Coverstitch Machines and Reverse Coverstitch Sergers
Johanna Lundstrom has written and published an excellent guide to help people learn to use the coverstitch machines, for professional results, like you find in sportswear found in the stores. "Master the Coverstitch Machine" (The complete coverstitch sewing guide), quickly being sold out, as more people have begun trying to sew sportswear at home. Johanna has had to print more of her popular coverstitch guide book, because the coverstitch has become so popular among home sewers!
Johanna also has an excellent YouTube channel, teaching people to sew sportswear, she has researched both industrial, and home coverstitch machines, including the new Brother reverse coverstitch machine, and the BabyLock dual coverstitch sergers, and Janome coverstitch machines, learning all the way.
I also enjoy Deb Canham's Serger Sanity Facebook group, where Deb Canham, a BabyLock educator offers live video classes, and teaches both serging and coverstitching.
BabyLock Evolve on left, is an 8 thread combination serger/coverstitch
My early attempts at coverstitch
Coverstitch samples, 2 thread wide stitch, top and bottom views. Keep stitch samples in a notebook, with details on what needles and settings you used to get those results. The BabyLock combination serger coverstitch models can sew a chainstitch, with a single needle, and the chain looper, as well as 2 needle narrow and wide coverstitches, as well as a gorgeous 3 needle coverstitch, which creates a beautiful lacy effect on the bottom of the coverstitch. It is so beautiful, many of us sew our coverstitch upside down! It is a way to imitate the currently popular reverse, or top coverstitch which is popular in leggings, and most stretch ready to wear fabrics, as well as on many other sewn products.
BabyLock Evolve narrow coverstitch used with pintuck accessory, is beautiful on both sides!
Industrial 5 thread Interlock (coverstitch to home sewers) industrial machines do not have calibrated tensions, you MUST be willing to adjust your tensions, to get the best stitches! This Interlock machine can also sew a chainstitch, variations on the coverstitch, from narrow to the width between the two outer needles, and can sew a 3 needle coverstitch, or a reverse coverstitch, also called a top coverstitch by home sewers. Flat seaming is the term often used in industrial sewing factories, to use for this style of seams, one which is becoming very popular. There are a few more parts which must be attached to the rod sticking down behind the presser foot, to sew the top, or reverse coverstitch.
Coverstitching is like a whole new type of sewing, for home sewers, because it sews a chainstitch underneath, and straight stitches only, up above. It requires a little different tension mindset, because while you can be using just a chainstitch with needle and chain looper, for the wider coverstitches, you are using 2 or 3 needles, with just the one chain looper. This WAS the case, until BROTHER came out with a HOME version of the industrial reverse coverstitch machine! (Industrial sergers and coverstitch machines do not have calibrated tension, tensions are adjusted by an expert, and most home sewers aren't comfortable with this, because they can't automatically set each tension on the machine to a specific number, and guarantee perfect stitches. Every time you change stitches, you need to readjust the tensions, typically.
REVERSE COVERSTITCH OR TOP COVERSTITCH MODELS
There is a new Brother Coverstitch CV3550 reverse coverstitch, which is currently, one of the few home coverstitch machine capable of sewing a form of the reverse coverstitch, which has become the norm on all sportswear found in the stores. I have seen some older Viking Husqvarna combination Serger Coverstitch models, which have sewn this stitch, or a similar stitch, but they are not currently available new, as far as I could find online (2021), and there is a Janome top coverstitch model, as well. I have not had an opportunity to use either of these machines, so I can't tell you how good they are, or how well they work, but I am including links to their websites, if you want to learn more about them. As consumers demand this stitch, I suspect more manufacturers will add this feature to their machines.
Because BabyLock and Brother are now owned by the same conglomerate, I suspect there will be a BabyLock version coming out soon, hopefully, that would be the biggest upgrade they could add to the BabyLock serger lineup!
Industrial coverstitch machines are called Interlock machines, in industrial sewing. My Yamata 5 thread freearm Interlock is a former factory machine, which I purchased from the son of a former factory worker, who took it as part of her severance package, when the factory shut down.
Yamata 5 thread Interlock with folder still attached, from former factory
Yamata 5 thread Interlock with folder still attached, from former factory
