Date: 1/23/03 7:34 AM

What a wonderful site!  I've been reading reviews and can't wait to return, but thought I'd throw myself on your mercy and ask a few questions......

I'm tired of spending hundreds of dollars on Hanna Andersson.  Their customer service is.......horrible.  Anyway, how realistic is it that I can find similar quality cotton knit fabric, at reasonable prices, and similar patterns (very classic, cute dresses)?   Do you have a category that lists "Great Fabric Sites"?

I don't have a serger and am thinking I really need one if I'm going to deal with knits (I also want to make leggings - enough of this $24 for simple leggings!).   I'm considering a Babyloc Imagine - a local dealer has them sale-priced for $850 or so.   I also have a Janome 9000 which friends have said, "just use the Janome - forget the Imagine".  I'm serger-deprived in knowledge.   Help!

Again, wonderful site - can't wait to dig in deeper.  Any and all help is truly appreciated.

-Sharon

P.S. I also want to make slipcovers for my familyroom furniture and I am determined to make Roman shades for several windows.  I'm assuming this would all be easier on a serger????

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Date: 1/23/03 8:33 AM

Sergers ARE great for zipping together little leggings and t-shirts, but you can get by with using a narrow zigzag as some recommend on this message board.  
Check out the reviews on the main site by clicking on the category for children's clothing for some ideas for patterns, and check out Spandex House's website for cotton/lycra knits in many different colors.  
My baby clothes making days are currently over as my daughter is a 'tween' now, but I remember how appalled I was at the prices for Hanna Andersen clothes.  They do wear like iron however, and I was fortunate to have a good source of hand-me-downs.

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Date: 1/23/03 8:33 AM

http://www.fabricline.com/ (nayy) sells Hanna Andersson overrun fabrics. They are listed as either being Hanna, or being the extra wide cotton/lycra. You can also get Painting Red Rhinos (PRR) overruns through co-ops for $4-5 dollars a yard. There are a lot of great sites for knits online, I would look through the website reviews. Rhonda is a website review Queen. Good luck!

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Date: 1/23/03 8:39 AM

Hi Sarah's mom, this is what I think of sergers, you can live whithout one, but if you tend to use a lot of knitfabric's it kind of becomes very handy, and also the SA's are quite nice looking in woven's if you serge them, and of course it is so much more faster than SM.

There are clothes that you don't need SM for and There are clothes that you don't need serger for.

If you ask me and if you have no money issue, then go along and buy one, a Babylock is a good company, they have good quality sergers.

The vinered bar on your left shows everything we have to offer you and it ain't little, if I may say so, there are store reviews, website reviews, pattern reviews and much more, just throw yourself into Pattern Review world and there is no turning back.

I've made a slipcover for my sofa and didn't use the serger for anything else exept to neaten the SA's, hope I've been able to help you some. Welcome to PR !!!
                                    Marita

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Date: 1/23/03 10:46 AM

Hi Sarah's Mom,

Welcome to PatternReview.com. I am a brand new serger owner and bought it only a few months ago. So far I have only used it once or twice but I like the results. I agree with others that you can pretty much use your sewing machine for almost everything but yes if you do a lot of sewing on knits then it might be worth it.

As far as reviews are concerned click on website reviews from the navigation bar and start reading. You can sort the list by headers by just clicking on them. If you are looking for something specific, type in the search phrase in the rop right hand search box and go! It will search the entire site!

Note: the right hand search box is on every page of the site except the message boards. For example go to this page:
http://www.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/allwebsites.pl

And yes Rhonda is indeed our website review queen.. Actually going back the memory lane it was because of her idea that the website review feature was born on PatternReview! Remember Rhonda when you sent me that huge list of websites you liked and I suggested that we make this a feature where others would be able to review the sites...

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- Deepika
Founder, PatternReview.com
Vote for the 2010 Contests
http://sewing.patternreview.com/poll/38

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Date: 1/23/03 12:52 PM

I'll figure this out sooner or later. In the meantime, since it wasn't obvious to me how to reply to each post, I will just give y'all a collective hug.  My goodness the information here is stupendous!   Thanks for the leads to spandex and Hanna fabrics online!  Also, the idea of using a simple zigzag for the leggings sounds reasonable - thank you!  In another area of the site I saw a review of Fabrix Fix, just 11 miles away from me here in NH, and my hands are already sweating with anticipation at what I may find there!   I'm going digging through the archives and posts now for more pro/con serger ideas.  Thanks again for the helpful ideas and comments!! Dipika, it looks as though we're nearly neighbors!
-Sharon
P.S. Rhonda, here I come................ LOL

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Date: 1/24/03 6:14 PM

Quote (Sarah'sMom @ Jan. 23 2003,13:52)

I'll figure this out sooner or later. In the meantime, since it wasn't obvious to me how to reply to each post, I will just give y'all a collective hug.

Sharon, you've already got the reply posting down! We just usually plunk all our replies in one post and mention the others as we go along.

If you want to include parts (or all) of another post in your reply, like I just did with yours--then you click the "Quote" button at the far right on the post you want to include. On the Reply screen you will see the normal box to Enter your Post and below you will see the Original Post (message you are answering). If you only want to quote part of someone's message, delete the "excess" not that any of us are excessive in our messages.

In case you haven't found the other serger discussion, here's a link: is a serger really worth it?

The Fabricaholics are a good source for fabric websites and will encourage good shopping practices, despite the alleged goal of Support Group to control fabric buying.    You can find their topic in Fabrics and more... in the General Sewing Talk forum. It's a very popular topic, so don't make yourself crazy by trying to read all 79 pages at once!! Just start around page 75 and go forward--you can always check the other 70 pages later, LOL

Let us know if you need more help finding anything!

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Date: 1/26/03 8:59 AM

Quote (Little Shell @ Jan. 24 2003,19:14)

The Fabricaholics are a good source for fabric websites and will encourage good shopping practices, despite the alleged goal of Support Group to control fabric buying.

Ooookie dokie, here goes with trying the "quote". Thanks for all the tips, Shell!    Now, how to add "clickable smiles".  Hmmm.      That was easy, too.

I read one of the areas that talked about the store Fabric Fix - just 11 miles from me.  Took a spin over there yesterday.  I haven't had any serious sewing projects in quite a number of years and had forgotten what it was like to hold a wonderful piece of fabric in my hand and think, "oh, beautiful dress........great jacket!  I'm sure I'd use this!".  My dh wasn't much help.  I expected him to be restless and say, "let's go......I'm bored......kids are bored".   Oh, no.  He had to pick up some fabric, rub it a few times and say, "Look, Honey, Bob Mackie fabric.  I'll bet you could make something great out of this".  *sigh*

With a lot of willpower, I escaped with only a small selection of robe/pajama material for my daughter.   From the sounds of it, the Fabricaholics won't help me out much.....I'll be adding rooms, adding shelves, throwing out toys just to find storage.  

Now, if someone could just tell what the Sunday hours are for Fabric Fix.  Surely they're open today? *blink blink*

Sharon

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Date: 1/26/03 9:20 AM

Sorry Sharon, I'm pretty sure they're closed on Sun. (unless doing a superbowl day, the way some stores up here are...)
--Erin

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Date: 1/26/03 10:40 AM

Unfortunately, FF is definitely closed on Sundays.  And they are only open until 1 on Saturdays.  On the bright side, tho', that's probably a good thing for my checkbook!

-Ann

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Life is too short to buy cheap fabric.
http://www.gorgeousfabrics.com
http://gorgeousthings.blogspot.com/

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