Oh thank you Celia for that link, and no I haven't got the video.  As Ouryve found something last week on this machine it is too sophisticated for its own good!!!!!  and yes once I have mastered the coverstitch I intend to keep it set up for that.  My other Bernina overlocker is the 1100DA and is the one I have been tending to use for simple overlocking.

I have dug down deep and into the back of my sewing room (far too much stuff in here really) and have found the Avalon so that is good.  Now despite having so much stuff (not all of it is mine, some of the things in here are from my daughter's house as we are still trying to sort things out and it is easier doing that here rather than there as there is a lack of anything to sit on over there now!!), but I do know where things are which helps a lot.  I now have to go and retrieve my machines that are sitting on the floor outside the bedroom door - luckily I live in a bungalow.

Just read coffeeandcakes's post,  regarding the Avalon, luckily I knew just where it would be and it was, I used this last back in 2003 on my daughter's wedding veil - she had to wait until the week of the wedding didn't she to announce that she wanted a veil, scalloped and edged with a beautiful edging stitch stitched over two lengths of perle thread - when finished I didn't want to immerse the whole veil in water - there wasn't much time left, so I just had a bowl of water on the kitchen table and some towels and just wet the area of the scallops and embroidery and it worked like a dream.

I will have a go tomorrow afternoon using this Avalon and will report back as to whether it has made any difference - maybe it will need more than one layer.

I have also spent some time ordering in things I will need, like some clear elastic for the shoulder seams on knits, some wash away wonder tape,  some overlocking thread and some woolly nylon, a book on coverstitching and then Nancy Sieman's book on Sewing Knits with Confidence - as I haven't sewn modern day knits on a modern day sewing machine/overlocker - well the last lot of sewing knits rather dates me as it was back in the 60's and 70's and then on a straight stitch machine and crimplene!!!!!!

Whilst I was in the back of my room I dug out a couple of lengths of fabric for some long sleeve blouses - already washed, and in each bag are the threads and buttons - so I have no excuse for not getting on with some sewing.

I have to add something my daughter loved shoes and boots amongst other items, and I have acquired the lovely long boot boxes  - several of them and they are brilliant for being able to lay work in progress, or just cut out in them - there is plenty of room.

I am here too, and to answer Ohsewsimple's question the machine is a Bernina 2500DCET.  Well since last week's adventure with this machine, I have been reading up about coverstitch in general, have delved into my overlocking thread boxes and about to disrupt my room in search of some Avalon which of course has to be right at the back and at the bottom of a pile of large boxes - one of the things I have read about is to place some Avalon on top of the fabric to be coverstitched and by using this it makes the stitch go deeper, and once the Avalon is removed with water there is more room for the stitch to breathe as it were and then there should be no more tunnelling - we shall see.  I have also put the ordinary overlocking foot back on the machine - the special foot for coverstitch has a large bump at its ankle and this gets in the way of threading the needles, and that foot is so difficult to get into position - I had to remove the needles in order to get the foot in place.

Ohsewsimple thank you for that link, I actually do have something like that  that came with the machine, but it is the hinge part of the foot that is the problem.  Then if I take the foot off I need to remove the needles in order to get it back into position, and then it is difficult getting the needles back in their rightful place - just no room to move.  When I wake up a bit more (very late getting up this morning) I am going to totally unthread this machine, and rethread following closely the instruction manual and then see what happens.  I did wake up in the night and think oh it is the huge cone of woolly nylon that is too big to sit on the appropriate part at the back of the machine,  and thought had it fallen over and thus was not running freely, but no it is still standing upright.  If I am unthreading, I might just change the needles whilst I am at it, and I actually do have some specific coverstitch needles - maybe that is the answer.

If anyone else has any ideas as to what is wrong, please do say as I am totally new to coverstitch - thanks.

Was I the only one in sewing club this afternoon?  Decided to have another go at coverstitching, and have had enough of it today - it refuses to stitch properly, tiny stitches instead of a normal decent length one and I haven't changed the stitch length setting, it sounds as if it is sewing properly then I find somehow it has unthreaded one of the needles or the lower looper thread has broken, so enough is enough for today.  I have to say it is an awkward thing to thread, despite having a neat (my own) needle threader, and the amount of wasted thread is growing.  It stitched perfectly over the weekend and I do wonder what I have done wrong.  I think I will switch machines over and finish off what I was trying to do in a completely different way and this machine can have a little sulk until it learns to behave.  Wonder what I will be sewing at tomorrows club meeting - do hope some of you others will join me - it is rather lonely.

Thank you Ouryve, I have only used the coverstitch on  my Bernina in the shop and when I got it home took the conversion part off and put it away, so this really will be an experiment thus my getting something in knit fabric that I can chop up and play with to make sure it is working properly, and I can get used to how it stitches and also to be careful at the  end of a run as if I am not careful the coverstitching will unravel all too quickly.  I do not have spare decent fabric so I need to get this right first time.  Also I normally use a three thread overlock, so going back to a four thread and seeing how that behaves on knit fabric again will be a first, and yes I have a differential setting. 

I am just so lucky in having these two Berninas, the smaller one which I tend to use for day to day stuff I bought three weeks before my daughter's wedding as my then Elna was playing up big time, and I needed everything finished.  I was happy with that machine, and then an elderly friend of mine was rather envious of my new acquisition - she had a very old Bernina square shaped base overlocker and no amount of trying to adjust this would stop it from continuously breaking the thread, so it was dispatched to a place where they refurbish old machines and send them to Africa.  My friend was then left without an overlocker and bless her she thought that her age 80+ she could not justify spending a tidy amount on a new Bernina overlocker, but fate stepped in.  The shop I bought my little overlocker in was selling off the top of the range mighty big Bernina overlocker/coverstitcher it had only be used for demonstrations, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and thus I sold my little overlocker to my friend.  Sadly this friend became terminally ill and she wanted me to have this back, and it wasn't until I picked it up that I realised that she had never used it - such a shame, so that is how I have two machines.  The larger of the two machines does a lot more than just overlocking and coverstitching and of course I have yet to try those out even though I have had this machine for a long time.

Now yesterday whilst in the charity shop there was another elderly lady who mentioned she had a newish Bernina sewing machine, and she was surprised that I wanted some knit fabric to play with on the machine, and I said I always do a test run on seams, buttonholes etc. on  anything I sew, she obviously doesn't.  I learnt the hard way back when I bought my Bernina Artista and did around 21 test buttonholes, - 21 because they were not right, and the reason was because the sensor in the actual machine up by the needle was covered in dust/debris  but I did not know that then.  so now I always make sure when using that machine that it is clean and clear of debris before any buttonhole test is made and then when I am actually sewing the buttonholes.

I am hoping that by using the overlocker to assemble the garment will indeed be much quicker than using the sewing machine - but only time will tell, and also whether I like the finished look, both on the main seams and the coverstitching on the hems.

I had to go out to a podiatry appointment this afternoon , so whilst out in the village popped into our lovely charity shop and came away with some freebees of knit fabric purely for me to practise sewing this type of fabric on the overlocker and then playing with the other overlocker/coverstitcher - thought it best to have some practice first rather than waste good decent fabric, so that will be a job for tomorrow afternoon.  One of the ladies asked what coverstitching was, so I grabbed a knitted garment and showed her what it looked like, then another lady came up and mentioned that she had a Bernina as well - wasn't expecting that as I really do not know of anyone in my village who sews. 

I have spent a couple of days fiddling around enlarging a pattern so I am ready to start my new venture into today's modern knit fabrics - all my previous sewing on knits was way back in the 1960's early  1970's and back then all I had was a straight stitch machine no ball pointed needle and I just used my ordinary dress patterns for wovens and it worked, but now of course there is a lot of options with the use of the overlockers/coverstitchers, the types of needles even ball pointed pins and hand sewing needles.  Interestingly I have some knit fabric that has no stretch in it at all, so will probably have to result in putting a zip in these fabrics which of course I do not have!!

Hopefully I will be at sewing club tomorrow afternoon.

Lovely coat and colour Tamnymore, now enjoy wearing this whilst we are still in the winter months.