Free Embroidery Designs

I have just recently purchased a brother se 270d. I am completely new at embroidery and I am not sure about all of the software available to help download designs. I looked into the ped basic(because it is cheapest) but saw several complaints due to the limited capabilities with it. I don’t want to spend over $150 on something to help me to download designs from the internet. I am really interested n monogramming. Can anyone tell me what else is available for my machine that is not so expensive, yet still do a pretty good job? thanks!

You may be confusing editing software with memory card software.

Without a reader/writer unit and rewritable memory card and you cannot use designs from the Internet or a CD without one brand or the other.

PED Basic or another brand of the same type of software will provide a method of getting the design from the PC to the Embroidery machine via a memory card. Basically, that is all they do.

For monogramming you need fonts (alpha designs). You load as you would any other design and then copy to the memory card. Insert the memory card into the machine and press "start".

For editing, Embird is a popular product and you can download a free demo.

ABC embroidery has a tutorial for combining letters with Embird.

Remember, the design has to be within the limitation of the size hoop your machine is programed for.

http://www.secretsof.com/content/1853

http://www.annaboveembroidery.com/usemfo.html

My intention is to be able to embroider golf towels for memorial golf tournaments each year and possibly do shirts down the road if I find that it is not to difficult. Can someone please tell me if I am going in over my head here with even thinking about trying to do this? Please help me out here with some answers. Thank you…

Visit as many sewing machine dealers as you can and tell them your interests.

Machine embroidery is easy – the machine does all the work. All you need to do is follow the instructions and watch the results as the machine does it’s thing.

Ideally, you want an embroidery machine that has at least a 5×7 stitching area, USB direct connect or USB flash drive for sending designs to the machine that you have downloaded from the Internet to your PC.

Do not buy an embroidery machine that uses rewritable memory cards and card reader box only – they are becoming obsolete as they are not compatible with Vista 64.

Do not buy software from a dealer – you need to become comfortable with the machine first, and some software is less expensive online.

Embird is one that is very popular and can be downloaded as a free trial.

You will need to also purchase, embroidery thread, embroidery bobbin thread and stabilizer. A package of needles and small scissors will come with the machine.

See this site for tips and techniques for machine embroidery – http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

Forums that are helpful are http://www.sewforum.com and http://www.annthegran.com/

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.

What I really need to know from you guys is if I bought designs off the internet can I transfer them to this machine. I realise I would have to purchase some software, but basically is it limited to what it can download?. Am looking to update my embroidery machine but not fork out too much as I would not be using it on an everyday basis, but would like the capability of getting designs off the computer.

Download to your hearts content!

The Janome 300e uses a Compact Flash card (used in some digital cameras) to transfer designs from your computer to the 300e. You will also need a Compact Flash card adapter (pcmcia card) in order to load the CF card into the 300e. You will also need either CF card slot in your computer or a card reader to transfer designs from the computer to the 300e (f your computer is a laptop with a pcmcia card slot, you will not need a card reader, just the CF card and the card adapter).

The 300e uses JEF format. (If you download the older SEW format you will need a program to convert to JEF–most on-line digitizers offer their designs in JEF).

The 300e comes with 4"x4" and a 5"x7" hoops.

If you download JEF format, you will not need any software. You will format the CFcard/adaptor in your 300e by putting it in the slot then turning the machine on. When you want to add designs to it, you put it in either the CF slot on your computer or in a card reader and drag or copy the designs to the EMBF5 folder that was put on the CF card when it was formatted.

You can find the CF cards and pcmcia card adaptors on ebay; they are inexpensive . I have used cards as big as 512mb without a problem, but I only put the designs that I will be using at the time on the card. I have several cards from old cameras that are as small as 16 mb.

If you are looking for software to change formats, you can use Wilcom Truesizer. If you want software that will let you adjust size, thread color, etc., Embird is a great way to go–it is not free but is a bargain for all that it will do (and you can purchase add=ons if you want to try digitizing for yourself in the future). Just download the JEF format designs onto the CF card and load them into the 300e. It is very easy. The 300e is a wonderful machine, you won’t be sorry if you get it!

Just be careful when you download designs that they are "legal" designs! Stay away from ebay as although there are legitimate digitizers that sell on ebay, there are also pirates who will sell you hundreds of designs for a few dollars that they pirated off places like Disney and other digitizers that they have no legal right to sell.

I hope this is clearer than mud 🙂

my mum has an embroidery machine, i have a design i want, but do not want to submit it to a site so they can sell it. i am looking for preferably free software where i can create it myself.
thanks in advance..
or, even a site that will do it for you but give you a percentage of their profits on the design..
yes, she has the card reader on the computer so she can transfer files to the machine.
i have an image that i have created that i want to use, but do not have any software to convert it over to the right file type..
i have found sites where you can submit your image to them and they would format it for you for free, but in doing so, you give them all of the rights to the image..

www.embird.com will let you try before you buy. does your mum have a way to get the design from the computer to the machine? my favorite site for designs is <a href="http://www.designsbysick.com/amember/go.php?r=5647&i=l0">Designs by SiCK Embroidery Library</a>
you might want to take a look.
any other questions just e-mail me.

deb