Coverstitch | What is it, and how do I use it on the PFAFF admire air 7000?

Yesterday, I talked about Overlock stitches on the PFAFF admire air 7000 serger. Today, I’ll talk about the Coverstitch feature and how I use the Coverstitch stitches.

To start, there are 8 stitches in the coverstitch family on the PFAFF admire air 7000 serger: 1 chainstitch, 4 safety stitches and 3 coverstitches.

The first simple stitch I want to discuss is the Chainstitch. Literally, it is the home version of the PEI paper potato bag stitch closure. One side looks like a straight stitch and the back a chain stitch. Strange to talk about, I know. But it has its uses. Like on the potato bag, the tail is left long as it unravels, and it is very easy to rip out, it also stretches. In the garment sewing world, this means that it will create a great topstitch to make rib collars sit properly on a T-shirt neckline, and it will stretch when you pull the opening over your head and not break the thread. A friend of mine used it as a basting stitch when she was making a garment so she could put it on and test the fit as she went along and not poke herself with pins. I think she was brilliant! No pins, and the seams temporarily put in that can easily be ripped out and adjusted!

For the garment sewer, there is a 5-thread Safety stitch, both wide and narrow (using the left or right needle). A safety stitch is a chainstitch with an overlock stitch, either wide or narrow, wrapping around the edge. It’s a seam and an edge finish in one, and because it uses 5 threads, it’s very strong. And where might you use this? in the crotch seam of jeans and pants; anywhere that’s a high stress area.

5-thread safety stitch – wide and narrow

There’s also a 4-thread safety stitch which is a lighter version of the 5-thread safety stitch. It consists of a chainstitch seam and a 3-thread overlock around the edge, in either wide or narrow. We’ve already talked about 4-thread overlock and 3-thread overlock, wide and narrow. Basically, it uses less thread so it’s not as strong, but it’s stronger than the 4-thread overlock for a seam.

This is also used in pant seams, as it’s a reinforced seam used mostly in children’s wear or perhaps dress garments that don’t have the same stress as a work pant.

The finish we get from using the coverstitch is the one we all want on our knit garments, whether it’s a T-shirt or a dress. Look at your T-shirt. On top are 2 rows of straight stitching and on the back, loopers. This is a coverstitch. If the top threads are ¼” apart, then it’s a wide coverstitch. If the top threads are ⅛” apart, then it’s a narrow coverstitch. If there are 3 straight rows of stitching, then it’s a triple coverstitch. Simple.

There are 3 versions of the coverstitch: narrow, wide, and triple.

A wide coverstitch is the traditional stitch for a hem finish on a T-shirt sleeve and bottom hem.

A narrow coverstitch is usually either a personal choice or used for smaller garments like a child’s T-shirt. It’s also used sometimes to topstitch elastic into 4-way stretch garments such as swimsuits.

The triple is usually a decorative choice. It’s bold, and when used with 3 different needle colors, can be very fun.

When you’ve selected your stitch and you’re switching over to coverstitch, the computer screen shows you the needle placement for each stitch; this is where you move your needles to. This is a huge timesaver as I never remember where to put them.

The PFAFF admire air 7000 serger computer screen showing where to put the needles for the coverstitch wide stitch

To switch over to coverstitch, the threading guidelines chart (cheat sheet), is clear on what tension paths to follow.

Note: We now use the purple chainstitch thread hole and air thread push button.

The yellow left needle tension path is also clear. It differs when you thread the right needle; you follow the red tension path and then instead of using the red thread hole you thread the needle.

PFAFF admire air 7000 serger showing the front cover open for threading a coverstitch wide

To figure out the physical changes to the serger to switch over to coverstitch from overlock, we go back to the Info button. Tab one shows us the selected coverstitch wide, and tab two (i1) shows us the physical changes.

PFAFF admire air 7000 serger Info screen, on tab two (i1), showing the physical changes to be done to the serger to switch from Overlock to Coverstitch mode.

Switching from overstitch to coverstitch mode

1. Remove table A to change to the coverstitch table B, to be put on when we close the front door.
2. Rotate the blade down (we don’t use it).
3. Change the stitch finger setting from N to R.
4. The last picture on the Info tab shows that you must lower the loopers to below the coverstitch table B. At the bottom of the machine, (look at the previous picture) seen with the front cover open, switch the Upper Looper position from A to B. Now there is a trick here. After you threaded the machine, return the threading /sewing switch above to sewing, and then using the handwheel, rotate it until the loopers are below the stitching area. Now, the switch will move easily from A to B. Otherwise, it will not move. Silly I know, but this makes sense when you think about it; the coverstitch table must be able to close over the loopers, so they must be down.
5. When you now put on the coverstitch Table B and close the door, you’re ready to start stitching in coverstitch mode. Just remember to start and stop serging always on fabric!

I had a golf shirt to shorten and rehem. I didn’t make the golf shirt, I but bought it on a great end-of-season sale. It fit in the shoulders but was too big in the body, and it was too long. Taking it in was easy using a 4-thread serged seam, and the hem a breeze with the coverstitch wide.

Note: I always press up my hems to 1” so when I go to coverstitch, it stays in place, and with slippery fabric that really helps. And remember, almost anything can be pressed with a press cloth!

A new wide coverstitch hem

My golf shirt taken in and shortened with a coverstitch wide stitch

Yesterday we talked about the Overlock family of stitches, on the PFAFF admire air 7000 serger. Today we talked about the Coverstitch family of stitches and their uses. Tomorrow I’ll put these all together and show you how I use my serger in my sewing room. Join me!

The PFAFF admire air 7000 serger is all set up and threaded!

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Overlock stitches on the PFAFF admire air 7000 | Why you need them

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