I hope you can help
as far as a serger goes is overcast and over lock the same thing?
I have a serger that I am selling I have never used it and probably won't. a lady is asking if it has an overcast stitich.Isn't that the main stitich of any serger? Isn't that what they do? She has me confused.I have used sergers before and she keeps asking wierd questions and I wonder if shw even knows what they do
Thanks for all your help
Kathy

That's probably what she means, but you could ask her if she is looking for something other than the standard serger function.

Thanks for the reply!

As far as I know a serger is the same as an overlock. It does sound like she doesn't know exactly what she's looking for.

My thoughts on this is that the serger is the "machine" and the "overlock" is the stitch....but most people interchange the terms to mean the same thing.

I've always thought an overlock stitch can only be done on certain sergers. It's the seam on ready to wear clothes.
On the right side it looks like two straight sewing lines and on the wrong side it looks like a combination of straight and overcast stitches.
But I admit I could be wrong.
I'm very interested to learn the correct answer also, since I'm in the market for a new serger. Karen

Maybe she meant coverstitch? The higher end sergers have that feature.

Cindy

Cindy---
"coverstitch".....that's what I was thinking of in my previous post. That's the ready-to-wear stitch. Sorry. Karen

Hi, overcast is fro a single layer of fabric not to sew like putting an edge on the fabric so it does not unravel.
over lock is sewing with the overcast built in.

There are sergers that use different numbers of threads - I think I saw one that had up to eight.

Maybe you can just show her what your machine does and she can go from there??

Or the instruction manual?