Serger Problem

After using the Serger for my BF's Jeans, it stopped working. I was in a panic because I had orders to fill. Long story short I had to use a clean edge and bias tape for the raw edges of the seams, because I dropped my serger off at a locale sewing repair shop. Prier to dropping it off I called around and fold what at the time seemed like a reliable repair shop. But when I received a call from them 2 days later I was enraged. I was told that it was going to be $145 which included timing and oiling. I just wanted them to do the timing, so I can continue working. They said they wouldn't because the timing wouldn't hold if I didn't oil it. They tried to convince me that the oiling was needed because the handle felt ruff when you turned it. The handle felt a little ruff or tight, but it only after the timing happened. So they where full of shit. I think they wanted more money. Yes, the machine needs grease on the inside of the machine, but that has nothing to do with the timing nor the handle. So I declined the work and took my machine home and started searching. During my search I found this blog ... bangerlm.blogspot.com

"So I think there is some kind of conspiracy going on. Considering that the local repair shops charge $100, it becomes very pricy to get your machine(s) serviced every year as recommended. Especially if you have machines that only cost around $100-$200. ..." [Link]

I totally agree with her, it does feel like a conspiracy.

The pictures are detailed and you could see the alignment points. My BF was the master mind behind fixing my machine. It took a little while before we go it just right. We had to eliminate why it wasn't working, what was loose, and what didn't needed fixing. We narrowed it down to the upper looper wasn't aligned correctly and we did some tweaking and many test until we got it up and running again. I still need to grease the inside of the machine, but that can wait for another day.

This is a very poor design, because the machine needs to be keyed. If this was a man's machine, you can bet that the adjustable points would be marked in case it went out of alignment. Since people like to pray on the weak, they feel the need to charge us tones money to get one little thing fixed.

After this fiasco I'm going to learn as much as I can about fixing my own machines. I'm never going to take one of my machines to get repaired again. Its not worth buying a $200-$500 machine to turn around and fix it every year for $100 or more. Let say that the machine last about 10 year that $1,000 plus the $200-$500 you spent the the machine. The repairs are more than the machine itself. You are better off buying a new machine if your going to spend that money to repair it. I'm done talking about this for now.

I have video of the before and after that I might upload at a later date. It doesn't show us fixing it, which I regret not filming, but we didn't know if we would get it fixed or not. At the very least if we didn't get it fixed I was going to take it in to get repaired and pay the $145. I'm so happy that we got it working you can't imagine.


Click on image to see larger.

White Speedylock 1600


More LINKS re: Serger Timing/Adjustment
http://bangerlm.blogspot.com/2007/01/do-it-yourself-serger-repair-how-to.html
http://www.crhowto.org/essentials-abcs-serging-3.html
http://www.sergerparts.com/

New Tutorial :: Setting up Industrial Sewing Machine

I think it was two weeks ago I purchased a Juki DDL-8300N sewing machine. I've always wanted an industrial sewing machine, but I didn't start researching it until recently when my home sewing machine started braking down on me. I sew way too much not to have an industrial sewing machine. Also the machine sews 10 times faster than a home sewing machine.

I made a very quick tutorial on how to thread the machine, threading the bobbin, threading the bobbin case, drawing Up bobbin thread, and removing or placing bobbin case into the machine.

Visit pandemicapparel.com to view the tutorial.

Replacing Broken Zipper on Jeans

My boyfriend (BF) had two pairs of jeans one had a perfect zipper but was torn; the other had a broken zipper and was otherwise perfect. He had asked me to take both jeans and make one. Rather than make a video tutorial which would take more time that I at the moment I decided to make a blog entry.

The following picture is from the jean that is missing the tooth, a second tooth broke alter on. But you can see that it needed replacing.



This next picture I'm removing the stitches of the waistband. If this is your first time replacing a zipper on jean or any other garment take notes on how its constructed or better yet take a few pictures before you start ripping seams.




Once the waistband seams were removed I started on removing the zipper on the left side of the pants.






I also had to remove some stitches that were holding the zipper in place at the crotch seam.




Next I moved to removing the zipper on the right side of the pants. After doing this to both pants, which took some time, I had my zipper and the broken one.




Here you can see the missing teeth on the lower zipper. These zippers didn't have a "top stops" so when I closed it the pull tab take flying off the teeth. I was left with the pull tab in my hand and surprised look on my face almost comical. It took forever to try to get the pull tab back on the zipper teeth. So keep in my don't close the zipper all the way and secure it with a safety pin.




Now I can finally attach the zipper to the pants.




First I hand stitched the zipper in place, serged the edges that needed it.




Then using my new Juki sewing machine I top stitched the zipper. Since this machine doesn't allow for 2 needle for the top stitching. I had to sew it twice and make sure to be careful about the distance between both.

I started off by attaching the right side of the zipper first then the left side I attached the zipper to the under flap and then top stitched it. Finally I top stitched the crotch seam and the little notch. I'm not sure what its called so I use "little notch". It the zigzag stitch that holds down the inner flap to the jeans.






After finishing the top stitching I moved on to attach the waistband, that was the easiest part.


My BF didn't care that I couldn't match the thread color, so you'll be able to see my top stitching.