Serger help! Janome 1100d
 

I need serger help, please--my husband surprised me with a floor model Janome 1100d last week (yay for me :) ) It has been working just fine until yesterday--I have been practicing threading and getting used to stitching on various spare pieces of materials. I was stitching along and it was fine and ... then it wasn't. Stopped looping and threading. Machine was working, needles up and done--just no threads going into or threading into the material and into each other.

At this point, I've re-thread it countless times, watched the DVD over and over--no change.

What am I doing wrong???

Make sure to have the presser foot up when threading. Also must be in this order, it makes a difference. Lower Looper, Upper Looper, Right Needle, Left Needle. It is great that you are learning to thread it. Many people pull the thread through, but if it breaks they are at a loss as to what to do. Hope you just need a simple fix.

would this be of help http://craftygemini.com/2014/07/serg...ome-1100d.html you might have missed a step in threading I have a babylock and most sergers you should start threading from right to left hope this video helps

Hi Ladies, thanks for advice--I have watched the crafty gemini and every other youtube I can find and I re-threaded once more summitbay, to no avail. I can't decide if I want to cry or scream.

This is the obvious, but I have done it: did you put the presser foot down before serging? Don't despair, take a break and if all else fails call the dealer tomorrow!

Yes presser foot is down--I don't mind the obvious, I feel like it must be something obvious. I just don't know what. I examined the piece of material it stopped working on and, although its a looser weave material, there's no jammed up thread, no breaking--just simply stopped serging. I do need to take a breath or there will be a new serger out in the snow below my window...

I hope it " comes to you" soon. I have the evolve and have had for several years. Last Sat I could not get it to sew correctly, I knew it was "operator" error,. slept on it, got up the next day. still could not figure out what I was not doing. Took it to the dealer. and I was not depressing the lock when I was threading the lower looper, then the upper looper. It was fixed in a minute. I have threaded it before just could not get it correct that day.
best wishes for a better day tomorrow.

Take a deep breath. Set all your tensions to 4 and try it.

Thanks everyone--I think something is going wrong with the top threading and not the loopers. I'm threading them exactly as it says to in the DVD and in the book but they are loosey goosey. I'll try re-setting the tensions--so far, the lower loopers are not unthreading when I try to test materials--but the top threads are not staying in the thread guides.

Breathe. Dammit, breathe! (lol--trying to maintain my humor)> Thanks, I may need to head to the store tomorrow indeed.

Well it is just so maddening when you are ready to sew and the stupid machine does not cooperate, lol! I never want the machine to "win" and get the best of me. I've almost thrown a serger out the window too. Presser foot up when threading so thread is in tesion discs and stays and if not using both needles remove the one not in use. Good-luck! Let us know what the problem turns out to be so we can all learn.

Still nothing except a ratted mess on the needles--loopers look fine. I so wanted to sew tonight. :( I have to stop, though, I'm too frustrated.

Really, thank you for the replies and cheering on. I do appreciate it. If anyone comes up with any other ideas, please let me know. I really didn't want to go back to the dealer. Kind of a waste of good sewing time.

Thanks all.

Hope you have the ah-ha moment without the need to go back to the shop. Call them before going in, they maybe can tell you over the phone. I have the 1200D both of the sergers are great machines once you get them to behave! Don't dream about sergers!

Thanks, I will try not to! I was wondering if something happened to the timing after reading some things--I just don't know how. I will let you know, thanks again!

I will say--not so impressed with the Janome manuals!

When re-threading, are you cutting *all* of the threads? And then re-threading in order? When I first got my serger, the mistake I was making was trying to re-thread only some of the threads. I had to re-thread all of the threads, and in exact order.

Prism99, thank you--but yes, I've been cutting them all and starting over each time.

I have a brother but had a similar problem...thread would "jump" out of the first set of guides...discovered that the way the thread starts out its journey through the guides on the "antenna" makes a difference.

Take it to the dealer. They will help. I have the exact serger. Any time i have trouble threading it...I is always user error.. Esp threading the loopers. Makes sure that you " seat" each thread in the tension discs like the videos and the manual says. And, no, you dont have to reset tensions. This serger auto selects the tensions for each of the settings. Easy. I will be cheering you on today! It is a nice serger.

I used mine this week.

Sandy

I feel empowered ladies--I will take it to the dealer today and let you know how it turns out. Hopefully they will have time to sit with me and work through it! Thanks so much. Mary Ann

Good luck today! I was going to suggest you have your DH sit at the machine and you walk him through each step, sometimes when I read things aloud like that & see what the other person is doing, it is easier to see an error or a step that is being missed.

I did take her into my dealer. Sat with two of the women who worked with the machines. Both concluded it was machine, not user, error. They couldn't figure out exactly what the problem was regarding why the threads were not looping, but they will have the shop owner and repair person looking Monday.

Thanks to everyone here for all their suggestions and support, I really, really appreciate it! Mary Ann