I absolutely love the effect woolly nylon has on rolled hems. But I didn’t know what I was getting until I bought some, and was stuck for a moment because this specialty thread is so airy in itself that air threading doesn’t work.
I definitely recommend using it, but here are things I wish I knew before I bought woolly nylon.
What’s woolly nylon? Where can you get it?
Woolly nylon is a special type of sewing thread that has a soft and fuzzy texture.
It’s great for creating beautiful, full-looking rolled hems, even on delicate fabrics like chiffon and silk. On thicker fabrics too it makes a neat decorative edge.
If a normal serging thread is used instead, spacing is created between the rolled stitches and the result doesn’t look neat or professional. The airy stretchiness of the woolly nylon thread helps fill in the gaps.
It also makes hemming curved edges easy, as there is no need for folding, ironing and sewing or cover-stitching the curved seams.
I bought my woolly nylons from the official Baby Lock website; if they’re selling it, it must work well with my Baby Lock.
When they arrived, I found out from the sticker that they’re made in Japan, wee 🙂 No wonder most of the sites mentioning them were in Japanese.
Woolly nylon can’t be air-threaded: How to thread woolly nylon
Woolly nylon is generally used in the upper looper to make beautiful full-looking rolled edges. Woolly nylon thread is stretchy and airy though, so it doesn’t get fed in by the air-threader by pressing that button.
BabyLock on their website and manual mentions to use the looper threading wire tool that comes with the machine – which is that thin and long piece of wire with a small loop on one end.
To thread woolly nylon through the port with the looper threading wire:
- Set the machine into threading mode, with the tubes connected;
- Gently push the wire (the end without the loop) though the looper threading port until the end appears out the other side;
- Thread the woolly nylon into the loop of the wire*;
- Pull the wire all the way out of the machine; the woolly nylon threads with it.
*Everything up to the button pressing is the same as normal thread, so it goes through the telescopic pole and tension clips.
See more tips & an easier alternative on my post:
How to sew rolled hems
Apart from threading the woolly nylon without the air threader, everything else about sewing rolled hems with the thread is the same; Set the BabyLock to 3-thread overlock (C2 needle only) on rolled hem mode (D) and stitch with a length of R0.75.
Montana Sewing has a great tutorial on how to sew rolled hems on a Baby Lock Trimph/Gloria. Their BabyLock videos are clear, concise and to the point… and deserve so many more thumbs ups 😀
How to secure the end of rolled hems
Rolled hems with woolly nylon are tight; you can’t secure them with a big eye needle like you’d secure a regular overlock or narrow hem.
A tip from BabyLock Japan is to use the looper threader (the wire that was used to thread the woolly nylon into the serger) to tuck the thread end back into the rolled hem. (Video in their post below)
Rolled hem samples
Here are some projects hemmed with rolled edges using woolly nylon thread. They really do make the edges have a neat, professional look.
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