A Birthday Serger and a Little Bit of Sewing

After years of dithering, I finally bought a serger!  It's the Baby Lock Imagine with the fancy-pants jet-air threading.  The FP JAT poofs the thread into the loopers and I squint and thread the needles my own self.  I love that it's so easy to thread and that I can thread it in any order. If a thread breaks I don't have to re-do the whole thing.

I practiced using the new machine by making a few baby blankets - terry cloth on one side, cotton on the other, all serged up with a 4 thread overlock.  It was a good way to get used to the speed of the machine, get a feel for how everything lined up to the cutting blade and learn how to serge a rounded corner.

Hattie, of course, napped in the scraps.

Next I practiced a narrow rolled hem.  I want to use this for hemming some silk crepe de chine chemisey-thingies that I want to make soon.  I really love this rolled hem:

Then I took a deep breath and serged the seam allowances and hems of a Louise Cutting shirt that had been waiting around for a month or so for me to finish it.
It's Cutting Line Design's Point of View shirt, view B.  I did away with the pleat in the back and just gathered it into the yoke.  It's a lovely loose shirt to wear on its own or over a camisole or tshirt.  The fabric is a  cotton from Marcy Tilton.  It has a bit of a brocade effect and is a little greener in real life.

 The houndstoothy fabric is a light-weight scuba knit I got at Britex in San Francisco earlier this year.  It will eventually be made into a pencil skirt and tank top

 Loverly buttons from Nancy's Sewing Basket

 Gathers substituted for the back pleat.

A mitered corner that I would not be ashamed for Louise Cutting herself to see!

While I'm enjoying learning a new machine, and looking forward to using it more,  Hattie is enjoying plotting mayhem and practicing her evil laugh