Product Review: Juki MO-1000 Serger (with jet-air loopers)

A couple months ago I ran out of patience with my old Elna serger… even though the sewing function still worked okay, she was a beast to thread and the presser foot lifter had broken off, which made inserting fabric tricky. Plus she lacked the feature that I dreamed about most… jet air loopers. 

I remembered playing with the Juki MO-1000 in the Juki Booth at Fall Quilt Market last year so after doing more research online, I decided to go ahead and order it from Allbrands.com.

My Juki TL-2010Q straight stitch sewing and quilting machine came from Allbrands too, and I LOVE it. Customer service has been superb, and I feel secure knowing I have an extended 10 year warranty that came standard. 

The jet-air loopers feature is one of my favorite things about this machine. I no longer let the thread color that is currently in my serger determine the color of my next garment, lol!

I’ve had to use this feature 6 or 7 times probably, and it has always worked like a charm.

There are needle threaders too, but I still forget to use them most of the time. Let’s just say I’m saving them for later use. 🙂

While I am on the topic of threading… the only mishaps I have had were twice when I tied new threads on and pulled them through (instead of cutting and completely re-threading) one of the looper threads didn’t sit correctly in the tension disk. When I noticed that the tension wasn’t perfect, I lifted the presser foot up (to release all of the tensions) so I could lift the threads and put them back down in the tension disks again – without re-threading. Then I got perfectly balanced stitching again, yay!

But I wouldn’t rate any serger highly if it couldn’t also sew and cut smoothly through thick layers of fabric, and the Juki MO-1000 does not disappoint. The knife blade is longer than most other sergers, which helps it cut anything I want to give it – like the bound edges on this stretch velour leotard.

The knife and needles are closer together than other sergers too, which makes going around curves easy. 

Just last week I used this serger to gather 10 yards of tulle into a long Cinderella skirt (tutorial coming!). I did all the gathering in about 5 minutes – what a wish come true! 

All I had to do was turn down the differential feed all the way and bump the needle tensions up to 7.5 or 8. I must admit that this made the thread in my left needle break several times so I switched to heavy duty thread in that needle only. Viola! no more problems and lots of gathers.

And speaking of differential feed… this is the first serger on which I have noticed the differential feed working. With my Euro-pro and Elna sergers I turned the differential feed dial sometimes and hoped it was working. But on the Juki MO-1000 I see it working. 

The catch-all bin on this machine is huge, and I’m not kidding. I have never seen one this big, but I love it. I can sew a whole piece of clothing (or two) without dumping it.

At first I didn’t notice how it hooks onto the front door of the serger (over by the blade) so the trimmings kind of went behind the bin (which was annoying). But soon enough I figured how to use it correctly and now it catches everything.

Summary:

• The Juki MO-1000 serger is another workhorse of a sewing machine, just like my Juki straight stitch TL-2010Q.

• I love that it has jet-air loopers with a much lower price point than other sergers with this feature.

• It sews and cuts smoothly through thick layers with ease. And the tension quality is excellent.

• It does all of the stitch variations that a 3/4 serger would (3 thread overlock, 4 thread safety overlock, 3 thread rolled hem, 3 thread flatlock) plus a 2 thread overlock which I’ve never seen before.

I’m getting ready to make Chair Pockets for another elementary school classroom and I’m really looking forward to how easy sewing them will be on my new Juki serger!

If you are shopping around but not sure that you really need a serger, I wrote a blog post about that too. You might also like my post about the best sergers to buy for the money. I included this one on the list!

Happy sewing!

FYI: Allbrands.com offered me a discount on this machine if I would write a product review, but did not influence the outcome of the review. I am 100% happy with both of my Juki’s and I tell everyone I know how wonderful they are. 🙂