Does a serger scare you? Old myths about sergers abound, but Baby Lock's overlock machine is a useful tool, not a monster to be afraid of.

We’ve all got scary sewing stories to share this Halloween

If you’re a quilter or sewist, you probably have been in a trance caused by intense concentration and inexplicably sewn a fast-moving needle directly through your finger – or at least seen someone else do it. (All the more inexplicable because you are paying attention. Probably to the seam instead of the position of your fingers.  You’ve probably witnessed a wicked rotary blade cut, which looks as bad and as deep as any injury on those “slasher” movies and usually requires emergency room visits and a different kind of stitches than you intended.  Have you stepped on a needle or a pin only to have it go up into your foot, making you scream like a banshee?  Ever had to take your cat or dog to the vet because it swallowed a needle or a big wad of thread?  Can you admit that you’ve slipped on a spool, twisted a knee lifting your machine, or poked a needle directly under your fingernail?  Scary stuff, no doubt, but not as scary as the terrifying Halloween stories that run rampant this time of year.

Terrible tales

 As a young girl, I remember being terrified by the ghostly “Bloody Mary” dare at slumber parties. Remember that?  You would go into a dark room. Turn around three times saying, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” Then, dizzy and pre-primed for fright, you’d open your eyes and look in a mirror, screaming because you were sure you saw Bloody Mary’s disembodied head hanging in your reflection.

Then there was the urban legend about “The Hook.” A raving madman wandered parks and quiet wooded areas at night, searching for kids who were parking. Since this lunatic had a prosthetic hook for one arm, he could smash windows and do horrible damage to young lovers, pulling them apart with his metal hook. The myth recounted terrified teens who heard a scraping sound against the car door. Inevitably, they would drive away like bats out hell, only to find a hook hanging from the car door the next morning. (Looking back, it seems likely that “The Hook” story was invented by a parent who wanted to thwart teenage romantic rendezvous.)

Or the stories about criminals who would knock a person out on a dark city street and carry them off to some hidden hotel room functioning as a makeshift medical facility. The kidnapped person would awake the next day, groggy and in excruciating pain, only to discover that someone had operated on them, stealing a kidney.  Hauntings. Witches. Vampires. Monsters. They’re all scary.  But those creatures are mostly myths. Sometimes we’re afraid of nothing.  The old myth you must know.

Does a serger scare you?

Have you heard horror stories about sergers? Do you scoot away from the spool-spinning, knife-bladed, whirring-wizard machine because it scares you? Don’t be afraid. Tales of cantankerous, cranky old sergers are old myths.  Sergers have come such a long, long way from the early days when they devoured thread and tortured sewists who dared to try and poke filaments through their eyes.

In the 1880s, a guy named J. Makens Merrow and his son, Joseph Merrow owned a knitting mill. They needed a machine that would finish the edge of socks and other knitted goods. They needed something that would bind edges and work with very small seam allowances. They started designing in 1881. By 1889, they had patented their invention, not a scary Frankenstein kind of creature, but an unusual machine that advanced sewing techniques to a new level.  The Merrow Company continued to pioneer its serger/overlock machine, and by 1932 it was a common fixture in the manufacturers of “ready-to-wear” clothing.  Admittedly, the early serger was a little scary. It took special skill to thread the beast.  But all that changed with the creation of a company called Baby Lock.

    How can you be afraid of a “baby?”

In 1965, two gentleman who worked in a Japanese  industrial sewing shop decided they wanted to make a version of a serger for home sewists. Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Koichi Sakuma and several others proposed their idea for a “baby” machine to their company. The company did not share their vision.  Suzuki and Sakuma and others left to form a new company that focused on the creation of a miniature, “Baby overlock” machine, forming the Baby Lock Company that we know and love today.  The early intimidating monster serger morphed into the super easy, un-scary serger of today.

Over the course of thirty years, Baby Lock kept improving the home serger. In 1997, they released Jet Air Threading, one of the greatest advancements in the industry since the rotary cutter!  Threading the loopers of a serger no longer required the dexterity of a surgeon and the patience of a saint. Instead, the patented Jet-Air Threading lets sewists thread the machine with the push of a button. No longer did the serger have to be pampered, prodded, and plotted against to be threaded.  No fear needed. Ever. No more nightmares, tantrums, or tirades over difficult threading and balls of tangled strands.

Their threading vs OUR (Baby Lock) threading! WOW!

Serging makes it easy to quickly complete projects, finish edges, make professional seams, and work with knits.  All those Halloween costumes you’re making for your grandkids?  Completed in the blink of an eye without pinning or hours of ironing.  Don’t ever let a serger scare you again!

This might be the perfect time to get over your fear. Let Cynthia & the Team at Threads of Time show you why you need a serger. Now. You’ll be fearless for the scariest holiday of the year.

Purchase a Baby Lock serger during the month of October or November and receive a six month Serge-Fun-Club membership!  Zero-down financing available via Synchrony Financial. Stop in today!