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Posts Tagged ‘Brother Sewing’

What type of embroidery machine should I buy? I want to do names and small cheerleading logos like megaphones.?

December 9th, 2012 3 comments

I’ve noticed that companies charge $10 and up just to put a name with a mega phone and pom-poms on a jacket front. I’d like to buy my own and embroider them myself. What type would be helpful. I don’t want to go over $800.
I only want to embroider names on the front of jackets at most 4 inches long, and logo’s that won’t be more than 4 x 4 inches.

You can do this with the Brother 350 sold at Walmart and it is less than $400.

You also need Ped Basic. More info below at Allbrands.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-Se350-Sewing-Embroidery-Machine/8033273

So there you have it. For around $500 you can have a combination sewing/embroidery machine and the software for downloading.

You can use the remaining budget to purchase thread and stabilizer and still have money left over – that’s always a good thing!

Eight years ago, I started with the first Brother embroidery machine that Walmart sold, but at that time the additional software (like Ped Basic) needed for accessing designs from the Internet sold for $200 – $300.

Later, I purchased a Babylock with a larger hoop and sold the Brother on Ebay for about 80% of my original expense.

The embroidery machine will come with a few tools for maintenance (cleaning), needles, bobbins, thread nets (keeps thread from feeding too fast from the spool – it may, or may not be needed) and a small pair of scissors.

If you use polyester thread for machine embroidery, it will withstand chlorine bleach. If there is no chance the item will come in contact with chlorine bleach you can use rayon.

Be sure to use machine embroidery bobbin thread – this comes in white and black. I use NEB prewound bobbins as they hold more thread.

You can find good prices on stabilizer at Allbrands or JoAnn Fabrics when they are on special. Start with a medium weight cut away and a medium weight tear away. You should also include a tricot iron-on to cover the back of the embroidery if the garment is going to be worn next to the skin.

Rayon and Polyester machine embroidery thread can be purchased online as well, but you may want to buy a few of the basic colors at a fabric shop – JoAnn Fabric has thread on sale from time to time at 40% off. Thread that comes in kits sometimes leave you will colors you may not use.

If you embroidery a design that has lots of black or other dark color – buy Madeira brand as Coats & Clark and Sulky tend to fray as the machine stitches. This is due to the dying process used by the manufacturer.

Embroidery Library has a great section that provides tips and techniques as well as sales on designs. This is worth downloading or a least flagging it as a favorite site.

Embroidery Designs is another site that has a variety of designs for cheer leading as well as access to other vendors of machine embroidery designs. Download freebies and use them for practice, if nothing else. The embroidery machine will have some designs and fonts built-in.

When you get your embroidery machine home – open the manual and lay it right next to the machine. Then read and follow each step of each feature of the machine – this is the easiest and quickest way to learn how to use the machine.

Be sure to use the right stabilizer (see embroidery library); practice on old shirts or fabric scraps and in no time you will be expert at this.

JoAnn does not have any specials on embroidery supplies right now, but you can sign up for notices – http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/2005/12/jo-ann-coupons.html

http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp01060-0145.html – check your PC’s operating system for compatibility.

http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques – be sure to check the charts for placement and stabilizer recommendations.

http://www.embroiderydesigns.com/DesignSearchResults.aspx?SearchText=cheer%20leading&ddsearchid=Stock%20Designs – downloads, check the vendors on the side bar for more possibilities.

Never leave the machine as it is running and if it sounds like it is jamming – stop and remove the hoop and check for thread snarls in the bobbin area (maintenance section will show you how to clean). This can happen with any machine and at any experience level. All sewing and embroidery machines with a drop-in bobbin need to be cleaned after a few stitch-outs.

Take some quiet time and have fun. This is a hobby that can shortly lead to a business.

I do my answers on a person-by-person basis and if I missed something pertinent to your situation, or if you have more questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

Which embroidery softwares are compatible with the Brother PE 700 II sewing machine.?

December 7th, 2012 1 comment

Hello! I Need some help. My girlfriend’s mom has a Brother PE 700 II machine. Which of these programs like Wilcom ES, Tajima DGML or Melco Design Studio are compatible with that machine? Or, does the PE Design the only one that work ? Thanks.

You can actually use any software that you like, personally I use Fancy Works Studio. What you will need is PED-Basic. The PED-Basic will allow the designs to be put on a memory card to be used with the machine. Personally if i were going to invest in another software program it would be embird. www.embird.com you can try it before you buy it and with the add ons you can purchase seperately it is wonderful for anything you would want to do. it really depends on what your girlfriends mom wants to do with the software. if she just wants to get designs from the internet to her machine and maybe resize or change the design a little that can be done with PED-Basic. PED=Basic can be found on e-bay for about $100.00.
if you have any other questions please feel free to e-mail me.
my favorite embroidery website is <a href="http://www.designsbysick.com/amember/go.php?r=5647&i=l0">Designs by SiCK Embroidery Library</a>
they have an awesome site with great designs.

good luck,
deb

Question about the Brother SE400 Computerized Embroidery and Sewing Machine?

December 5th, 2012 2 comments

Does this embroidery machine work with HUS, PES, and DST formats?

PES.

If you already have designs in the other formats, they can be converted by using Pulse Ambassador (a free download).

Cheaper version of the Husqvarna Viking embroidery machine?

November 27th, 2012 2 comments

I’m looking for an embroidery machine with many of the same capabilities of the Husqvarna Viking Designer 1, but for a much cheaper price. Any suggestions?

Make a list of what you like about this machine and take it to a Brother or Babylock dealer and compare the features and the prices.

Ideally – you want a hoop area larger than 4"x 4" and USB connectivity.

The larger hoop will allow you to stitch out larger embroidery designs. Whatever the size hoop is the largest design size the embroidery machine will stitch out.

Some users think if they buy an additional hoop that is larger than what came with the machine, the machine will stitch larger designs. Not so. The embroidery machine is computerized for certain features and that cannot be changed.

USB connectivity can be either a cable that connects the embroidery machine and PC, or a removable flash drive. These are what you use to move design downloads from the PC to the embroidery machine.

You can get the Brother 400se (sewing and embroidery) at Walmart that has a larger hoop and cable connectivity for around $500.

You may want to buy from a dealer for assistance in using the machine and for service of the machine.

You do need to have a PC as 99.9% of software programs for machine embroidery require the Windows operating system.

You can begin a collection of designs from the many sites that offer free downloads.

Create a folder on the hard drive and name it Emb Downloads.

Download .pes formatted designs for Brother or Babylock.

Most downloads are zipped files and have to be opened or extracted and then saved to the folder you created.

Machine Embroidery on Brother BM-2600 sewing machine?

November 15th, 2012 3 comments

On the Brother BM-2600 sewing machine, can the feed dog drop for free-hand machine embroidery?
On the Brother BM-2600 sewing machine, can the feed dog drop for free-hand machine embroidery?

Yes u can do free motion embroidery but you will need a darning
foot which is sold seperatly for about $15 from brother but u will need the code which is in the your manual so u know you have the right 1

also u will need a hand embroidery hoop ,stabilizer and a design that u want 2 stitch out like a car or a Disney character.

the darning foot is a screw on. and cover feed dog with ur darning plate

Recommend a sewing machine with alphabet?

November 11th, 2012 5 comments

Hi, can anyone recommend a sewing machine including nice patterns, embroydery and alphabet? I am a complete beghinner qnd am willing to pay between 100 and 350 usd. must be easy to use.
Thanks a lot!!
Thanks a lot, but what about the Brother SE270D Computerized Sewing and Embroidery Machine, 350USD?

You really need to buy an embroidery machine from a dealer (sewing store) You will need lessons on the machine itself and for doing embroidery. This is not something to figure out yourself.
I know of two people who took back the Brother’s Disney embroidery machine to WalMart because they were so flustered with it.
Some dealers have older machine that were brought in when the owners traded up in models. Sewing stores are going to give you free lessons on your machine.
Once you have an embroidery machine you can buy 100’s of different fonts for it. Also there are many free designs on line. You just have to see if it is offered in your sewing machines "language" I have a Viking Huskavarna embroidery machine, I need designs in HUS.
Check out site below

Where on the internet can I find info and instruction on embroidery digitizing?

November 9th, 2012 3 comments

I have just purchased a Brother sewing/embroidery machine, Disney SE-2700 series. I keep reading about digitizing. If I understand it right it is creating your own embroidery patterns. Where on the internet can I find what I need to know about digitizing, and can I digitize with my machine? I appreciate all the help I can get. Nana

Digitizing is the creation of design files to use on your embroidery machine. There are several digitizing programs available and most will create files in many formats. ART is the only format that is not as popular and which only comes with specific digitizing software. PES which you use on your Brother machine is very common and most digitizing programs create this format.

I personally use a couple of programs to digitize. The one I like the best is Embird. You can have the option of creating most of the design automatically and then reworking it until you like what you get, or creating the whole design from scratch (this is called manual punching). The Secrets of Embroidery website offers tutorials as well as a free 30-day trial download of Embird so you can try before you buy. There are also Yahoo Groups which are dedicated to each type of software program to digitize and the members help each other with their problems.

I need software to turn pictures to embroidery designs?

May 17th, 2012 1 comment

I have some pictures for a sewing project and i need them embroidered i have a brother pe400 sewing/embroidery machine. I’m looking for some software to simply change pictures to stitches. would prefer free, but I am willing to pay for it. I have to computers, a windows and mac.

The software you need to be compatible with a sewing machine so specific should have been included when you purchased it. If you do not have the software already you can download it from the brother website. Hopefully this works for you!

Cheers!

Brother Embroidery Machine with USB Port

January 19th, 2012 16 comments

For More Info or to Buy Now: http://www.hsn.com/redirect.aspx?id=il&url=http%3A//www.hsn.com/cnt/prod/default.aspx%3Fpfid%3D559634&afsrc=1&sourceid=youtube&cm_mmc=advsvc*youtube*na*559634
Let your imagination soar with this wonderfully versatile Brother Embroidery Machine with USB Port. Pull patterns straight from the internet, or use 1 of the 136 designs already programmed into…
Prices shown on the previously recorded video may not represent the current price. View hsn.com to view the current selling price. HSN Item #559634

Duration : 0:17:58

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I just got a Brother Computerized Sewing and Embroidery Machine, SE-400?

January 9th, 2012 2 comments

What are the best sites to download free embroidery graphics from?

Congratulations!

First, create a folder on either the pc’s hard drive, disk or flash drive for storing your downloads or you will have problems trying to locate them as you want to use them. Within the folder, create sub folders as the collection grows for easy access, such as infant, hearts, sports, flowers, etc.

If you decide to store on the hard drive, be sure to back-up on a flash drive by saving each time you add or make changes to the folder. This can be a life saver should the pc crash or otherwise lose all your hard work.

Downloads are usually zipped to save download time. These files have to be opened/extracted/unzipped before they can be used as the embroidery machine will not recognize the format. This is a good time to rename the files for easy recognition. If there is a file extension (.pes) be sure to add it to the rename. Example: yxrose123.pes could be renamed yellowrose.pes

Be sure to download files with a pes format and that are within the size of the machine’s embroidery stitch area.

For example – if the embroidery machine is designed for a 4" x 4" hoop, no matter how much larger a hoop that you may use, the machine is limited to the 4 x 4 and will not stitch out a larger design without editing software to split the design into smaller segments and additional re-hooping and re-positioning of the item being embroidered.

There are many sites for downloading free designs – beware of the foreign sites, especially Russian as they offer designs that are illegal US licensed designs.

If you do a search of free machine embroidery designs you can then choose the sites as you wish – just watch out for the foreign sites offering Disney and other licensed designs.

I use Ann The Gran – some are free for everyone and others are free to members of Ann’s Club, which requires a small membership fee. Membership also includes discounts on supplies and merchandise. http://www.annthegran.com

Embroidery Library as a few freebies, but they have the best overall tips, techniques and tutorials online. http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

http://www.sewforum.com has free designs and a great forum for learning, asking questions and overall information.

Brother has designs that can be downloaded, will be in the correct format and within the 4 x 4 hoop size/stitching area – http://www.brother-usa.com/HomeSewing/GetCreative/free-designs.aspx

Once you have your collection, you will not be able to view the actual design unless you have a software program. The least expensive on that I have found is Embrilliance Thumbnailer, available here – http://www.dzgns.com/shopping_cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1293 this site also has free downloads.

Enjoy and please email me if you have any additional questions.