Free Embroidery Designs

I am just opening my first home business, doing childrens clothing, and would like to get a sewing machine with embroidery options (LOTS and LOTS of ebroidery options)

i dont know what to look for,
or how it works (are you just stuck wiht what you purchase ? or is there a machine that allows you to buy extra embroidery programs to use ?? [kind of like a cricut machine products..])
What exactly do you mean when you say .pes formats, what are the other types of formats, and how does this one compare to the others ??

and is there a way to create your OWN embroidery patterns ??

i am looking for something that i can get a WIDE variety of fonts.. any pointers ??

EDITED TO ADD:

Embroidery designs are formatted and there are several formats (think of it as a language).

Each brand of embroidery machine has a format and this can vary by brand.

Formats can be converted, so if you have a machine that reads only .pes and you see a design that you love and it is .hus, it can be converted to .pes using conversion software, for which you can find free downloads. Pulse Ambassador is one that I have used.

There is software with which you can edit designs and create your own. Embird is a popular brand. Most have a trial which you can test to see how user friendly it is and if it is what you wish to purchase.

You may find most embroidery machines have only the basic fonts. This is something to keep in mind when shopping.

You may be able to work a deal where a font package is included with the purchase of an embroidery machine.

ORIGINAL REPLY:

All the major brands are good machines.

Brother and Babylock use the .pes format, which is a very popular, easy to find embroidery format. These machines are also very user friendly.

Visit dealers with your wish list, this should include price.

Once you tell them you want the machine for a home business, they will let you know if the machine’s warranty covers this type of use.

It would be best to have a sewing machine and an embroidery machine and not just one machine.

The stitching area for embroidery is limited and will be indicated by the hoop size. The standard 4 x 4 hoop is very limiting.

Any design larger than the stitching area of the embroidery will require software for editing and splitting the designs into smaller segments that will require re-hooping for each section.

An embroidery machine with at least a 5 x 7 hoop is a better choice.

There are thousands of designs available on the Internet, many are free. A machine with a flash drive (aka, stick drive or thumb drive) would be the most convenient method of getting designs from the PC to the embroidery machine.

Create a folder on the hard drive of your PC and name it Embroidery. As you download, save to this folder and then create sub-folders for each category. Keeping the designs organized will save you a lot of headache later on.

This is a very good site for machine embroidery tips and techniques – http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

Keep in mind, Disney and other licensed designs cannot be use on items that you will be selling.

Best wishes in your new adventure!

I basically am looking to use the fonts I have on my computer to create embroidered names, monograms, etc…

Is this machine embroidery? Or are you sending it to a commercial company? If its a commercial company, they can tell you what format they’ll accept. Usually its eps format and you can use something like PhotoShop or PaintShopPro, or a free program like Gimp (I think it works on Macs)

If this is for hand embroidery, you can use your word processor to make the letters big and print them on good graph paper. (this is what I do).

If this is your sewing machine and you want to convert the fonts to something it can use, check the manufacturers website and see if they have a conversion software.

I am looking at getting a lower end embroidery machine, and this Viking seems to be winning, but I can’t find anywhere that says what is the preferred file type for the designs, I think it can read a few, I know some must be better than others, and I don’t know which it does and does not read.

I don’t think I would want an embroidery machine that has to be connected to a PC. http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/us/18210_18224.htm

The format for Viking is usually.hus. But since this model looks like the Singer Futura, it may also use .sew format. See this discussion – http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php?topic=8992.0

The dealer can give you this information.

You can convert any machine embroidery design (except Bernina’s .art format) to the format required by using conversion software,

Pulse Ambassador is a free conversion download used by many, including me.

When selecting designs, be sure the size of the design is within the stitching (embroidery) limitations of the embroidery machine.

Most have the standard 4 x 4 stitching area and some embroidery machines have larger stitching areas for embroidery designs.

I am new to embroidery and am looking for a pretty monogram font for our initial to put on kitchen towels…I can’t figure this out…trying to download a free one, but it’s in a .ttf file. My machine only recognizes .pes or .dst files. How can i convert this? Or, where can I find free downloads already in .pes format? Thanks!

Embroidery machines only recognize machine embroidery formats.

You will need machine embroidery digitizing software for what you are wanting to do. This software starts at about $1,000.

You can find many free embroidery downloads by googling "free machine embroidery designs".

Most will be either pes or they will offer pes as an option.

If you find something you really like in a format other that pes or dst, you can convert to pes with conversion software. Pulse Ambassador is one program that you can download and use and it is free. It has to be a machine embroidery format.

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