Why would you want a serger? When you want to save yourself a lot of time and trouble! Sergers are powerful tools that serious sewers want in their home. Hems on clothing are one simple reason why a serger beats a sewing machine. Instead of a four or five step process, a hem is finished in two steps: serge and topstitch. Let’s take a look at these two popular sergers from Juki to see which one will be the best for you.
JUKI MO644D Portable Serger
The Juki MO644D has gathered a lot of positive comments since it appeared on the market. With the MO644D, you can sew with two, three, or four threads at once and do automatic rolled hems. It does the fabric cutting for you with a knife on a dedicated drive mechanism. While you wouldn’t want to serge upholstery fabric with it, the MO644D can handle heavier fabrics like denim with no problem at all.
Whether you’re a new sewer or an expert, there are lots of features to love in the solidly-built MO644D. To begin with, it’s very easy to thread, something that’s not always true of sergers and overlock machines.
If you need a refresher on how to stitch, open the looper door and view the step-by-step threading guide printed there. Plus, the seam guide reveals how each stitch should appear when perfectly executed. This makes setting the color-coded tension dials easier.
Although the controls for stitch length and differential feed are not on the right-hand side of the machine (as is common), people new to serging won’t know the difference. Experienced sergers will have to adjust to seeking these controls on the left-hand side of the machine. The stitch length adjustment is actually inside the looper door.
When you want to adjust presser foot pressure, there is a simple knob on top of the machine. This particular feature, the ability to change the pressure, isn’t available on many regular sewing machines. It’s handy when you know how to use it because you can get tighter, neater stitches.
Users have commented that the MO644D works quietly with no vibration. It easily cuts and stitches denim and other medium-weight materials. (If you need to work with something like leather, take a look at the MO654DE below.) If you want a serger for home use, this one gets a thumbs-up.
More features of the Juki MO644D portable serger:
- Juki offers a 5-year limited warranty
- Comes with multi-purpose foot and others are sold separately
JUKI MO654DE Portable Thread Serger Sewing Machine
If you like the Juki MO644D described above, but you want something a little tougher and yet still very easy to use, you may love the MO654DE.
While the MO644D easily stitches in multiple layers of denim, the MO654DE can do that as well as leather. It works smoothly, without noise and vibration. Although it’s not marketed especially as a commercial machine, owners who sew as their home business would get good use out of it.
The set up and threading is very easy.The lower looper threading system pulls out so you can slide thread into position and snap it back into place. It’s roomy enough that you may not even need to use the tweezers or needle threader included in the box.
As for setting the tension correctly, each dial has markings that show the most commonly used settings and they are all color-coded. The knife position width is adjustable with a setting hidden inside the looper door.
One thing that sets apart the MO654DE is the ability to flip and roll hem. You can sew a rolled hem on this serger without changing the presser foot or the throat plate. This means you can change from hemming back to overlock and chain stitching by only flipping a switch. Any stitch and differential feed adjustments you need to make are on the outside of the machine.
More features of the Juki MO645DE portable serger:
- Juki offers a 5-year limited warranty
- Comes with multi-purpose foot and others are sold separately
Recommendation
If you want a powerful serger for home and small business use that can do flip and roll hems and is easy to set up, get the Juki MO654DE. You’ll be able to sew leather as well as multiple layers of materials like denim.
If you don’t mind controls that are little different than the usual setup on a serger, get the MO644D. While it’s not recommended for use on leather, it’s a rugged portable machine.
Click here to purchase JUKI MO644D on Amazon.com!
Click here to purchase JUKI MO654DE on Amazon.com!