You see the name on this machine it is called "Evolve". It is the top of the line Baby Lock serger, now sitting on my sewing table downstairs. You can say I've evolved, from my first Baby Lock serger purchased about 20 years ago. This is my fourth one.
It all started back in the early 90's when I started making jackets from those ubiquitous throws that every one was buying. The jackets were warm, cute, easy to make, and once I wore one to my place of employment, every one wanted one, or two, or 5. I made them at night and sold every one of them before the bell rang the next day. I counted all the jackets I made in that year, and it was 175! That's a lot of jackets.
The first one took me five hours to do on a regular sewing machine. I didn't try many more before I purchased my first serger. Then they took me about 45 minutes to make! I could make 5 in an evening!
I wore that serger out, and one day in a frenzy of pre-Christmas sewing, I broke something vital on it. It would be two weeks before it could be fixed, and I was desperate. So I traded the broken one in OVER THE PHONE, got half the money back that it cost me new towards a used Baby Lock, which ECLIPSED the old one by having many more desirable features!
The ECLIPSE was so wonderful because of two features--one, it had a remarkable "air delivery" system for threading the two lower loopers (sergers use 3-4 sources of thread to do their stitch), because threading sergers without this system is a royal pain in the A_ _ ! So this was so superior of a feature I was totally in love. And this serger sewed a very fine narrow rolled hem, and with a flick of a switch!
I worked this little thing to it's near death. I sewed more jackets, fleece of every sort, and garments, garments, garments. It got a little out of whack after about 10 years of hard use, so I decided it needed a replacement. But, I kept it as a back up, just in case things got hot and heavy in the sewing room! They weren't going to be so generous in trade ins with this, so I just kept it.
I purchased my third serger, a Baby Lock of course, it was called IMAGINE. It was a floor model. I was in the process of moving from the country to the city when I purchased this, and as a result,it sat in the box for about 5 months before I actually started using it. Bad move, because it needed some tweaking and sending back to the factory to be tweaked, and then I only had half a year to get this all accomplished. This one seemed to be star-crossed, because I never could feel confident that it would do what it was supposed to do. In a blog in April, I told about how it just locked up and wouldn't move after a particularly heavy bout of usage. Good thing for me I kept the old one, because I needed it.
I got the IMAGINE serviced, and it continued with its wayward ways. With the big sewing jobs I had ahead of me, I needed something sturdy, and dependable. So, as a result, I EVOLVED! I traded the IMAGINE and got half my money back AGAIN. Now I'm happy, this one will do everything but make the day longer so I can sew on it more!
Wish me luck! As you can see, it uses up to 8 sources of thread. That will be a learning curve that I'll have to deal with at a later date! Until then, I'll give it a mighty whirl, and hope this one brings me to "serger Nirvana!"
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