely feminine effect to use so just run the fabric through in the normal way there and you can see it's very gently fluted now if i stretch the fabric that just exaggerates things and creates this beautiful pretty feminine lettuce edge turning straps through particularly those little fiddly ones you get on cami tops and dresses it's so annoying am i right well this technique will show you how to do it on your overlocker quicker and easier than you've ever done it before so here i've got the fabric for my strap and i'm going to run off a chain of stitches much longer than that strap itself i'm just using a full thread overlock so the machines just set it for a standard four thread overlap and then i'm going to position the strap fabric with the chain of stitches running down the center of the right side of the fabric and then match the long edges up with one another so you're folding it right sides together and putting the chain of stitches down the center of the strap so you might be able to guess now how all of this is going to work and then what we're going to do is making sure the chain of stitches is right down the center of the strap so it's not going to get caught in the stitches we're about to sew we're going to position the fabric under the foot and then start to sew the fabric together right sides together and as you sew just take extra care to make sure the chain of stitches is positioned right down the center of the fabric make sure it's not getting caught in those stitches that you're sewing because otherwise the technique won't work so you have to be really careful and mindful of that but again it's another one of these techniques once you've done it a few times you know you'll be whizzing these up in no time and it's so much easier when you're trying to create those fiddly roles straps and those sorts of things for some of the garments that you make and it gives you a lovely neat finish as well and it's just nice to see there's so many different uses for your overlocker other than finishing seams so we've run the chain run that off there cut it off and then you're going to pull the chain of stitches that runs down the center of the fabric just pull that gently and then you might need to just tuck the ends in to get it started off things never go as smoothly when you're filming i can assure you of that but yeah just gently pull and tuck in the end and then you'll see that the strap starts to turn itself through you have to be careful not to break that chain of stitches as you're pulling on it be gentle but you can just pull it through and your strap is turned through and sewn together all in one so you finally got an overlocker and you've sewn a lovely t-shirt on it but you don't really want to go for that twin needle look on the hem you're never quite happy with the results you get from your sewing machine with that technique well why don't you try this alternative way of hemming a garment using your overlocker for a fun way to finish those hems so i've pressed my hem up on the fabric and then i'm go i've turned the lock on on my overlocker to make sure the blades not working and i'm going to fold the hem back on itself and work from the wrong side of the fabric lining the edge of the hem up with the fold of the fabric and then i'm just going to position that under the foot of my overlocker and i want the stitches to just catch the edge the folded edge of the fabric as i sew through so the stitches of the right needle are just going to catch that and i'm going to feed the fabric through i'm using a woven fabric but really i think this technique would be nicer on a jersey fabric if you haven't got a cover stitch machine you can do a blind hem on an overlocker as well but i just wanted to show you this fun little technique so you've got a nice row of stitches on the inside and then on the outside you've got this fun little band which i think would look great on a t-shirt and it's just a really quick and easy way to get a nice neat finish on those hems so i hope you all enjoyed that and i hope it's given you the confidence to have a go and try out some new techniques on your overlocker they can do so much more than just finished seams and you can have so much fun with them all of the clips today were filmed using my baby lock desire 3 cover lock machine which is a combined over locker and cover stitch machine you can find it on our website and i'll pop the link below but we also stock all the other big brands as well and we stock all the accessories to go with them so do jump on and have a look at those and if you like what you see today please like and subscribe and i'll look forward to seeing you again do you

Channel: Sew Essential

Views: 436,340

Rating: 4.9332361 out of 5

Keywords: overlocker, serger, tips, tricks, tutorial, sewing, dressmaking, sew essential

Id: ur0NoS073cc

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020