I bought a Husqvarna viking Lily 555 last year and have been making clothes just for myself over the course of the year. It's really going far better than I expected and the clothes are turing out well. However, I am noticing that the hems on the inside are terribly frayed and messy unless I go over all of them with my machine's ovelocking stitch, and that is time-consuming, and also takes up a lot of thread, so is pricey. I have been looking around at overlockers and wondering if it would be worthwhile to buy one since they seem to overloack much faster, and as overlocker thread seems to be so much cheaper. Do you think that this is a good idea or should I just keep plugging away with my sewing machine's overlock stich?
The garments I am making are straightforward shirts and trousers, and some jersey fabric tops. I have also made nice A-line skirts and a few summer dresses.
Sergers are great, and if you get one you will probably love it.........But.......... You can buy one hell of a lot of thread for what a decent one will cost you.
I have a 550 (same machine, previous colour way!), and it is a wonderful machine, but I have never used the 'overlocking' stitch on it for precisely the reasons you state. I use an overlocker/serger for 90% of my seam neatening. (The other 10% is stuff like couture hand finishing or a Hong Kong finish.) It is the best fast way to get a neat durable finish.
You can do a LOT if the seams on those garments with the serger/overlocker! Even faster than the Lily - about twice the speed! AND the 4 thread overlocked seam is stronger and strechtier on Lycra and knits, and is therefore more durable. I use it all the time from fleece to silk chiffon, and on garments from this type of thing:
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used to have a Huskylock 910, but I wore it out! I now have a Bernina 1150MDA and a Brother 1034D, which is a much lighter and cheaper machine, but has a free arm, a feature I loved on the Huskylock.>
Best thing is to go try one! Think of the type of sewing you do, and the volume. I sew professionally and through heavy use and abuse, killed my lovely 910. I knew the features I wanted on the next one, and the invaluable lesson of always having a spare! So I bought the Bernina for toughness and quiet, and the Brother for free arm and as a back-up. If you are just sewing for yourself and family, you may only need the one, so try a lot of different ones, find what you like the feel of, and put it on the Christmas list!
In the past I have also owned a pre-loved three thread Toyota, and a newer 4 thread Toyota, and used several others. The makes I personally like are Huskylock, Bernina (my current fave rave!), Toyota, and Brother. I hate Janome - principally because one choked on fashion fleece and danced off the table into my lap! Ugh! Painful! - and Bernette (just way to light weight and plasticky for me - I like SOLID machines!). I haven't used an Elna or Babylock (except for a cheap & nasty that also tried tap-dancing off the table) for anything other than a trial, so I can't say much about them, but the Babylock Evolve and Wave look fascinating! I also quite like the Frister & Rossman for a lighter domestic akin to the Brother (but with that fab front opening that makes cleaning and threading a dream!).
Do hit the URL below and see some of the projects I do, and the machines I use to make them. Good mix of the old and the new! No pix of the Bernina or the Brother in action yet (they are both less than a month old - the Bernina only came home a week ago!), but on today's fleece top and cotton frock, the Bernina was powering through like a good 'un. My friend's Toyota misbehaved until I put new jersey needles in it for the fleece, at which it purred like a kitten rather than snargling it's threads up like a hamster nest!
Bulk buys of thread are great. Where are you? I buy a LOT of overlocking thread from Empress Mills, who do a great on-line and mail order service (details on my Fabric List on the web site). Very often you can use overlocking threads in the Lily as well! :)
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