Meet the overcast presser foot: serger-looking seams without a serger

Summary

This little fella goes on your regular sewing machine and makes it look like you own a serger. It wraps your raw edges so they don't fray, and honestly it makes everything you sew look more finished for about ten dollars and zero extra machines.

The most important thing in this whole video is the width setting: get it wrong and you will break a needle immediately. The second most important thing is putting the needle back in the right way around, which I demonstrate by doing it wrong and nearly taking my own eye out.

• Settings: select the overcast stitch (it's #8 on my machine, a zigzag with lines down the side), set the width to at least 5, length to whatever you like. Under 5 and the needle hits the foot and snaps.
• Needle direction matters. The words on the needle face the correct way and the threads go toward the back. Install it backwards and it falls straight out mid-stitch.
• Line the fabric edge up against the bar in the center of the foot. For fabrics that fray a lot, run the edge slightly past the guide so the zigzag scoops everything up.
• For curves and corners: don't do the usual needle-down, lift-foot, pivot routine. Pinch the fabric to the left so the curve straightens as it feeds through. The stitches stay even and lie flatter before you even press.
• My non-regulation trick: flip the raw edge over first so the zigzag goes over a closed edge, then snip the excess after. Probably not the official method. I like how it looks. Just account for your seam allowance.
• Circle skirt hems: overcast the raw edge, swap to a regular or straight-stitch foot (2.5 length), double fold, straight stitch along the top: a clean hem with none of the lumps you get fighting a rolled-hem foot.
• The one flaw: fabric jams sometimes. Slide it off the edge and unstick it from underneath. Annoying, but nobody's perfect.

FAQ

What does an overcast foot do?

It wraps your raw edges in a zigzag so they don't fray. It makes a regular sewing machine look like it has a serger.

What does an overcast foot look like?

It has a little bar in the middle that holds your fabric flat and a guide on the side that helps you keep the edge straight.

What settings do I use for an overcast stitch?

Pick the overcast stitch (it's #8 on my Singer, a zigzag with lines down the side). Set the width to at least 5. Length is up to you.

Why does my needle keep breaking with the overcast foot?

Your stitch width is under 5, so the needle's hitting the foot. And when you put the new one in, make sure the words on the needle face the right way, or it'll fall right out.

How do I sew curves with an overcast foot?

Don't do the usual needle-down, lift and pivot. Pinch the fabric to the left so the curve straightens as it feeds through.

Transcript

Meet the overcast foot. This little fella goes on your regular sewing machine to make it look like you have a serger. It encases all of the edges so they don't fray and your work looks better overall. It has a little bar in the middle that holds your fabric flat, and then it has this little guide that helps you keep it straight.

Here's how to use it. First, you are going to select the overcast stitch. On my machine, it's eight. It looks like a zigzag with lines down the side. Then you're going to set the width to five, the length to whatever you want. If you don't set the width to at least five, your needle won't do this. Instead, it will do this. You're going to break your needle. You don't want that. So listen to me and follow my advice, because this is what you want.

But hey, if you immediately broke your needle, another little piece of advice: make sure the words on the needle are facing the right direction when you reinstall it. Here, I'm putting it in backward. You can see the words facing the front. I'm tightening up the screw. And you're thinking, "Yeah, that'll work fine. It doesn't matter what way your needle is facing." That's where you're wrong, my friend. Because watch what happens when you don't put your needle in the right way. Bam, it falls out. I am so lucky it didn't fall out and fly into my eye. So make sure it's installed the correct way. Make sure your strings are going toward the back.

Then you're going to grab the piece of fabric you're working with and you're going to line it up with that bar in the center of the foot. That will keep the edge flat and it'll make sure those zigzag stitches cover the whole edge. For fabrics that fray a whole bunch, you might actually want to go past that edge a little bit just to make sure everything gets scooped up in that zigzag stitch. You don't want to finish the whole thing and then realize a couple pieces are, you know, not right.

So here you just see me doing the thing, closing up all those edges nicely. And of course, I didn't get a finished shot of this top, but here are a few other examples of what your overcast stitch will look like when you are done.

And here are a few other little tips to get you going. So I already mentioned having the edge a little bit to the right of the guide if it frays a whole bunch. But also, if you're working with curves, you want to sort of pinch the curve to the left so that it straightens out as it goes through that foot. It just keeps the stitches a little bit nicer and relieves some tension that would be on them otherwise.

And like, you know how normally you have the tendency of putting your needle down, lifting the foot, turning, and then continuing a stitch when you're going around like a 90° angle or just a sharp curve in general? You're not going to want to do that with this foot. Instead, same thing as I kind of showed you a minute ago, as you get to that curvy bit, rather than putting the needle down, lifting the foot, and all of that, you're just going to pinch that fabric to the left to straighten the line out. And the reason you do this is because it will keep those stitches more even and everything will lay flatter even before you press it. So here you'll see the one that I did the wrong way and the one that I did the right way, and just the general difference between them both pre-pressing. Also, my tension is real not right for that. So don't base yours on mine.

Oh, and I don't think this is necessarily the way you're supposed to use this foot, but one thing I will sometimes do is I'll put my pieces in and flip over the raw edges. So this zigzag is actually going over a closed edge. And then when I'm done, I'll just snip snip snip. I think it makes a really nice finish. Like, I just like the way this looks personally. Again, don't know that it's the right way to do it. And also, make sure you're taking into account your seam allowance and stuff if you do it this way.

Here's another little trick. If you're working with a circle skirt or something, do that overcast stitch around the raw edge and then switch your foot out from this one to a straight stitch foot or your regular presser foot. Make sure you have adjusted your stitch setting to be the correct stitch on this. I'm doing a 2.5 length. So, okay, you double fold, you put it underneath, you do a little straight stitch all along the top, and then you have a nicely finished circle skirt without all the weird lumps and bumps and dealing with that rolled foot hem presser foot monster guy. And obviously, these stitches aren't straight. I'm just trying to show you.

One flaw with this guy is that sometimes your fabric will get jammed and you just have to slide it off the edge there and unstick it from below this on the foot. Yeah, it's annoying, but nobody's perfect.

That's it. It's that easy to have seams that look like this. And you don't even need a freaking serger. I'm so proud of you. Have a great day. I love you. Thanks for wasting your time with me. Waste more time by liking and subscribing and watching another video.