BERNINA Overlocker 1300MDC and B770QE: making fabric gift bags

Location: Sijbekarspel, the Netherlands
Time: summer, hot, heat wave
Commission: fabric gift bags
Quantity: lots, as much as possible….
Tool next to machines: fan!

Companies know how to find me these days: fun orders by which I can use the BERNINA Overlocker 1300MDC for working fast, with a little help of the B770QE. Simple gift bags, well made of course, colors blue, lime green and orange.

Blue lock thread was still on my BERNINA Overlock 1300MDC, so I’ve started making the blue gift bags first. Measurements check, blue threads check, Flower pins check,and go… I have to make as much as possible in a short time to start with, so I always work as with a conveyer belt: cutting all, pinning all, locking all at one side, turn, locking all at the other side etc. This works much faster than working per piece.

With the 1300MDC, I will use lockstitch 3: first made a sample, to see if the edges are covered and the tension is good. I have increased the stitch width to 4 for a better result. The more I am working with this machine the more confident I become. At first I had to check the manual to see how the tension of threats etc. had to be, now I am just looking at my display, and am changing default settings more often with different fabrics. It’s more routine now.

One after another bag is slided under the presser foot. I am leaving (almost) no space between the pieces. This works faster and saves thread.

The handles are made on my B770QE: a strip of fabric folded double and double again, sewn down at one side, turned and stitched at the other side, using straight stitches. Cutting the pieces and there’s a pile of handles ready to sew onto the bag.

I have placed a handle on one side of the bag,

and pinned it down, doing the same with the handle for the other side, because I want to turn the bags inside out for better access when sewing them down with the Overlock. I’ve pinned them on a certain distance from the sides, with all the bags the same, because I want them to be uniform.

And again the 1300MDC amazes me, how easy it sews over thick parts, like with the double handles. Working a bit slower though, now problem at all.

Covered the edge of the bag too, sewing the handles down. I have folded the edge back and stitched it down with the B770QE.

This is the inside of the bag…

and this the outside. Looks good, doesn’t it?

On to the green bags – changing lock thread is easy by cutting the thread ‘before’ the first tension disk, making a small knot of both threads and carefully pulling the threads through the machine. Much easier than to thread the machine from start to finish all the time.

After making the green bags, the orange ones had to be made. Changing threads again, with the 1300MDC and the B770QE.

Because the order was due, I have made sets from all three colors in a first batch. On to the next: I will start with the orange bags, because that color of thread is still on my machine. Planning ahead, saves time and effort.