Hello, having problems with new Brother sewing machine which arrived today. It has 21 stitches but the stitch dial  only goes up to 11. Some are highlighted in grey, some in red. The manual doesn't say anything about how to get onto the higher numbered grey stitches. Does anyone have a similar machine? The model XL-5070. Thankyou!

I've got a few weddings coming up this year and i want to try to replicate this dress: http://www.net-a-porter.com/isroot/NETAPORTER/SiteImages/prod_large/8554_fr.jpg
http://www.net-a-porter.com/isroot/NETAPORTER/SiteImages/prod_large/8554_index.jpg
http://www.net-a-porter.com/isroot/NETAPORTER/SiteImages/prod_large/8554_bk.jpg

Sorry for the small photos. It has quite a lot of stitching detail and the top layer is chiffon with godetts in the hemline, which i've never done before. I've bought this fabric for the top layer:
http://www.andrewgoldshop.com/TwinsMore/Image/BurnChiffon/BOS2.jpg

and i'm planning to make a silk or satin slip for underneath rather than attaching a lining as i thought this would be easier?

Any tips or ideas much appreciated!

Hello all, this is my first post after lurking for about a week. I must say there are some very talented people out there! Anyway i'm hoping to make some skirts with some beautiful chiffon i have found, but i don't know how to hem it. Looking at garments made out of chiffon, they don't seem to use a normal hemming technique, it looks more like a tight blanket stitch. Does anyone know how to do this?

Also when making seams with chiffon is it best to use a small zig zag stitch at the very edges of the pieces rather than a normal seam? It occured to me that a normal seam would look ugly under chiffon.

Final question, what on earth is a serger?! They keep coming up in a lot of posts i've read, but i'm still none-the-wiser!

Thankyou for any responses