Serger Question

I've never used one, never seen one demonstrated, so I have questions:

1) Can you do general sewing on one?

2) What can they do that a good machine with several choices of stitches cannot?

3) Why did you buy yours/why do you want one?

4) Are they worth the money?

5) If you had to do it over, would you still want a serger?

6) Do you have a brand that you would recommend?

Thanks, everyone!!!

OH BOY...What would I do without my serger! I was totally clueless when I first bought mine but as soon as I figured out how much fun it was I was serging everything in sight. Almost every sewing project can be done with your serger, with the exception of a few things like putting in a zipper, sewing on buttons and making buttonholes, etc.; and if some clever person comes up with an idea on how to do that I will be serging them too. The difference the serger is the edges can be cut and finished at the same time, compared to sewing a seam and then putting a zigzag stitch along the raw edge. The speed at which you can work is alot quicker also. I mainly bought mine because of I work with alot of spandex and the serger is ideal for that type of fabric. It is worth every penny I spent and I definately could not do without it. I currently own a Kenmore model that is about 15 years old, other than replacing a few cutting blades Ive never had to have it serviced, It runs as beautifully as the day I bought it. If I had to purchase a new one though I might consider something where the parts are more ready available. Hope this review helps.

I agree with hgee155. It's nice to have but it's not necessary. A good one is quite expensive and can be complicated to use. They use more than one spool of thread for the top and some take the littler spools of thread only. I've borrowed one to use on specializing a t-shirt. Hemming something like this on a regular machine is a problem, but with a serger the end gets finished by the serging of the bunch of threads together. The edges around the shirt looked awsome! Stretchy material can be hard to work with which is where a serger can come in handy. I would never run out and buy one brand new but I must admit if I found one at a garage sale at a reasonable price, I would snatch it up just to have.

Thanks to both of you! I was hoping to get several answers on this but we either don't have many serger owners or the others are shy (do we actually have shy people on this board??? LOL!)!