ugh

Wow, so if I could write a letter to the people who decided what gets to be packaged up with a serger as your accessories I would probably tell them this:

Dear serger packaging department (or whoever does this):

Whoever decided that the little threader thing should be optional has obviously NEVER used a serger in their entire life. It should be something that comes standard, or there should at the very least be a huge warning label on the side of the box screaming at you telling you that you will probably want to go pick up this threader thing before you leave the store.

Thank you,
Monica

Anyways!! Here is what happened to me- I go through every single page of the direction booklet. It has great illustrations of exactly how everything works. Cool! I pull my serger up and try out each little thing that it does. Then we get to the threading part. Wow, 4 threads is a lot, breathe. Wait, they already threaded the machine with tiny bits of thread so you can tie your thread onto it and pull it through.... but what happens when I need to change threads or use up a spool, then I'm not going to know how to do it without a leader thread. So I decide that I will take them out and learn it. I start and am threading one of the lower threads... then in the directions all it says is to use my threader (optional) to put the thread through this tiny hole that is like under the presser foot. It's so far under there that I physically cannot get to it with my fingers, it's ridiculous. By this time at night the fabric store is closed. Super. I go through all the stuff I have trying to find wire that is thin enough so when I double it over it can still fit through this teeny tiny hole. I have none. Then I realize that I have twist ties, and they have very very skinny wire (yes, I have a small collection of twist ties, they're very useful, don't judge lol). I manage to get the wire out with the help of 2 sets of pliers, fold it in half, YAY it fits through the thing I need it to! Then one more hole after that one and it's threaded! Then by comparison the rest of the thread is so easy to wind around how it needs to.

Done! It's threaded and ready to go! Then I fiddle with the 4 crazy tension knobs for about an hour testing and comparing to the pictures in the booklet and re-adjusting and so on. Time for bed.

The next day- Awesome! I am ready to use my serger for something real! I get out fabric and cut it and was going to attempt to make a purse and then all of a sudden it isn't working right anymore. I take a closer look and somehow the thread has magically made its way out of one of the teeny tiny holes I was talking about that's so hard to thread. There is no gap, there is no way for thread to get out of that hole without the thread breaking... but it didn't break... what?! So I give up trying to figure it out and just re-thread it. Then I find out that I have to also re-thread the other bottom thread... ok.... I start to sew again... and just like that it's out again! WTF I take the thread out and re-thread all 4 this time. It's out again! I could not figure it out and called it a night.

I have since then begun to figure it out a little, but it's so difficult to re-thread without this little threaded tool thing that I only do it once and then switch back to the regular machine. So the whole story here is that you will NEED this threader thing that they claim is optional. It is sooooo not optional. Whoever decided it was must have had crazy long skinny needle-like fingernails or something.

Hopefully I will be getting my threader soon and can start cranking out some cool stuff. I really want to, I just can't face threading that thing over and over again. I've got to figure this out first (and get a stupid threader!).