Bernina 800DL - I got her! I got her!

Here I am picking her up! For those of you who haven’t been keeping track of my life (what!), I entered the PatternReview.com Sewing Bee and WON! I won a brand-spanking-new Bernina 800DL serger. Let me give you a little background. I currently use a Huskylock 936 (combo serger and coverstitch machine) for coverstitching and a Pfaff 4872 (another combo serger and coverstitch machine) for serging (I talk about the comparison of them here). Both of these machines are big, because they are built for both functions. They both do a good job with both serging and coverstitching. I would not say they do an amazing job, but they are fine. I have been thinking of moving to a separate serger and coverstitching machine for a while. When I won the Sewing Bee, I saw this as fate that it was time to start down that path and acquire those two new machines and sell my two larger machines to people who will really use the serger/coverstitching capabilities on them.

 

Sqqquuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

This is what it looks like out of the box (Bernina’s picture, not mine). I thought I’d give you guys a little review of sorts.

 

The two combo machines I have right now both have electronic displays that tell you what to set when. It was really helpful when I was new to this whole serger gig. Now, it’s more annoying because I have to push all the buttons every time I turn it on and sometimes it doesn’t want to do what I want to do. This Bernina machine is manual and I love it. When I turn it off, the settings stay where they are. I have spent enough time behind the wheel of serger to automatically know when I need to use the differential feed, change the stitch length, tighten a looper, etc.

 

Here’s my absolute favorite part of the new Bernina. The knife cuts from above! I know that sounds like boring-sauce, but it’s so much better at cutting thick material like fleece.

 

Here’s the Pfaff (ack! The picture says Janome!) for comparison. This is as high as it goes. When you have a couple layers of thick material, it can sometimes go over the knife and then it messes up the stitching after that.

 

Sometimes it’s not a big deal, but sometimes, a big ball of fabric will get over the knife and head into the overlocking part of the machine where it often gets stuck on something and knotted up. Thread breaks, Dawn cusses, and rethreading is inevitable. (Ack! Stab my eyes out! Pfaff! Not Janome!)

 

The stitching quality is way better than either of my combo machines. It just is.

 

I was playing around with different types of stitches the other day and the flatlock stitch is really nice as well.

 

I copied off the page that shows the setting for each type of stitch and I’ve already started writing my little notes on it. I’m a note-keeping fanatic.

 

Overall, I’m very (VERY!) pleased with the serger. I have always known that my two combo machines were kind of like “Jack of all trades, master of none” kind of machines, but this Bernina really shows me that this is a very true statement. Not that the combo machines do a bad job. They don’t. But this baby just purrs like a dream.

 

Thanks Bernina and PatternReview!!!!!