Free Embroidery Designs

My neice and nephew are disney mad but i am totally broke, i have managed to get some free oddments of wool and some knitting needles but cant find any toy patterns, can anyone help please xxx

You likely won’t find Disney patterns for free. Disney is the leader in lobbying to have the strictest copyright laws enacted and enforced, and they prosecute if they discover copyright violations.

There are some sites outside the US with Disney patterns you can download.

Jessica Tromp did have embroidery and Intarsia patterns for some Disney images on her web site. I scanned the site just now and found Mickey Mouse: http://www.jessica-tromp.nl/fairisle/12%20children%27s%20color%20knitting%20charts%20kinder%20telpatronen%20inbreipatronen.htm , and Nemo so you might find others there. English is not her first language (she’s Dutch). She has a ton of free "stuff," so perhaps you can find something you can use.

This site http://www.breienmetplezier.nl/Breipatronen/disney.htm also has patterns for Disney images.

If it has to be toys, though, you might be able to get creative with some of these toy patterns:
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/toys.php
and perhaps knit images into them.

Edited to add:
I’m not a copyright lawyer (I’m an academic), so I wouldn’t know where to think about beginning in advising you about what might happen if you, in the UK, created a design for a Disney-type toy and knitted it yourself. I do know that the Disney company has been uber-aggressive in influencing and using US copyright law and that the company has a highly skilled legal department that likes to play games with copyright laws of other countries and with public domain intellectual property. If you are curious and want to read more about their activities and how "nice" the Disney company actually is, here are links to on-line articles:
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/22/business/fi-mickey22
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala/publicdomain/Vanpelt-s99.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3547008/Pantomime-renames-dwarfs-to-avoid-breaching-Disney-copyright.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/156097530X/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

I would also like to know what embroidery software I can use for different sewing machines as well.
Well, I do not want to spend over $1000.00. My husband might have a heart attack if he knew that I said that, but I really want a good one that will sew and embroider.
It is so hard for me to choose a Best Answer because you have all been so helpful.

I have the Brother 270d. It is a little work horse. It does bother embroidery and sewing. It comes with a set of built in designs, including some Disney patterns. You will want to get the PE Basic so you can embroidery patterns that you download offline. You can find some sites with nice free ones – they are samples to entice you to buy their sets. I really like www.bunnycup.com (sorry for the tangent).

You do not need embroidery software to use the Brother 270d. You can begin embroidering and sewing right away.

You will want to get other necessities (stabilizer, thread, and maybe some more needles). The machine comes with a set of needles to get you going though.

The types of stabilizer and thread you use does not matter, though some are easier to work with than others. Do not let the price shock you – I use discount coupons from Jo Ann’s and Hobby Lobby to get mine. The spending in this department will be high initially! Again, this is why for a beginner I recommend the Brother 270d.

Costco has it on sale for $389.99 and it comes with the PE Basic. Wal-Mart sells this machine for $350. I got mine from my local Brother dealer for $500, but they threw in 1 year in store maintenance and free classes for life.

I hope this helps. True the other machines can do more, but you are paying more than double to price (and some of them do not sew). For a beginner, this is the best machine at the best price! Good luck!