Sewing With Nancy

Each time I attend a workshop, I'm amazed at what I learn. But the drawback is committing to attend a two- or three-day event. Speculating that many of you may have the same time constraints I decided to bring a workshop to you featuring serger techniques. Pam Mahshie, the Babylock educational ambassador is our master at teaching serging workshops. Pam, I'm always impressed what I learn from you. Thank you, Nancy, and thank you for having me. Today, we're going to take a basic overlock stitch and show you how you can modify the stitch for binding quilts. I'll show you how fusible threads streamlines the sewing process, producing professional results. "Ultimate Serger Techniques" that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program

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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, makers of sewing, knitting quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the Clover difference. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. During this two-part series Pam and I are making small samples. We encourage you to do the same so that when it's time for you to do the technique you'll remember what we've done, and how to implement it. You're not going to have a little binding this small and put in a frame but at least it shows you what a beautiful binding you can create with a serger. You can use your favorite technique of the strips to cut, how to stop and start but we're going to show you how to work with the serger and the special technique of working with fusible thread in the lower looper of a four-thread overlock stitch. Pam, you can tell our viewers how you set up your machine for that special stitching? We're going to be using the fusible thread. The fusible thread will be placed in the lower looper so when we're ready to turn our binding over and press the fusible thread will hold it in place. We're going to place regular serger thread in the upper looper and both needles. When we thread, we thread, again, decorative thread the fusible in the lower looper. We're going to set our stitch width for 5.5. That's going to be the standard 1/4" setting for any type of binding or quilt stitching. Our stitch length will be set between 2.5 and 3 giving ample coverage for the fusible thread. You're also going to notice on the binding strip itself there's going to be a line that I've drawn. That line is going to be placed 1/4" from the final edge or the horizontal edge of our fabric. When you stitch, you want to look down through the needles or down where the needles are going to be penetrating the fabric and as that stitches, you want the needles to stop stitching right at that point. When the needles approach that line just maybe turn one or two stitches by hand just so that the needles are up. Raise the presser foot. Turn the fabric out of the way and stitch. Then what I'm going to do is take a pin and usually that's a no-no when working with sergers. But we're going to use it as an indicator. We're going to place the pin at a 45-degree angle into our corner. Fold the binding against the pin. Then fold your binding down so the folded edge is aligned with the cut edge of your fabric. So, the folded edge with the cut edge of the fabric. Now, it's important that you remove that pin before you start to stitch. That could be a problem. Raise your presser foot. Simply slide the fabric up under and stitch. You would, of course, do all four of your corners exactly the same way. You'll notice that we have fusible thread on the underside and regular serger thread on the top side. Nancy has the sample that we saw previously and she'll show you how to press that binding. Usually, at this point you would turn the binding to the wrong side and put lots of pins around the edges. We don't have to do that, because of that fusible thread. I'm going to just place this with the fusible thread upper-most and wrap the binding around the edge and press. The fusible thread will adhere the binding to the fabric. It acts as a pin technique. We're just doing this small sample. You'd have to do the entire quilt. But it's held into place, it really is holding. You could hand tack it from the back. You could stitch in the ditch from the right side to hold it in place. But you don't have to use pins for this final stitching. It makes it so much more convenient. Many times, I kind of hurt myself with all those pins! This is a great way of using your serger and quilting. I hope you'll give this a try. If you've gathered fabric before you probably stitched a row or two of basting stitches and then pulled the threads to gather the fabric. Gathering on with a serger with a cover stitch can be automatic, stitch and gather, all at once. Curious? Well, we'd like to show you how. The gathering technique on a serger can give you interior gathers or gathers along the edge. But before we show you the creative technique let's start with the basics. The cover stitch is usually used to hem knits and woven fabrics alike where there's two needles on one side and then underneath, there's one looper that covers the hem to create a stitch. Comparable to a double or twin needle on a sewing machine but a whole lot faster. Before we show you the ultimate way of gathering let's talk about the cover stitch. Pam, you have your machine set up for a cover stitch. Again, check your owner's manual. There are some machines that do not do this stitch. Correct. When we work with a cover stitch, as you said, Nancy we're going to be stitching on the interior of our fabric. As you can see our sergers are set up quite differently. We have the flatbed sewing table on. Our blade is going to be recessed so we don't cut in the middle of our fabric. I'm also going to be placing a little narrower foot onto the machine. The wider foot works great, but the narrower foot is going to aid in how we guide our fabrics in and it doesn't get caught as we stitch. I also have a quilting guide bar that I'm going to use a seam guide. What I'd like to do, in the basic stitching is use that as guide. First, I lay my fabric with the hem side facing up so that I can indicate with the guide bar what my hem width is going to be. I set that, then flip it over and stitch. The goal is to enclose that raw edge on the wrong side. Correct, that's where we get the name cover stitch. We do have a standard stitch length setting. Our width is not going to be indicated because our width needs to be determined by the settings of the needle either the two needles narrow or two needles wide. That's the traditional way of doing it. To make some changes so you can have decorative stitches within the middle gathering within the middle of home decorating or children's wear there's a little bit of tweaking needed at the machine. Exactly, all we're going to do is take our standard settings and we're going to increase our differential feed. The differential feed, again will affect the feed dogs that are on the machine. What they're going to do is they're going to take a longer stroke from the front feeding at the same rate on the back. That's going to feed the fabric in faster from the front. Our stitch length is set at the maximum length of 4. What I like to also do is set my width between my rows of gathering, using the quilting guide bar. I'm just simply going to slide this over to a predetermined amount, or you could measure that. Raise your foot. Slide the fabric up under the presser foot. With any cover stitch, it's important that you start stitching on your fabric. As you stitch, you can see how beautiful those gathers are going to be. I like to "tickle" my fabric as I stitch. Then, not placing any resistance on your fabric you end up with beautiful gathers. You don't have to pull any threads. They're all even and symmetrical. That works out extremely well. Once you know how to create gathers you may want to just do a ruffle. So our next little artwork frame shows that Pam has one row of the gathering down the middle. But before doing that finishing the edges with a rolled edge stitch. Again, a rolled edge stitch is a traditional serger stitch. I have it set for a three-thread. Check your owner's manual to make all these settings. The thread difference that I used in the upper looper. That's the one that's going to show the most. It's a texturized nylon thread. It has more loft to it than just an all-purpose thread maybe double the width. It doesn't have as much spin in it so it fills out the stitches much more. It fills out that edge. As we look at the sample, what I have sewn on one side. I'm using the far right needle. Look how that fills that out. You have the machine set at a very short stitch length. As I serge this I'm just trimming off a hair of the fabric. I'll do part of it for you. There's that edge just perfectly serged and finished. Set your machine for the cover stitch and stitch down the center with the differential feed change and you have another way to create gathers. It's a great way to use your serger. Create texture with pintucks using the cover stitch setting. Light- to medium-weight fabrics can easily take on dimension once you know how to set up your serger. It's all about set up. When we talk about pintucks you'll see from our little sample that the lower pintucks are raised, they're filled out. The upper tucks are just that, they're tucks. They're not as dimensional. They're little pleats that go across the fabric. On any machine, whether it's a serger or a conventional machine, there are specific set up techniques and usually, the foot is changed. On the serger the foot has just one groove, so that the extra fabric whether it's light to medium weight can fill this area to create the dimension in the stitch. The cover stitch has the two needles and the one looper thread. Pam has that set up for her stitching much the same way as our last technique. Yes, Nancy, thank you. We have two different types of guides, as you mentioned that you're going to be able to use when you're doing a cover stitch pintuck. The T-bar is going to give you the folded tucks. Then, you also have the other guide which as you see, has a cord running through it. That will give us the raised and dimensional tucks. We do have the cover stitch set up with a narrow cover stitch setting. We want to make sure that our blade is recessed because we're going to be stitching in the middle of the fabric. The fabric that we're going to be stitching on we want to make sure that our tucks are going to stitch on the lengthwise grain of fabric. Being a textile major, fabric is pretty important to me. We have the fabric in the length it's always very stable, it doesn't stretch a lot. Even though it's woven on the crosswise grain, it does have more stretch. That's why you should try to work with it lengthwise. Even though it's a tightly woven fabric. You'll end up with a little bit of a waffle on your tucks which doesn't always press out. Again, what we'll do is place the fabric underneath the presser foot. Lower the presser foot, always start in the fabric whenever you're stitching using a cover stitch. Simply stitch the line of stitching. For equal distancing between your tucks you can also use the outside edge of your presser foot. Or you can use that quilting guide bar on your machine. You'd stitch another row. I think it will show how you would guide that. Line up the fabric with the edge of your presser foot and just simply stitch making nice, even, equal distance tucks. That really shows how it can go so quickly and evenly. They're a little bit bigger tucks than you'd achieve on your conventional machine. If you wanted to fill them in, you just change... Remove the guide bar. Just simply slide the guide bar that has the cording. I also find it easiest if you do place the cording into the guide bar first and then attach it to the machine. That just makes it a little bit easier. Have a tail in the back. Make sure your needles are up so your cording will slide between the two needles. Set your fabric on top of the cording lower the foot, and stitch. That really fills it out very well. So, when you're making little samples you might want to give this a try because if you make them in advance then you know the next time you're making a project how you can embellish it by adding pintucks that are filled in or simply tucked. Decorative threads and your serger are prime for embellishing. The amazing part of this technique is that the stitching is done from the wrong side of the fabric. The pretty part only shows once the stitching is complete. You're obviously aware that during this series we're not making projects, but making samples because I think that's the best way. Make a sample of everything the cover stitch can do or that the overlock stitch can do so that you have it in your mind so that the next time you need an embellishment or you need ruffles or you need pintucks, you've done it and you don't have to experiment with it. This embellishing technique is, again, that cover stitch. Stitching from the wrong side of the fabric what you'll be seeing are the needle stitches. Pam will show you the techniques and then when they're all finished, you'll see, presto whether it's gridded or random stitching it adds texture and design. The best part of doing samples like this, Nancy is I always say test, test, test. Once you have done these samples and you've made a test you have something to refer back to later the next time you want to do the technique. We do have this technique set up for a cover stitch, narrow. We can also use this same technique with a cover stitch, wide. You'll be able to see the needles. We have them set in the narrow setting. But if we move the needle over to the number 1 position it would create a wide stitch. We placed decorative thread in the chain looper. That can take a heavier thread than in the needle. We have that one decorative thread. Right, just like we did on the loopers at other times with the overlock stitching. Place your decorative thread in your chain looper. When we stitch, I like to start by drawing a line on my fabric. Then again, you're simply going to raise your presser foot. Slide it underneath and start to stitch. After you have that one line of stitching on the fabric then you can adjust, using the quilting guide bar and stitch other lines of stitching. You'll also want to use the markings that are on your presser foot when you start to stitch that first row. That will give you a nice guide to follow. You can see that by using that guide bar it brings you a nice even spacing. The hardest part of doing this technique, Nancy is waiting to flip your fabric over to see how beautiful those stitches are going to be on the right side. So, with a little set up with the sewing machine working with decorative thread, testing it all out you'll be able to add embellishment. We've shown you four different techniques this program and in the first program of the series another four techniques. If you missed that first program you can go to nancyzieman.com and re-watch the program online. As we tell you on most shows there are 52 shows that you can watch and learn. That's the whole idea, learning sewing, quilting and embroidery. Pam, it's been my pleasure to have you as our guest again to teach us how to use our sewing machine for more than just finishing the edges on fabric but to really make it sing. Make it sing and certainly have some fun with it. Get those sergers out of the closet and have some fun. Next, we're going to have our interview in our Nancy's Corner. Enjoy the rest of the program. For this Nancy's Corner segment I'm putting away fabric, needles, and thread and making room for a guitar and banjo. Please welcome Marc Revenson, known as Lil' Rev, a folk singer whose songs include an ode to quilters everywhere. Hi, Nancy. Marc, it's good to have you here. Your music makes me happy, and the topic is quite interesting. You write a variety of tunes but you have a whole litany of quilter's music. That's right. I have a program called Scraps of Quilting Music that's songs, stories, poetry, lore, anecdotes kind of historical stuff. It's generally about a 70-minute program when I'm visiting quilt groups, guilds, expos and things of that nature. You've had some inspiration behind this topic. I did, yeah, I like to credit really two people. I like to credit my grandmother, Ida Revenson and I like to credit a friend of mine, Nina, in Milwaukee who really inspired the early stages of this program by inviting me to perform for her quilting guild. My grandma, I like to refer to her as a fiber artist an old-time fiber artist. She was doing needle point and crochet, and all kinds of different things a little bit of quilting. She passed on and I inherited her 500 spools of thread and her 10,000 buttons that I used to play with as a kid. So yeah, the subject matter was really quite easy especially when I thought about the crazy quilt and the patchwork quilt and a lot of the early traditional patterns, Pine Tree, Log Cabin, and that kind of stuff. In many ways, it reminded me of all the old-time music I was playing that had sort of these traditional names like "Turkey in the Straw," "Arkansas Traveler" and things like that. A lot of similarities can be drawn here. You're going to sing us a song called the "Magic Quilt." That's right, yep. I'll give you this in a nutshell. I'll just tell you it's inspired by all the good that quilters do by often working hundreds, if not thousands of hours on quilts only to then give them away to church raffles, auctions and homeless shelters, and all kinds of different things. That really inspired me. So, someone said Lil' Rev, there's got to be a place that's special for quilters when they leave this earth and I said, by golly there is, and I'm gonna write about it. There's a magic quilt up in the sky I'm a-gonna ride it by and by When my hands quit sewin' Well, it's there I'll soon be goin' Ride the magic quilt up in the sky May your stitches all run in a row May you quilt all the love you sew May you be a light in the darkest of the night Ride the magic quilt up in the sky May you always earn your fair share May you quilt like one who really cares May you never get the blues Or drop a loose pin in your shoes Ride the magic quilt up in the sky Here we go, now! There's a magic quilt up in the sky I'm a-gonna ride it by and by When my hands quit sewin' Well, it's there I'll soon be goin' Ride the magic quilt up in the sky May you give when others are in need May you learn to keep your karma clean May your heart be true With that red, white and blue And ride the magic quilt up in the sky And all those folks out there who love to watch you, Nancy I hope they're going to sing along with me this last time through! There's a magic quilt up in the sky I'm a-gonna ride it by and by When my hands quit sewin' Well, it's there I'll soon be goin' Ride the magic quilt up in the sky Excellent, excellent! That's so fun! You're going to sing us one more song as we wrap up this program. All right, I'd love to do that. Change out to your guitar. This last song just refers to the emotional connection to quilting and how it gets us through tough times. Blue are the days that I've seen Times, they were tough and so lean This old life, it seems like a dream Blue are the days that I've seen These are the colors of my quilt... As Marc is singing us off I'd like to thank Pam Mahshie for being our guest and of course, for Lil' Rev, for being with us today. For more information on anything Sewing with Nancy to go nancyzieman.com. You can re-watch this show. Click on Nancy's Corner to find out more about Lil' Rev who has this beautiful music behind us. As I like to close every show Thanks you for joining me. Bye for now. These are the colors of my quilt Painted by things that I've felt Golds and yellows And earth tones that mellow These are the colors of my quilt... Nancy and Pam Mahshie have written an "Ultimate Serger Techniques" workbook which includes laminated instructions for all the techniques featured in this two-part series. It's $19.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2724 Order Item Number BK2724 "Ultimate Serger Techniques Workbook" To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy, TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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