Getting to know the Janome Air-Thread 2000D Professional

trinagallop

Jun 30

Last month I shared with you my exciting of unboxing my brand new Janome Air-Thread 2000D Professional.

Since then, I've been reading through my manual, watching videos on the Janome HQ You Tube channel and Janome America's You Tube channel, and getting to know my new serger. I've also been thinking endlessly about what my first project(s) should be and waffling back and forth between keeping it simple or just diving right in!

In the end, I decided on a knit t-shirt dress pattern for my daughter. I love sewing for her. She's at the perfect age - projects aren't too involved, don't require more than a metre or so of fabric, and she's very excited for new makes.

This pattern was purchased quite some time ago. It's a very versatile raglan sleeve dress, and I am thinking it can also double as a nightgown pattern with the right fabric - something my daughter also loves.

I chose a fairly sturdy knit for this first serger project. I didn't want to worry about delicate or finicky fabrics. Also, this knit is very soft and I knew my daughter would love it for her dress.

I spoke a lot about setting up my Janome Air-Thread 2000D Professional in my May blog post, including the air thread feature, which makes it amazingly easy to set up all your threads. There's even a built-in needle threader, making the whole process even easier!

For this project, I wanted to make sure I had my stitch length and differential set up properly. I consulted the manual which was able to tell me what both is recommended to be set at for knit fabric.

I decided to go right in the middle of the road and set the stitch length to 3 and the differential (which controls the feed dogs, and specifically how the front and back feed dogs move together) to 1.0, which creates a nice even seam. In the photo below, the dial is set to 1.5, but just turn it to 1.0 to decrease the differential feed, or turn it up to 1.5, 2.0 or 2.5 to increase. It's really easy to adjust and customize to get it exactly where you need it to be based on the fabric you're using.

I did a test drive with a little knit fabric scrap.

How lovely is this??

This dress pattern came together rather easily. I used my serger to join all the inside seams together. It was so quick and easy! I love the little tray, or "chip catcher", as it's officially called, which catches all the fabric trimmings.

To finish off the hems on this particular pattern, I switched over to my Janome Skyline S9 to do a zigzag stitch. You could also use a Twin Needle, or use a Janome CoverPro machine to professionally finish the hem.

I can't get over how lovely the seams on this dress are.

My daughter was in love with this dress. And I've got all kinds of ideas for different fabric combinations now. These are the perfect little playground dress paired with some shorts underneath. Of course, the next version needs some pockets!