When you say serpentine do you mean the wiggly stitch on your machine? If so, I've used that many, many times. I love it. Adds lots of texture and yes it holds up well to use. I usually do a little closer than 3" though. I like a lot of quilting. 2" would be ok but I usually do about 1" or even less. I can tell you that doing that stitch adds a lot of time to the quilting - compared to a simple straight line stitch but it can be worth it. Tomorrow I'll look and see if I can find any pictures of a quilt I've done using it.