Bernina L8 90: Magical Pinwheel Tote

Hi everyone, and welcome. I'm Pam Mashi, and I'm the overlock business manager for Bernina of America. Are you ready to create some magic with your serger? Well, today we are going to be making the magical pinwheel tote, and we're going to be using the Bernina L890 machine. Now, as we create this tote, we're going to be using some supplies that you probably have right there in your stash, and we're going to be creating magic using our machine, making pinwheels and not using a rotary cutter.

So some of those supplies that you're going to be needing are some fabrics of your choice that are all going to blend together, and maybe you might even have some of those fabrics that all coordinate right away. We're going to be using some decorative threads on your serger, some 12 weight decorative thread, which is going to enhance our stitch and really bring it to life. We're also going to be creating this tote and creating structure with it, sewing on some heavy foam, so make sure that we stay tuned and take a look at all of the great features that you can create using your serger. All right, let's start by taking a look at the back of our bag. The back of our bag, we're going to be creating some decorative stitches, and we're going to be using some heavier threads.

So creating some texture on our fabric is a really fun way to expose these different decorative stitches from your serger. They are quite basic, but by adding that decorative thread, they really take it up a notch. So the stitches that we're going to be working with for today's project will be a serger straight stitch. Now some of you might think, I didn't think a serger had a straight stitch, but today you're going to find out just how easy it is to use your serger and the straight stitch that it has. So here on the back of our bag, you can see that we have some different looking stitches all created from exactly the same stitch.

So let's take a look at the machine set up and exactly where we place those decorative threads and how those decorative threads are going to enhance your stitching. So over at our machine, and we're working on the Bernina L890 again, and it is considered a combo machine, so we can work with both a straight stitch as well as an overlock stitch, as you see the threads that we have on our machine, these are going to be a 12 weight thread, so it's a heavier thread than what you would normally be sewing with on your machine. Now you'll probably notice as you look at the machine, I have one spool that has less thread on than the other. On than the other. And I did that on purpose so that we can show you the position that if you have a spool of thread that is lower, you would want to place it in the needle position because it uses less thread than what your looper thread uses less thread than what your looper thread is going to use.

So as we thread our machine, that's probably the part that so many people fear on their machines. So now what I'm going to do is show you just how easy it is to thread your machine. How easy it is to thread your machine. So first of all, I'm going to be taking this large knob and turning it over and locking the tubes into position. Tubes into position.

Then all I have to do is simply step on my foot pedal, hold the thread over, and like magic, it comes squirting right out of your machine, right out of those tubes. Right out of those tubes. So now it's time for us to just simply close up our machine and you'll notice that we have this large open area that we can use to insert our fabrics. Large open area that we can use to insert our fabrics. Now when we create these two different looking stitches, one stitch is going to be created by stitching on the top of our fabric, and that's stitching on the top of our fabric, and that's where we see that single line of straight stitching.

This decorative or heavier looking stitch is actually created by stitching on the wrong side This decorative or heavier looking stitch is actually created by stitching on the wrong side of our fabric. Now what I've done is I have stitched multiple lines already. And to create that even spacing, I have a seam guide mounted onto the shaft of my machine. My machine. So now as I stitch, I can simply guide the stitch, previous stitch right along the seam guide and stitch.

So let me create that spacing and you can see that it slides from left to right and I'm just going to stitch. Going to stitch. Now you see how fast and easy that was and how quiet the machine is too. So now to create the other side of the stitch, I simply lift my pressure foot or use my freehand system set. My freehand system set.

The previous stitch right underneath that seam guide and stitch. Now it's as easy as that to create decorative stitches with your serger. You can also create cover stitch decorative stitches. Just add one needle and your stitch width is going to increase. But again, we're using the serger straight stitch to create these decorative lines of But again, we're using the serger straight stitch to create these decorative lines of stitching.

Now, no tote would be complete without a pocket on the inside to hold all of those other little supplies that we like to take to class. So let's take a look at exactly how we're going to construct this pocket for the inside of our tote. So looking at the pocket itself, it's going to be really easy to put together. Because you're going to take a strip of fabric and in the instructions that you'll be able to download, it will tell you exactly the size of this tote, and it's a really good size tote, so the width of the tote measures about 27 inches in size. So you're going to cut two pieces of fabric, one that is going to be 27 inches long, maybe just a little bit longer, by about 7 inches wide.

The other is going to be. that same width by 9 inches wide. Now the reason that we do this is because we're going to be creating a faux binding across the top edge of our pocket, and the easiest way to do that is to make one piece of fabric a little bit wider. So here you can see that we have our, we'll call this the lining piece of fabric. This is going to be the piece that is 9 inches wide.

The outside of our pocket is going to be the 7 inch piece of fabric. So we're going to be aligning those two pieces across the long 27 inch width of your fabric. Then after you have it sewn, and I'm going to show you exactly how we're going to sew this, after you have it sewn, you're going to press your seam allowance toward the lining, and then simply take the lining piece and flip it back, and then your fabric pieces are going to line up across the bottom edge. Now with that same decorative stitch that we used earlier, we're going to do some top stitching across the top of our pocket to hold it in place and also to create a little bit decorative look to the inside of our bag. So let's take a look then at how we're going to sew this.

So back over here on our Bernina L890 machine, we're going to be replacing the flat sewing table with the cutting cover that has a seam guide on it because we want to have a nice even seam allowance as we sew the top edge of our pocket, so it's easy to do that, just simply open both of these doors, slide off your flat sewing table, and then slide the other cutting table right back into place. So then we just simply close this up, and we're going to set the seam guide to a 1/2 inch seam allowance width. Then, simply take the edge of your fabric, stitch and place it right along your seam guide, and as you sew, your seam is going to be accurate and even all the way across. Then, as I mentioned earlier, you're simply going to press your seam allowance toward the lining, flip this over, and you will have a mock or faux binding across the top edge of your pocket. Now to top stitch this, all I'm going to need to do is again take off the table with the guide and pop on the flat sewing table.

Same stitches and same stitch length setting. Now on the presser foot there are different marks that indicate the position of my needle, so I can use one of these marks that are on the toe of the presser foot as my guide to create a nice even top stitching across the top of that pocket. All right, so there we go. Now we have our top stitching finished and we have our pocket all ready to go and be attached to the inside of our lining. All right, let's go ahead and add that pocket we just made to the lining on the inside of our bag.

Now that is also going to be the back of the lining. So we've taken the pocket and let me just show you this we've actually laid it down at the bottom of our lining so as you stitch this don't forget you don't want to bring it up too high so that when you flip the pocket up it's going to come to the outside of your bag itself so as we stitch. Measure down you're going to measure down at least about 10 inches from the top of your bag, and that's also written in the download instructions for you, but we are still using that decorative thread and the reason that I like to use the decorative thread is so that when we top stitch our pocket in place, it gives us a nice look to those stitches that we're creating. So simply stitch and again we're going to be using the lines that are on our presser foot. Those lines that are on our presser foot become really very handy even though the needles are not in those positions.

You can use them as a nice even guide. So of course just like you do on your sewing machine you don't want to sew over any of those pins and as we stitch we are going to be using about a half inch seam allowance. Come to the pins, remove those and just simply stitch all the way across the top or the bottom, excuse me, that's going to be the bottom edge of your pocket. OK, stitch all the way to the end, and then after you're finished, stitch it in place. You're simply going to fold this pocket up and press it.

Now, after you have it pressed, bring it back over to the machine. And again, you can topstitch to hold your pocket in place, and I'm gonna just swing this around so I can stitch the bottom, and then I'm going to show you how we're going to create the lines in the middle of the pocket to hold it in place. Can you believe we're doing all of this on our surger? We haven't done any straight stitching with the sewing machine yet, and we're doing all of this straight stitching. So now what we're going to do is create those dividing lines between the four some sections on our pocket.

Now you'll notice that your surger has a tail that comes out of the back of the presser foot. So what I'm going to do is release that tail. Simply turn your presser foot, or excuse me, your hand wheel. Just turn your hand wheel backwards, and that will release the thread and separate the threads for you, because now then you can slide your fabric up underneath the presser foot. So as I start to stitch, I'm going to shorten my stitch length just a little bit, which kind of locks those stitches in place, but keep in mind that at the beginning of any of the stitches they are automatically locked, but I like to shorten the stitch length, just simply slide right on your screen to shorten your stitch length, which stitches kind of in place for just a few stitches.

And then all you have to do is tap right on your screen, and that will take you right back to the original stitch length. Now as you come to the end of that pocket, or right at the very top of your pocket, you can use the lock stitch tool that comes with your machine, and by using this lock stitch tool, you simply raise your presser foot and you're going to swipe the thread from under the presser foot, cut the thread. Right there on the top, and then as I pull this fabric, the thread is going to bury itself to the underside, so now I have two threads on the underside of my project. And I could tie those in place, or again this is going to be on the inside of your lining and You don't have to really lock that in place because it is already locked, so create the number of dividing lines that you want for each of the different pocket segments for the back of your bag inside your lining, and when we come back we're gonna show you where the magic really takes place, creating half square triangles. The back of our bag and the inside of our bag are finished, so now it's time for us to move to the front, and we're going to take a look at how we're going to create that magical pinwheel using half square triangles.

So we're gonna create two different sizes of half square triangles, but we are going to do them in a way you've never done before, and you see these rotary cutters here? We're not even gonna need to use them using our Bernina L890. Because we're going to use the serger straight stitch and the cutting feature that we have on the machine. But before we actually start stitching, we're going to change our thread. We're going to take off that heavier decorative thread, and we're going to be replacing it with a standard Mettler Seracor thread.

This is a much lighter weight thread, and as we stitch, it's going to give us really nice flat seams as we stitch those half square triangles. So it's really very easy for us to change our threads on the Bernina L890. We're simply going to clip the threads and remove that decorative thread from our machine. Just simply slide those threads off. And replace them again with the lighter weight serger thread.

We're going to be placing the thread into the needle position. And into the chain looper position. Just snap each of those threads into position. Let me get the right end of my thread. OK, and we're just going to follow the threading path.

Now I will move the needle also from the center sewing position over to the right sewing position. We're going to use the standard presser foot and we're going to be using again the air threading on the machine, which is going to help us in threading in any order, OK, threading in any order. Here I have the needle already threaded. All of your tools are going to be right there on the front of your machine. Again, simply turn that large knob, hover the thread over the threading port, and your thread flies right through your machine.

Now on the machine when you're doing your piecing, you'll want to shorten your stitch length. So go ahead and shorten the stitch length down to between 2 and 2.5. Now as we stitch, we're going to be creating two half square triangles. We can create four half square triangles, and we can even take these four half square triangles and make eight half square triangles because we're using both 4.5 inch square triangles, and we're going to be using 2.5 inch half square triangles. Now, as I created the front of that bag, it took me approximately 30 minutes to create all of the 2.5 inch half square triangles for the front of that tote in all the various colors.

Now as I start to stitch, I'm going to be stitching again using the serger straight stitch on our machine. I'm going to be following the third mark that's on the toe of the presser foot, and I'm just simply going to stitch. Now as you build your confidence, the machine will sew up to 1500 stitches a minute, so you're gonna be able to sew really very quickly. Now with this thread, I have a little handle that I've created. Next, I'm going to reach under my machine and I'm going to bring the cutting blade back up into cutting position.

Now this is where the magic takes place as I sew; I'm going to be stitching again following the same mark on the toe of the presser foot. And as I stitch, that cutting blade is going to, like magic, cut apart that piece of fabric, taking it from a square to two half square triangles. Just like that, it really is very magical when you start to stitch using that serger straight stitch on your machine and using that cutting blade in conjunction with the serger straight stitch. But wait, there's more. So when I'm going to be taking and creating just two half square triangles, I can create four just as easy and again eight.

So again, just as a review, because I know you're just not believing exactly what I did here, we're going to be sewing on the first line. And that line is on the right of the diagonal center. Okay, now I am going to sew the right line again on the other diagonal center. Okay, so those two lines are already stitched. Now, again, I'm going to pull up the cutting blade.

Don't twist your fabric or you're gonna be cutting on the wrong side. So using again the handle that you've created, simply stitch, cut apart those blocks. So now we're back to our two half square triangles, and again what we're going to do is Stitch using the cutting blade to cut apart the blocks. And once again, so there we have 4, and we're gonna stitch this one. Always keep the stitching line on the right of the cutting blade.

All right, now I have all of my little triangles here, so there's 4 of those and to create the 2.5 inch blocks, here's where I do use my rotary cutter and the ruler where I'm just going to simply lay the ruler right in the middle on that 45, cut those blocks apart. And now you have your blocks that you can trim down to the 2.5 inch size. Now you see why it just took such a short period of time for me to make those half square triangles for the entire front of my bag. Now that you've trimmed up all of your half squared triangles. Open up the diagram to follow the front layout for the bag.

Now we're going to get ready to sew together the different squares, half square triangles, into the shape for the front of your bag. Now as we stitch this, we all want to make sure that we have a quarter of an inch seam as we stitch, and again we're going to be using the surger straight stitch in doing this. Now the best way to do that is to again remove your flat sewing table. And remember earlier we used the table with the guide we're going to be snapping that right back on into place and sliding the guide over right to the half inch or excuse me right into the 1/4 inch seam allowance width. We're going to place right sides together and simply nest the seams together after you have them all pressed.

You know, each one of these half square triangles has these little dog ears that are on them, and because we have the cutting blade, the cutting blade is going to trim those away for you so you don't have to trim those off either. So keep the cutting blade in the up position so that is going to trim those away. Nest the seams together and simply stitch. Using that seam guide, following the edge of your fabric, trimming off the dog ear. And you will continue to stitch all of these pieces together until you have the front of your bag all laid out and stitched in place.

Simply press that so it lays completely flat, and then we're going to attach that to the front of our bag and add our linings next. Well, can you believe it? We are all ready to assemble our bag and put it all together. Those pinwheels were really fast and easy, weren't they? So now we're gonna take a look at putting the bag together, the linings, the front, and the back, and then all we have left is to sew the handles on.

But when we put together the bag itself, we're going to be using that heavier foam product. So there are a couple of steps that I wanted to share with you for success as you stitch this in place. So first of all, as we take a look at the components, we're going to be using of course both linings for the front and for the back. Right now I just have the back of the bag laying here to show you. But you will want to use some clips as you hold the front and back together with your lining and then also these other little tools that I have here are called height compensation tools.

These height compensation tools will help you and encourage your fabric to be sewn more evenly as it moves on to the stitches move on to the fabric, and it prevents that bogging down of the fabric as it starts to sew. So we're going to be placing right sides together. And you probably have noticed on the outside of the finished bag that there is going to be a cute little binding faux binding across the top edge, and this is the way we're going to be creating that faux binding. So we're simply going to be placing right sides together for the lining and both the front and the back of the bag separately so you're creating two components front and back. Now at the machine we're going to be switching over from the surger straight stitch that we've been working with and we're going to go to the 4 thread over lock stitch, and we're going to be using a 9 millimeter wide stitch in order to create that faux binding across the top edge of the bag.

Now to create the stitch or move from one stitch to another we are going to be needing to take a few steps on the screen you're going to be following the guided mode that the machine has built in so this is just like having a teacher sitting right next to you each and every time you move from one stitch to another. I call it the GPS of sewing because it takes you from whatever stitch you're on to whatever stitch you're wanting to go to. So let's follow along and change the stitch from the serger straight stitch. Over to the 4th thread over lock stitch. So simply we're going to be raising our presser foot.

We're going to cut the thread, and it shows us exactly which threads we need to cut and also remove them from the machine. We're going to use the same presser foot that we have on, but watch, if I didn't know how to make an adjustment, I would just simply touch the video camera, and it shows me right there on the screen exactly what I need to do, so it makes it very convenient and very easy to follow. Next, I'm going to switch my needle positions. All again, all of our tools are going to be right here in the front of the machine, so I can simply lift my presser foot. And swing it out of the way so that I have easy access to moving my needles from the cover stitch position to the overlock position.

All right, and again, there's a video right there if I didn't know how to do it. Make sure your cutting blade is in the up position. Now, one thing we're going to look at because we're working with this heavier foam, the height of your cutting blade is very, very high, so you're not having to take the foam and squish it down underneath that cutting blade. The width of our stitch is adjusted, as I mentioned, all the way up to 9 millimeters wide. Then we already have the proper cutting cover on the machine, and we need to reposition that upper looper so it's in the position to sew.

We don't have to do anything on the next screen, and these next screens are just a review to make sure that all of your settings are in the proper place. We are again using a 4-thread overlock stitch, so we're just going to be adding 2 more threads to the thread paths that we already had on the machine, and you're going to find that as you stitch, or as you thread, you're going to be following the same thread path that you had even with your cover stitch. All right, now again, there's a video that's on the screen that's going to show us exactly where each one of those threads is going to be going. And the path they need to follow. And since I can thread in any order, I always like to thread from left to right.

Engage the tubes for threading, and then simply again, step on your foot pedal, cover the thread, let it go, and it comes flying right out of the looper on your machine. One last looper. And we're ready to sew. Just leave the threads lying right where they are and turn the knob back over for stitching. Touch the check mark on the front of your screen, and you're ready to go.

Now on our Bernina L890 machines, we have what's called total stitch control. So what I can do is I can adjust just one area of stitching. And most of the time when we're stitching with a serger, if you open your seam, you're going to see little lines of thread, which is the left needle thread. So now what I'm going to do is simply increase the control that I have on that left needle thread that's going to pull my stitches much tighter and give me a much closer stitch and a much more firm seam once I have it stitched. So now again, I'm just going to.

Stitch across the top edge of my bag, and I can use the height compensating tool and I can position this behind my presser foot, which is going to keep the level of my foot from front to back the same as I have on my bag, and as I stitch, I'm going to hold on to this height compensating tool so that as I stitch it doesn't come popping out. Of the back side. So continue to stitch across the top of both the front and the back of your bag, and then I'm gonna show you exactly what we're going to do with the next step. All right, we've sewn the lining to both the front and the back of our bag. Now what I'm going to show you is the next step on how we join the front and the back so that we have a continuous bag, and this is where again a little magical trick takes place.

Because we want to create that faux binding across the top of the bag. Now I have a very mini scale bag here. So this will represent the front of my bag, and of course, we have the pocket for the back of your bag, but when we open up the project, you have your lining attached to the front and the back. Where we line the front and the back together is going to be important. So what I'd like to do is take my seam allowances.

And I want to make sure that where the back and front join, each of the lining pieces those seams are going to be aligned with each other, and your seam allowance is going to be pointing toward the lining because that extra thickness of the fabric, or the width of your stitch, is going to give you that bound edge on the top of your bag. So again, make sure that you are lining up both the seams for the front and the back of your bag, and go ahead and place a clip right on top of that area. Then you're going to simply stitch from the bottom edge of the bag all the way across onto the lining, and again across the bottom of your bag as well. After you have those stitched, you're then going to trim away your corners. And what I like to do is, for the back of the bag, I've spaced my lines accordingly so that as I cut, I'm going to be cutting right along one of those lines.

Because then the side of your bag is going to have a nice, firm edge you've already stitched to create a crease in that foam. But as you stitch the foam onto the lining, again, you can adjust the pressure on your presser foot. And again, I like to use a 9 millimeter stitch when I stitch this. You'll see how easy it is to stitch from one weight of fabric to another, and how your machine will automatically adjust the control of the stitch. OK.

And I'll just snip off that corner edge. We precut that. But this way, you'll be able to see how we can stitch across those thicker fabrics and from one type of fabric to another. Again, we're going to stitch. On all four sides, make sure that you are leaving an opening at the bottom lining of the bag so you can turn your project to the right side.

All right, so you'll have those four sides all stitched in place, and then we're going to be trimming our corners. I'll show you how to box the corner, and then we'll turn right side out, and we're almost finished. Lastly, we're gonna box the bottom of our bag. That's going to help the bag stand up and give it some structure, so what we've done already is we have actually stitched across the bottom of several of the corners. We stitch across the bottom of the bottom of our bag and then also the bottom of our linings, so those are just going to be held in place, but let me show you the last corner that I have here.

We're just going to be lining up and meeting the seam from the bottom of your bag, and lining to the bottom, or I should say the side, the bottom of your bag to the side of your bag. Just line those up, and you're going to be positioning this underneath your presser foot. I like that I have the freehand system on the machine, which allows me to keep complete control of my bag and project and then still lift my presser foot. So I'm gonna slide it right up underneath the foot, and I'm going to stitch straight across. As easy as that.

So now I have all the corners stitched, and you can already see that there's some structure to the bottom of my bag. After we have it all sewn together and you're going to turn it right side out, I'm going to show you here on our finished bag exactly how pretty that top edge of the bag is going to look. So here you'll see that the top edge has a real nice faux binding edge that goes all the way around the top of your bag. And by meeting those seams right at the top is where you're going to have that matching point right on the side seam. You'll notice that I also then added some snaps at the top in the side of the bag, which again kind of gives it some more structure and helps kind of contain the top edge of your bag and bring in, bring it in for a little more security.

Then I went ahead and added some leather handles stitched on by hand, and you'll notice how pretty it adds that decorative look to not only the outside but the inside of your bag. You'll see that we have that divided pocket close to the top edge, and once you have the bag pressed and turned, just simply add a piece of plastic canvas to the bottom which is going to help create that structure at the bottom of the bag. I hope you enjoyed this project and learned a whole lot about how your serger can become a very magical tool in your sewing room and really be able to enhance your quilting opportunities.