i bought one gosh probably close to 10 years ago...when it arrived my son's girlfriend popped in the video, threaded it and sewed a little bit with it, i remember she had a problem with the threading part, her eyes are not so good and it was a problem, but she liked using it and made a purse...fast forward 7 years, it was put away for a few years with no one having any interest, then my daughter wanted to try using it making leotards for the girls for gymnastics...so i sent it home with her, where it lived in the back of her van for another year...then she gave it back to me... i thought...i bought the dumb thing...i should learn to use it...so i set it up on the table...and found...ooops it needs to be threaded... and the instuction manual is in the form of a vhs tape...and our vhs player died about a year ago and we have not found another one...everything is on dvd these days...so back in the case it went, and has lived since under the bench in the entrance way...
they may be great for sewing certain things but i have not been able to try this out...some day's i think i should just sell it...some days i think i should really try to find a new vhs player...do they even make them? probably not...and do i want to spend more money...not really...so there it sits useless, and it has probably under 5 hours of use in its history...

Depending on what brand it is, if there is a dealer take it in and have them show you how to thread it. Also there may be someone on the board who might have one and could take picutres that you could follow.

I have a Pfaff that I love and it is so easy to thread. It is pretty old now. Probably 10 years. I do need to have the cutters replaced.

I also have an inexpensive one from Hancock's, I think a Janome. I am not sure without looking. Anyway, I am not impressed with this one. I think it is much more complicated to use and thread.

I would recommend you look at the one you are interested in and see how easy it is to thread. I find this is the main difference. I would love to have the new ones that thread themselves, but on a fixed income that will never happen. They probably cost more than my car is worth.

When I make a denim or corduroy quilt for utility use, I sew it together with the surger(unless of course, it is a rag quilt). Sewing it on the surger I know that the seams will not unravel and fall apart.

I have had sergers for 13 years and would be lost without one. I have two, one is industrial that I keep in the basement because it is too large for my sewing room. That thing can serge anything and I love it. The only thing it cannot do is a rolled hem. It's like a bulldozer with anything else. My home serger is a Viking that lives in my sewing room.
If you do buy one, make sure it has differential feed (most do now, but it is good for putting an edge on knits without stretching the fabric) and does a nice rolled hem. I love the rolled hem for tablecloths and napkins. I would definitely buy one if I could get a discount. You will LOVE it.

Mine also, is a Viking Huskylock 936, 3 yrs old and the manual says to oil it every 8 hrs. of serging or if not used for awhile. Also, the repair/maintenance person, club instructors told us to do this maintenane. Perhaps the newer ones require the oiling process; whereas, the older Viking sergers did not.

I hope the store you get it from gives serger obedience classes. Or maybe you have a friend who could teach you how to use it and give you little pointers on using a serger.

I love my serger. I use it in concert with my sewing machine for many projects. I am enclosing a picture of my serger crazy quilt. I just pile up scraps from the bin and start serging them together in any old way planning that I will have a 15" when all is said and done. I make it bigger than I need and then trim it back with a large square template. I don't worry about bias edges as when done I serge the edges of the whole block, and then make quilt as blocks for a rather large quilt or as panels for a nice sized crazy tote. I made a big one to hold my serger accessories and instruction book. Handy dandy for traveling to a class. Also sewing the trimmed blocks together can make a wonderful crazy quilt for baby. I find babies love the riot of color and pattern and the serging makes the seams so strong they can safely teeth on it. Did your kids chew on their blankies when teething, mine did.
Sewing with Nancy on her web site has many free videos for serger projects. One thing I use all the time is to use the rolled hem feature on long strips of fabric that will be gathered and used for ruffles on all kinds of projects. Also the serger drippings....the long thin strips that come off the cutter can be saved and used for making fringe on all kinds of fun projects. I do recommend you get one with the self threading feature as it makes serging sooooo much easier.

Ditto

I use my serger all the time and never had a lesson. There are great books to have as a reference. It was intimidating at first but now it's one of my best friends :lol:

I've had 2 sergers. My first was a Singer which I gave to a neighbor who had done me many favors. The first quilt I made was a brocade crazy quilt. Bought 3 packs of Brocades from Joann's when they carried them and it made up into a very luxurious quilt and needed the serger because of the fraying fabric. The one I have now is a Viking. I use it to make tote bags and back packs. The threading instructions are on the cover when you drop it down to thread but if I ever got a new one, I'd go the expense to get the self threading kind.