Customer Reviews

ABCs of Serging: A Complete Guide To Serger Sewing Basics (Creative Machine Arts Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent guide to learning and using your serger. If you are a beginner and somewhat afraid of your new serger, this book will get you past that fear and on to using your new machine quickly. It gives you clear directions, step-by-step, to help you begin. It suggests keeping a notebook with notes of stitch settings and samples of your work as you try each technique, which I did. It is very helpful when you refer back to it later.

As you progress in your skills, the book offers many other options and techniques to use in creative ways. I keep it by my serger and sewing machine to refer to for inspiration. And I continue to add new samples to my workbook.

The instructions are well-written and easily understood. I like the line drawings because they are clearer than photos in the details they are able to show. It does have a series of drawings in color to show the various seams and how they are formed, hemming options, and edge finishes.

If you are looking for a book to help you REALLY learn to use your serger, this is the one to choose. It is straight forward, easy to understand and will soon have you moving beyond the basics.

I am finding helpul instructions in this book. I am an inexperienced serger AND sewer, and my serger's instruction book and video are COMPLETELY useless. The pointers on tension, stich width, and stich length have already improved my understanding of how a serger works. I do agree with the first reviewer that photos would be handy for illustrations of stiches and effects.

Great book for both the novice and the experienced serger. The book has clear drawings and down to earth explanations on threading your serger, serging anything from cuffs, eleastic, shirring, french seams and lettuce edges. The book explains the importance on tension and little tricks for adjusting the same. You should not be without it if you are new to serging.

If you have a serger now, you will find as much information in the instruction booklet that comes with your machine as you will find in this book. If you are just considering purchasing a serger and want to understand what serging is all about, you will be afraid to even try to serge.

I found the black and white sketch/drawings very confusing -- photographs would have been better. There is not one instruction or technique not covered in my intruction manual that came with my serger.

I have recently purchased 5 or 6 books on serging and this is my least favorite. I can't get past the hand written notes all over the pages pointing at drawings of different stitches and drawings of sergers being threaded. For someone who is new to serging like myself all this scribbling looks just like that, scribbling. I'm not going to comment on the content of the book, it may be informative, but if I don't find it interesting to look at guess what? I'm not going to open it to read what it says. Of the 5 or 6 books I own I want to highly recommend two for those of you out there wanting to learn how to serge. And maybe even enjoy doing it! You have to thread the machine to use it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Just thread it one at a time. In the order your manual tells you to. Use colors that are easy to tell apart at first. The best book to help you and keep you going in my opinion is "The Ultimate Serger Answer Guide, by Naomi Baker, Gail Brown, and Cindy Kacynski. You can read my review on it if you're interested. The second book which is over my beginners head, but still helpful and one I can grow into is, "Serger Secrets: High Fashion Techniques For Creating Great Looking Clothes".

The book is great!! I didn't know anything about serging and my serger came with very few instructions. I feel like I can use my serger now with confidence. Wonderful teaching tool!! Better than taking a class.

In under 30 minutes, I learned how to properly thread my serger, adjust tension, and begin serging like a pro! I have so much more confidence in my abilities! I was so terrified of my machine that I ignored it for an entire year. This book has made me realize that I could have done so well from the very beginning had I owned this book then. The troubleshooting tips and helpful diagrams make it so easy to follow.

I'm so excited to play with my machine now!

This was money well spent. A serger is so different from a standard sewing machine that a beginner needs more help than the serger manual provides. If you can't take classes, this guide will help.

As the proud new owner of an Elna serger, which came with a useless instruction book, I found the ABCs of Serging absolutely perfect as a guide to help me become proficient. Every section is short and to the point, the serger-expert writers include a host of practical tips so that you can become confident and get on with the job. A must-have for a new serger owner.

I checked this book out of the library to compare to others on the market. I really liked the little boxes of tips on each page - it is really helpful to read what others have learned that makes the job easier for me!