About Rachel

Hi I'm Rachel. I'm a professional overlocker/serger enthusiast, costume designer and maker, sewing teacher, dressmaker, cat owner and citizen of the world. Ive designed and made costumes for tv, film, masscots and wedding gowns, fancy dress and musical theatre. I started sewing at around age 5, sitting on the floor making clothes for my teddies with the scraps from my Mother's and Grandmothers projects and it became a lifelong passion. I just love jumping in the deep end and embracing new challenges and get bored easily. Once I solve a puzzle I move onto the next challenge. Thats why overlockers are such a good fit for me, theyre unsolvable

So when my best friend got a job at Denman, the Women's Institute residential college is Oxfordshire, UK, and when they needed an Overlocker tutor, I dove right in. I'd owned an overlocker since I was about 16, and had used both domestic and industrial overlocker for work, but it was only when I started teaching that I realised how much people are afraid of their overlocker,  and what a wonderful world of potential these machines have that are never explored. It became a passion of mine to work out the potential of these machines, and the more I researched the more I realised there was to learn.

So after an enormous life move back to Australia with my husband and black house panther Bellamy, giving up my costume career to be closer to family and enjoy a more relaxed sun-filled lifestyle, I've decided to set up the Overlocker Sergery to help me explore and hopefully inspire others to use their overlockers for more than just edging fabrics.

DISCLAIMER: Yes this blog does contain bad words in places. I'm not going to apologise for that because these bloody machines would bring out the cuss words of a Nun. If you've ever used an overlocker/serger and not sworn at thr bloody thing or threatened to throw it out the window you're a much better person than I. Also Im Australian, swearing is second nature to me, so if it offends you then maybe this isn't the blog for you.

My Wenlock with Usain Bolt and Mini Wenlock