How to use the PFAFF admire air 7000 in your sewing room

Yesterday, I talked about the coverstitch on the PFAFF admire air 7000. Today I’ll show you how I use my serger in my sewing room.

To start with, my PFAFF admire air 7000 serger is always set up in my sewing room, usually with the extension table (under a dust cover) and always threaded for either 4 or 3-thread overlock in a neutral thread color. So, whenever I need it, it’s ready to go for any of the following tasks.

1. Serging the edge of the fabric before washing it.
2. Serging a quilt top edge when it’s finished to hold all the seams together before quilting.
3. Serging a quilted quilt edge to get it ready for binding.
4. Serging a garment’s individual pattern pieces before sewing it together traditionally.
5. Serging a knit garment completely from start to finish, which would also include switching it over to coverstitch, for topstitching and hemming.

I do a little bit of everything; I quilt, I sew garments for myself, I craft, I do home decor, especially pillow covers, and sometimes I mend, but shhh, don’t tell anyone that.

In the last post, I showed you my golf shirt I finally got around to modifying, aka ‘mend’, to fit me by taking it in with a new 4-thread seam and hemming it with a coverstitch wide stitch.

At the time I was preparing this post, I was awaiting the arrival of a grandbaby (mother and baby boy are now doing well), and I took time to do some fun baby stuff.

A bassinet filled with baby receiving blankets

My daughter-in-law loves dinosaurs and the color purple. So, I made fitted sheets to fit the family bassinet of white flannel with multicolored dinosaurs. Each sheet was serged in a pillowcase shape, with a 4-thread overlock stitch. The 2 sheets and mattress protector were layered up with puppy pee pads in between, in the new way to do a quick bedding change. And yes, you read that correctly, puppy pee pads.

The leftover white flannel was divided up, cut into squares with rounded corners, and serged around with a 3-thread narrow edge finish. The blue flannel was cut into large squares from yardage; I rounded the corners, and serged them with a 3-thread narrow edge. I played with the width of the narrow edge. If you move the Stitch finger Lever between N and R, you get a different stitch, but not necessarily the rolled edge or the wider narrow edge stitch. You can play with how narrow you want it to be for the project you’re doing.

I also have 3 pieces of double gauze to finish into swaddles. Gauze frays a lot; commercially the edges are double folded and straight stitched. I plan to serge a 3-thread edge finish before making a double fold and sewing them on my sewing machine. They’re all shades of purple. Mmm, and I have that baby quilt to finish as well, but so little time and so much to do.

Lastly, I want to talk about the steps I use when creating a garment, serging it entirely from start to finish, and using proper garment technique. As I currently don’t have a T-shirt on the go, (I will soon as I’m trying to pick fabric and a pattern for a new casual T-shirt for the holidays) I’m showing you the first T-shirt dress I made, from start to finish, on The PFAFF admire air 7000 coverstitch serger.

I’ll walk you through the steps. I call this a long T-shirt, as I wear it with leggings for comfort. It’s a swing style set in long sleeves, eased in the sleeve caps (using differential feed), and as an extra, I put pockets in both side seams.

Swing style long T-shirt made completely on the PFAFF admire air 7000 serger

How I serged my polka dot long T-shirt

1. I adjusted the pattern as needed; this is fitted through the shoulders and sleeves, so the rest flows around the body. The adjustments I made were to raise the neckline, lengthen the sleeves, and add inseam side pockets.
2. I cut out the pattern pieces at ⅝” seam allowance; I could’ve graded it all back to ¼” but I didn’t.
3. Taking the sleeves and the main body pieces, I pressed up the 1” hem at the bottom edges. This makes doing the finished hem so easy if the hem is prepressed in when the pattern piece lies flat.
4. I serged both shoulder seams at ⅝” seam allowance, inserting seam tape to support the weight of the garment with a 4-thread overlock stitch. Note:I chose to use black thread in the needles to blend with the good side of the fabric and gray to blend with the back of the fabric.
5. I started with the extension table attached to the serger.
6. Taking the bodice pieces, I attached the pockets then serged the sides seams. In the sleeves, I also serged the side seams. Note: I use clips and not pins, I don’t ruin my blade that way and they are bigger, and I see them! Press as you go along.
7. Taking the sleeves, I inset the sleeves to create the garment in the proper garment techniques and not the quick way. The quick way is to attach the sleeves and then do the full side sleeve and continue along the side of the body of the T-shirt. The difference is how they lie on the body. When insetting sleeves, you need to pay attention to the notches, as we will be serging from the front notch down and around to the back notch. On top between notches, we will be easing in the sleeve cap using the differential feed to ease (slightly gather) the sleeve cap. For my first sleeve, I really slowed the speed down on the serger and I got 1 pucker! My second sleeve was perfect; I was so proud! To do this, you need to make sure the sleeve side is on the bottom all the way around so the differential feed dogs can do their thing. But you must go slow as you ease in and out of the differential feed as you go along.

Set in sleeve cap of dress using the differential feed to ease the sleeve fullness at the top between the notches

8. Next comes the collar rib. I sewed it together and then clipped it in 4 places, side seams and notches and center back and front. You’ll be stretching the rib a bit; this makes the collar lie flat against the body.

9. Finally, I switched the serger over to coverstitch mode, specifically chain stitch to start. Here is where I had an issue. I didn’t know the simple trick of lowering the loopers so they fit under the coverstitch table B before the switch will move from A (serge) to B (coverstitch mode). It took me 15 to 20 minutes to figure it out.

10. When set up in chainstitch topstitch, the neckline is close to the seam, but far enough away to catch the seam allowances; this keeps the neckline pristine and in shape. Approximately ⅛”.

Neckline topstitched with a chainstitch lays perfectly flat

11. Then I switched to coverstitch wide. I removed the extension table and went to the free arm, as I was stitching in the round. I used black thread in the needles, and black or gray in the looper. I stitched the bottom hem and sleeves. When you do this, aim to have the hem edge in between the needles. If you choose not to do this, then be prepared to trim off excess hem above the looper stitch line for neatness, and perhaps make the hem a bit bigger, such as 1½”.

Sleeve hem and bottom edge of T shirt (dress) coverstitched hem.

All the serging (not including the pattern adjustments or cutting out) took me 1 hour. It would’ve taken me about 30 minutes if I had known the trick to make the switch over to coverstitch. And for the first time doing it, I was really impressed with myself! The outside lays nicely and it fits, which is always good! I’m impressed with how nice the inside looks, and that is always our goal when making a garment, as well as having it fit, ensuring the sleeves are long enough, and having it look like you bought it!! If I had to change anything it would be to raise the neckline to make it more flattering for my body type.

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

At any rate, I love serging on the PFAFF admire air 7000 serger. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this week’s posts!

Happy Sewing!

Marg

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: Coverstitch | What is it, and how do I use it on the PFAFF admire air 7000?

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