I've never been attracted by the idea of an overlocker/serger.

Partly because I've never wanted the clothes I make to look as though I bought them in a shop: I want them to look hand-made. Hopefully, they look beautifully hand-made, but certainly I don't want them to look factory-made.


Partly because I think that the seam finish an overlocker produces isn't attractive. Functional and efficient, yes, but not good-looking in the way a French seam or bound hem is.


Partly because I wriggle uncomfortably at a quick 'n' easy mentality that I have (unfairly, I admit, seeing as how they aren't sentient...) assigned to overlockers: as I've ranted before, what's wrong with making a bit of an effort? And why the hurry? Being a bit slow can be good.

Anyway, after being told by Tilly in no uncertain terms, but with great charm, that overlockers are excellently useful bits of kit, I booked on to a one-day 'how to use an overlocker' course at Morley College. And there I learned what most of you already know: that overlockers are indeed excellently useful bits of kit, and they are not as difficult to thread as I imagined.

Then I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace (as a punter rather than an exhibitor: I'm taking a year off), and Janome had a show offer on overlockers, and so...


...this arrived this morning.


In it was this.

So I am getting my patterns out, reviewing my stash, and this WILL be the winter in which I make more clothes. I'm going to aim for one garment a month. Surely that's possible...