Creating your own garments and tailoring clothing is not an easy task. However, there are of course some tools out there that can make your life a lot easier in this regard.

One of these tools or machines is known as a serger. The question that we often get asked is can I make professional quality seams with a serger?

The answer here is that yes absolutely can you use these machines to make professional quality seams. In fact, this is the number one tool that most tailors and clothing creators would use.

Let’s figure out exactly what a seam is, what a serger machine is, and how they are used to make professional quality seams.

What is a Seam?

Before we talk about how to create professional scenes with a serger machine, you first need to know what a seam is. So, a seam is a word that refers to the line of stitches where two pieces of fabric are stitched or pieced together. The line of stitches along the seam is called the seam line.

There are many different types including back, side, center front, curve, facing, and collar seams. You can also have closed seams and open seams. One of the most popular types of seems is the closed seam, which is because it helps prevent fabric from fraying once the government in question has been completed.

What Exactly is a Serger Machine?

You could think of a serger machine as a very specialized sewing machine. All sergers out there are going to take between three and eight cones of thread at a time.

Generally speaking, most are going to use three or four cones of thread, with some also using five. In fact, creating seams is the main purpose of a serger machine. The reason for this is because the serger machine performs three main functions at once.

This includes stitching a seam or creating a seam line, locking the threads around the seam to close it and prevent fabric from fraying, and cutting off the excess fabric past the seam allowance.

Instead of like a sewing machine where you would have to do all three separately, a serger can do all three at once. This is due to the fact that they usually have several cones of thread, several needles, and a knife to cut the fabric.

The simple answer to our question of the day is that yes, a serger machine can be used to create professional quality scenes. In fact, this is its primary purpose.

How to Sew a Seam with a Serger

What we want to do now is to provide you with a step-by-step tutorial on exactly how to sue a scene with a serger.

1. Do a Test

Before you do anything, you do want to test out your abilities on a scrap piece of fabric. Of course, you want these same type of fabric that you are working on. This is so you can adjust both the stitches and the loopers, as well as the tension of the machine, to match the type of fabric you are using.

Moreover, that machine is also going to cut fabric as you seam stitches. Due to this, both the seam width and the tension also need to be properly adjusted. If you don’t know how to properly adjust your machine for the type of material you are using, we recommend doing some extra research on this front.

2. Sewing the Seam

The next step in this process is going to be to sew the seam. Sewing with a serger, especially when it also cuts and trims, is somewhat difficult. What you need to know here is that pinning should be avoided whenever possible.

If you pin your fabrics together, and then ride over it with the serger machine, those blades are going to get damaged.

Something you can try doing is machine stitching with a row of stitches using a normal sewing machine first, or you can also baste the seam. If you are more experienced on this front, you might also sew the seam freestyle.

3. Serging

With all other steps followed, you’re now going to take your fabric where you are making a seam and place it under the foot of the serger, on top of the base.

Now, you need to once again adjust the width of the stitches, the tension, and the loopers to match the purpose at hand. Of course, you also need to choose the exact type of stitch that you want to use.

Maybe you’re going for a more functional stitch, or maybe for something more decorative. All that is left to do now is to turn the serger on, use that foot pedal to control the speed, and feed the fabric through the machine.

Always make sure to hold the fabric both before and after the foot so you can achieve proper tension.

4. Finish the Stitching

The only thing left to do with to do now is to finish the stitch. Remember that a serger does not have a back stitch, so you won’t be able to close it.

Therefore, you need to create a tail chain both at the beginning of the seam and at the end of the seam, which you will then be able to trim off and close afterwards.

That chain of stitches will allow you to thread said chain into the seam allowance when everything is completed.

Final Thoughts

If you want to make professional quality seams, then a serger is absolutely the best tool to use.