Need your recommendation on best Serger
 

I will be retiring soon and will finally have time to sew my brains out.

Would like to add a serger to my tools but know nothing about them.

Would welcome any and all opinions and recommendations.

Howdy & welcome to the quilting board & to the world of quilting. You are going to love retirement & quilting. I don't have an answer on the serger but I would suggest (if you haven't done this already) that you stock up on fabric/supplies, etc. After retirement there will be less money coming in for you to buy, buy buy & you should get it while you can. I made the mistake of only buying as I needed fabric for a project & had very, very little "stash" when I retired. I'm regretting that now as a fixed income doesn't stretch very far. :( You will find lots of help, suggestions & answers here on this friendly board.

Welcome - - -

I am fond of my sergers - but they are all older - probably 1990 and older - so - not much help about what is currently available.

I do use mine for finishing edges and for overcasting the raw edges of fabric before it gets washed.

Could I live without one? Sure - but I prefer not to.

I used mine a lot to finish the inside seams of bags - even though they were not "showing" - i thought the finished edges were easier to handle than the unfinished edges were.

The usual advice - what kinds of sewing do you do?
Do test runs on different models.

Things that are important to me:'

Ease of threading - including the needles
How easy to understand is the instruction manual
Is it a recognized brand
How finicky is the tension adjustment
Are lessons/classes available

I have purchased used ones for as little as $35 - and as much as $250 - but I am not a newbie to sergers. I think my Husqvarna 905 might be my favorite one right now.

Strangely enough, I learned more about my "simpler" machines while I was trying to learn how to use the Singer 5-thread serger.

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*** H i! Y'all from the upstate of South Carolina.:thumbup:
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I have an older four-thread Bernina that works fine. However, if I had grandchildren or some other reason to do a lot of serging, I would invest in (1) a serger with air-threading and (2) a separate coverstitch serger. Air-threading would have saved me a lot of frustration in the past, plus now that my eyes are not quite as sharp and my hands not quite as nimble, air-threading would be a wonderful blessing. A coverstitch serger does only one stitch -- hemming -- but would be wonderful for any kind of serged clothing. If you are a creative person, you might want to look at the more expensive sergers that have more harp space and can do many different kinds of decorative stitches, such as wave stitching. I personally wouldn't get one of those because, just as I don't use many of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine, I probably wouldn't use many of the decorative stitches on a serger. Also, the learning curve is steeper for the fancier machines.

I have seen so many posts about the air-threading Baby Lock sergers, that is probably the brand I would get. Here is a link to their many variations:
http://babylock.com/sergers/

I would probably get a 4-thread serger and a coverstitch machine. My interests would be primarily in making children's clothing (if I had any grandkids to sew for!). I have serged a few quilts but do not like using a serger on quilts. The seams are bulkier than I like, and it is much harder to be accurate piecing on a serger than a sewing machine.

Edit: There are quite a few YouTube videos that demonstrate what different sergers can do.

Several months back I bought a Juki MO 1000 and I love it. I had an older Pfaff before and it serged wonderfully but the rethreading from overlock to coverlock cost me precious time. So I decided the best fit for me was an overlocker and a separate coverlock machine and it is a great set-up. I sew a lot of apparel for my grands and now I can go from machine to machine without losing time. I bought the Juki new and found a great deal on the Babylock Coverstitch. Both have air threading which I love also. I highly recommend the Juki, I did days and days of research and this is a great machine for the money. It especially does well sewing curves and the flat lock hem is super easy to set up and is a beautiful stitch. Here is a You Tube demo of the Juki.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-jVaoJdP6M&t=548s

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

Juki MO 1000, replaced my 20 year old babylock, I love it, well worth the cost, BTW I have the Janome coverstitch as I sew a lot of garments with knit fabrics, also fantastic. Try several and decide what suits you best.

I have a Brother 1034D which is around $200. I can thread it after watching a YouTube video. I'm not scared of it. If someone gave me the air threaded one I would take it, but, I wouldn't spend any $$ on it because the one I have is just fine. I have rolled hems with it and of course serged. It is not an overlock.

I've heard good things about Baby-lock sergers too, but I personally don't have a serger.