Serger Series – Part 2: Threading

And so we come to it. If you have been “dreading the threading” I promise it really isn’t as intimidating as it seems at first glance. With the exception of the lower looper, which is a teeny bit fiddly, the rest is super straightforward. I know I for one had built this up in my head to be super scary; (when I was doing my garment construction course I’d always wait until the thing was already threaded and then jump on. Managed to avoid threading an overlocker for my whole time there, lol!) and when I finally took the bull by the horns, I was all “oh!! is that it?!!” This is a long photo heavy post but don’t let that put you off. The process itself takes 5 minutes. I’ve just taken alot of pictures, ha ha! You can click on each image to open seperately and zoom in for more detail 😉

PREPARATION

You’ll need 4 cones of thread. Thread snips and tweezers. The hook nose tweezers are the most useful and if you’re a butter fingers like me then a second pair is handy too. The trickiest part about threading is accessing some of the teeny spaces where the thread has to run; but with tweezers…its a breeze. I’m using different colours here just for illustration purposes. It’s easier for you to follow the route of each thread that way.

Every machine will come with a threading guide. Either on board like mine, or in the manual. Have it to hand. Note the numbers at the top of the diagram. That is the order in which you thread. So, upper looper (red), lower looper (yellow), right needle (green) and finally, left needle (blue). That’s the order we’re going in. (BTW, If you have a secondhand machine that didn’t come with a manual, or you lost yours, then they are often available for free online as PDF downloads. Check out Manual Owl as a good place to start).

Start by turning all your tension dials to zero. This sets the tension discs inside at their most open position and helps ensure that the thread passes between them when you’re threading.

Pull up the telescopic thread bar at the back….

FIRST STAGE (applies to all 4 thread cones)

Position your thread cone on the appropriate spool holder. (We’re starting with the upper looper). Pass the thread through the corresponding loop at the top of the thread bar…

Hold the thread horizontally. The thread from the cone in your right hand and the loose end in your left and slide it up under that hook like part. Then take the loose end and run it in the channel that leads to the tension discs at the front. This part is easy to get the wrong way round which can lead to snapped threads.  Don’t want those!  This little wire thread guide has two upper loops at the top of it and the larger hook/loop that extends down. The thread runs from the thread bar above, under the right loop and the downwards hook/loop first and then runs over the top left loop and into the tension disc channel. Click the image to enlarge and zoom in.

UPPER LOOPER (red channel)

The thread then runs along that channel and round to the front where you run it between the two metal tension discs of the tension dial and down into the next part of the channel…

…then snugs into another thread guide underneath…

From there join the  red dots! Each thread position is indicated with a read dot and the thread is held there by a little hook that you pass the thread behind. Once you thread the final part of the upper looper (tweezers are useful there! Also, rotate the hand wheel at the side until the upper looper rotates into the most accessible position) the thread passes under the presser foot and off to the side.

Upper looper done! See the red thread marked “1” on my threading diagram? That’s what we’ve just done. We’re now moving on to the lower looper. Marked “2” with the threading route indicated by the yellow thread. Note to the left of the main threading diagram there are two separate diagrams of the lower looper in close up. As I said, the lower looper is slightly trickier.  To the extent that it warrants it’s own diagram, lol! But fear not. It’s fiddly rather than complex.

UPPER LOOPER (yellow channel)

The steps up until this point are identical to the red upper looper. To recap: from the thread cones, through the thread bar and rear thread guides, between the tension discs and down into the thread guide underneath…

Follow the yellow dots (in the same way as you did the red for the upper looper), until you get to this point. AKA the slightly trickier part; Rotate the handwheel again so that the lower looper is at its most accessible position, and grab the thread with those hook nose tweezers! In this pic I have hold of the thread with my tweezers and the lower looper, the bit we want to thread, is just behind my tweezers, and just in front of the upper looper. It’s the bit that looks a little like a tiny penknife blade running horizontally behind my tweezrs and it has a little threading hole in the end of it. We need to pass the thread behind it, then over the top of it…

…and then pull the thread towards us until it slides and then slots into a little dip/crevace right on the “elbow” of the lower looper…

Here it is zoomed in a bit. A little blurred (sorry, it was soooo tricky to photograph one handed!) but you can just make out the little nick in the elbow of the upper looper where the thread has to sit….it passes up behind the elbow, over the top and sits in that little cut out/nick….

From there thread the pointy end, and making sure you don’t tangle it with the thread from the upper looper (which sits directly behind it) pass the tail end under the presser foot and off to the side (2 sets of tweezers come in handy here!). Exactly as you did for the upper looper…

Another close up for you. That’s the trickiest part done!!

NEEDLE THREADING (blue and green channels)

This part is pretty much the same as a standard sewing machine except you need to do it twice! Start with the right hand needle (green channel). Threading process is exactly the same as the loopers up until the point it passes through the tension discs. Then it goes under a small thread guide, under a slightly larger thread guide and OVER the thread guide marked with the green dot…

Then down to the needles. Right needle is marked A. Into the little pig tail curl …

use tweezers to thread because the cutting blade gets in the way . Especially if you’re right handed…

Then, as with the previous two thread tails; pass under the presser foot and off to the side…

Lastly the left needle (blue channel). Same as the right needle except it only passes under the larger thread guide then OVER the thread guided indicated by the blue dot…

thread and pass the thread tail under the presser foot and off to the side as before.  ****YOU’RE ALL DONE AND THREADED!!*** One last thing to do though. Chain off…

Re-engage your tension discs by setting dials to 3…

Plug in and switch on….

Lower the presser foot and grab hold of your thread tails…

Pull thread tails round to the back, engage the presser foot and serge of a little chain…

Trim any excess and leave a 3″ tail.  All done!! Hope this was useful and that it helps at least someone out there realise that threading a serger is really not as terrible as it first appears. I know this is a photo heavy post which might make this artificially seem like a lengthy process . In reality it takes me 5 minutes, if that! Please please trust me. Try it. And you’ll see 🙂

You can view the first post in this series here.

Next up is tensioning and getting a nicely balanced stitch. I’ve discovered the COOLEST trick for that. Watch this space!