Free Embroidery Designs

I am just starting out, although I took a class years ago, I was not very good – especially in adjusting tension and all those little things. I am getting a sewing machine now that I am retired – what would be the best? I’m thinking of a Brother XR 7700

What features do you want? Are you on a budget? Most machines will sew just fine with the upper tension set on 4 and left there. IMHO, it’s easier to teach you what a balanced stitch
looks like than try to fight through the screens of some programs to adjust something that the computer is doing "wrong".

My personal experience with Brother machines has not been good, but ymmv. I’d strongly urge you to consider trying out a number of machines at local sewing machine dealers if at all possible, and finding the machine(s) that will work for you.

My minimal criteria (I do a lot of garment making, some quilting, no machine embroidery other than freemotion): Very good straight stitch, at least a pretty good zigzag, non-jamming bobbin case, buttonhole that doesn’t drive you nuts, adjustable presser foot presser, at least a fair range of presser feet made for the machine. For my own use, I also want stretch and regular blindhem, a couple of stitches I can use for fagoting, a couple of hemstitches, and some stitches that are good for faking blanket stitches for applique. My primary machine is a 10 year old Viking electronic, middle of the line.

Because I sew so many garments, I also have a serger and a coverstitch machine — personally, I’d sooner have a good serger and a so-so sewing machine than a fancy sewing machine, but again, that’s personal preference.

Some help:
http://www.cet.com/~pennys/faq/smfaq.htm
http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/tvt046.asp
http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00130.asp
I also urge you to read the first and last chapters of Carol Ahles’ book Fine Machine Sewing (available from most libraries).

I am looking to buy an embroidery machine. All I want to do is monogramming, like on ribbon. Do I really need to buy an expensive machine or can I get away with something under $500.00. And if I really don’t need an expensive machine, what machine would you recommend. Thank you

it depends on how large you need the monograms to be. i have a kenmore (made by janome) that isn’t even an embroidery machine but will do small (probably about 1/4 inch) lettering. if you do need an embroidery machine you could go with just a 4X4 embroidery field. i perfer brother machines for embroidery. walmart sells one that is a basic embriodery machine. it will have a couple of fonts with it. i haven’t really checked it out because i have a brother ult2002D. i have been watching some of the prices on e-bay lately and you may want to consider a used machine. here is a great site for embroidery designs. they give away 49 free designs a day. they also give away a free font ocassionally if you joing their yahoo group.
http://www.designsbysick.com/amember/go.php?r=5647&i=l0">Designs by SiCK Embroidery Library

have fun with your new adventure.

I would like to personalize blankets and other clothing items but have my own ideas of the pattern I would like to put on them, I have been looking at some Brother and Singer machines, but don’t know which has the friendliest software for creating your own designs. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Check the Brother machines My mom got one over the net with free shipping for a little over $800 – She LOVES it!!!

It looks like a slot for something like a compact flash card. Does anyone know what type of card this is? I can’t imagine I’d have to buy "special" cards. I know I’ll need software to digitize/convert images in PES format. I’d imagine the software also knows how to format the card so it can be read by the embroidery machine.

First, you have to have a card reader for machine embroidery and then you buy the card for your machine that is compatible with the card reader.

You use Brother memory cards or cards made for Brother machines. Again – these have to be compatible with the reader box.

You get these items from an embroidery machine dealer – preferable on-line.

Walk-in dealers don’t always have the cards in all formats, or any at all and have to order what you need.

They are more expensive than at online dealers.

To take advantage of downloading from the Internet, you need a card reader and a rewritable memory card.

You can get Brother’s PED Basic with a card for about $100 – On-line.

This is one dealer that I have bought from. They have a graphic showing how the card reader works. Note the PC requirements. http://www.sewingsupplywarehouse.com/pedbasic.html

Another dealer that I have bought from – http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp01060-0165.html

Digitizing is a horse of another color. This is software that allows you to create your own designs or digitize pictures and clip art. It is fairly expensive around $1,000.

You can download a free trial of Embird Embroidery Software here – http://www.secretsof.com/content/1853?PHPSESSID=f1d6a79654e8e476eaffaf7784b652a6 It is a very popular software and what you are downloading is the Basic program. It doesn’t digitize, but it is the base component for this software.

As you learn and want to expand, you buy plug-ins that allow you to digitize, among other things.

Free designs to download (I have used many of them) – http://www.brother-usa.com/HomeSewing/GetCreative/free-designs.aspx

When you buy or download designs, make sure they are no larger than 4 x 4. That is the maximum stitching area for the 350.

Need in pes format (for Brother machine)

My sister is in embroidery marketing.I help her to get free designs every night and I found a bunch of sites with really cute designs for Brother machines.Some has more than 3000 designs and all for free.
Take a look and maybe you can find what you need!Enjoy