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Posts Tagged ‘Pes Format’

What do i look for in a good embroidery machine ?

November 19th, 2012 4 comments

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!

Where can i find free applique alphabets in a pes format?

November 15th, 2012 1 comment

I am looking for a website where i can find cute applique alphabets in a pes format for my brother machine. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

You will have to search the various sites that offer free downloads. More than likely you will have to purchase the design package.

Try http://www.sewforum.com for free designs, you can even request certain designs at no charge.

There are some here for sale – http://shop.ebay.com/sis.html?_nkw=Curly+APPLIQUE+ALPHABET+Machine+Embroidery+Design+Fonts

how do you downnload embroidery designs for the brother ped basic?

November 13th, 2012 2 comments

my documents on my computer have embroidery design their but the ped basic can’t open them

1) Check out the Online Manual for your machine at this link:
http://www.brother-usa.com/Data/Documentation/HSM/User/UM_PED-Basic_191915001.pdf
2) See Page 6. You need to use PES files.
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As I see it, you can make some Folders on Your PC such as MyDesigns, Downloads, Fresh From the Web or any name that seems logical to you. On my PC I have a folder where I save my Embroidery Downloads to. Let us call this Folder "Downloads". (Don’t use the quotes). Make a Sub-folder called "Brother Freebies". Make as many sub-folders as seems logical to keep things organized. You can also have a sub-folder called "Purchased". Get the idea?

I surf the web and find freebies. Let us go to the Broter Site, which has plenty of freebies in the PES format. Download these files. If they are zipped, you can later on unzip them. Now, you will have a collection of Embroidery Files that you downloaded in the PES format. {Eventually you can download other formats but for now keep things easy and concentrate on the PES designs.}

You will eventulally have a large collection of PES format Embroidery Designs. Move the ones that you like to the folder "MyDesigns" (or a similiar folder.). On page 6, they have a chart. It appears that you can browse your Folders on your PC to find your PES designs. Follow the directions to embroider the embroidery design that you chose while browsing in Folders.
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After you are familiar with Downloading PES files and using the PED to embroidery your PES files, you can expand your horiazons to include freebies that are in other formats such as HUS, DST, JEF, SEW, etc. You will download these files to your folder "Downloads" putting them in a sub-directory for HUS files, etc.

You might need software to convert the other design formats to PES files. Maybe you have Brother software that will do such conversions. If not, look into Embird that converts, organizes, edits and allows you to view your embroidery designs on your PC. There is a thirt day free trial for embird at http://www.embird.com. Alternatively, Buzz Tools has embroidery editing and viewing software and a free 30 day trial. I have Embird and it is very reasonable. But both are very good.

Now that you got some freebies from the Viking site, you will then be able to convert the HUS files to PES files and then use them in your Brother PED machine. With such utilities you will be able to save a huge collection of Embroidery designs, many free. I have found some of the best designs that I loved are free, such as from Brother, etc.

Good luck! Please feel free to email me to ask about embroidery.

Happy Embroidering!
JosyMaude
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My previous comment to you prior to my finding the PDF manual on your Brother PED machine:
Could you download PES files and then use your Brother Embroidery software to export them to the proper file extension that your Brother PE uses.

Brother Machines usually use PES format. I have a Viking but the concept is similiar. The Viking uses the HUS and or VIP format. These type of formats are the stitch files for your particular embroidery machine. Then in order for your embroidery machine to understand these files, often there is another utility that converts the file to a file extension that the machine embroidery hardware can understand. The utility is often a reader writer box or even a direct link to your embroidery machine. This utility will convert the Stitch file such as the PES to the proper format for your embroidery machine to understand. In other words, on your PC you work with PES files and then later you have your Reader/Writer Box convert these PES files to formats that the hardware (embroidery machine) understands. The reader/writer box would save to cards for the brother or save to a floppy.

In my Viking, I download HUS files and then use a Reader writer that converts the format to SHV for my Designer 1. The Brother probably also needs to convert the Brother PES stitch file to a another file extension that your embroidery machine can understand.

I wonder if the Brother PED files are the Native Files that you digitize. After digitizing, you convert to PES and then later use the utility to send these files to another format for your machine. Maybe I’m getting too technical…but basically you will need to download PES formats and then use your Brother software to send these designs to your Brother machine.

Whats the best software for digitizing images for embroidery?

November 11th, 2012 2 comments

I have a Janome memorycraft 10000.

Why don’t you checkout the Janome digitizing program. I believe that it might have some nice features and you do have the Janome machine. Be careful with digitizng softwares that don’t output to your JEF format. If you get a software that doesn’t have JEF format, you will need to save the designs that you digitized in DST or PES format and then go to Janome Customizing and convert to JEF or SEW formats. Maybe you can see if your Janome dealer will let you try out their copy of Janome Digitizing to see what you think about it.

You can get other brands of digitizng software as long as you are aware that you will need to maybe output to DST or PES and then go into your Janome Customizer to convert to JEF, so that you can test the sewouts. The good brands off of the top of my head are (all over $1000-be careful of used versions, they use a security device called a dongle and without the dongle you wasted your money–the dongle might not work for the second user–so software must be new in the box with the dongle):
Janome Digitizer, Bernina Plus, Origins, Viking autodigitizing, Corel, Viking VP3, to name a few.

I have Bernina Plus 4 and I love it. I am under the impression that Janome Digitizer is just as good. On the bernina Plus, you have manual & auto digitizing functions. I prefer the manual but the auto feature is nice. The manual digitizing in bernina (& I suspect in janome) is object oriented (ie, you can cut & paste) and that is why I like it. Some other brands might have same features.

I have Viking autodigitizing and it is a better auto-digitizer than Bernina Plus’s auto digitizing engine. But Viking’s autodigitizing is much harder for the manual digitizing. I would choose the Bernina or Janome over it.
I have Viking VIP & it is very hard. Now, I don’t know if the new VP3 is better so I can’t really say.

I do beleive that Brother has a good rep but be sure that they support JEF files. Corel is new, so i can’t comment.

Note about autodigitizing softwares. You must have very clean clipart to use an autodigitizer. So, you must have a good graphics program to clean up clipart. If you buy clean clipart from Royalty free sources, then the auto is fine.

Next, are you going to go into biz? If so, you must have capabilities to do manual digitizing. There will be times that you will need to clean up your design or manually digitiize it. Customers think that manual digitizing is best. It all depends on complexity of design.

There are also home products that cost less, under $300 or so. Click N’Stitch needs clean clipart, you can’t manually digitize in it. Plus you can’t save to Native Format. The other one is Embird which has a 30 day trial. They have a plug in for manually digitizing. It is hard but a good value.

Again, I want to mention about the dongle, you need the dongle to run most of these progs. Don’t ever lose the dongle. Lost dongle==Lost Money. Comapnies will NOT replace dongles. Today the dongle is plugged in the USB port. If you BUY used software & there is NO dongle…YOU HAVE LOST YOUR MONEY..

Good luck. If I was getting a new embr machine i would look into the Janome & the janome Digitizer. Criswell, the famous designers of lace use Janome.

What is the best embroidery machine for a beginner?

November 5th, 2012 3 comments

I have never used an embroidery machine and would like one. I have a very old Bernina sewing machine which I love, but would it make more sense to buy a combo machine?

Combos are usually a little more expensive, but it is always a good option to have a second sewing machine.

Brother is the leader and first to offer home embroidery machines.

I purchased a Brother embroidery only machine from Walmart and used it for several years and then upgraded to a Babylock (same family) that is a combo, has a larger embroidery field and USB connectivity.

The standard embroidery area (based on the largest size hoop that comes with the machine) is 4 x 4, which limits the size of the design that can be stitched without using editing software for machine embroidery to split the design into smaller segments (2 or more).

USB connectivity makes it easy to send designs to the embroidery machine from the PC (or flash drive) as this is where downloads will be stored.

Most of the new models have either a cable (USB Port B) that connects to the PC (after sending the designs to the embroidery machine, it no longer has to be connected to the embroidery machine and PC).

Or, flash drive (USB Port A ) which comes up on the PC screen as a removable drive. This product is good to have as storage as well as a method of providing designs for the embroidery machine once it is plugged into the machine.

Without USB connectivity you will need to purchase a reader/writer/memory card unit for machine embroidery that is compatible with the format of the embroidery machine.

Brother and Babylock use the pes format. Example roses.pes.

Bernina makes great machines, but they are too expensive and so are the accessories. The format is not that compatible for conversion (formats can be converted if you find a design you like in a format different than what is required by the machine).

Pulse Ambassador is a free software download for conversion. I have used it with success, with exception of the art format (as in roses.art) which is one used by Bernina.

With these basics in hand, shop the sewing machine dealers and see what is available.

Buy the machine you like the best from the dealer you like the best.

What is the best embroidery/sewing machine you can buy reasonably priced?

November 5th, 2012 2 comments

I am looking to sew together outfits, blankets, etc. I am also wanting to be able to embroider letters, names, and small characters (like disney, nickelodeon, etc.) I want to make my daughters clothes, and possibly open up a small business. What is one that is a reasonable price and somewhat easy to learn on? Thank you, serious answers only please!
As I stated on here, I was wanting to make my daughters clothes. I know that the disney and whatnot would have restrictions, and I could not resell them.

The best bargain is the Brother SE400 and just under $400. It is a combo (sewing or embroidery).

The Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and select designers can be downloaded and used with this model.

The information will be with the machine. In fact, iBroidery is advertised on the side of the box the machine comes in. iBroidery at the Brother website is where you will find the downloads. There will also be a list of Brother models that accept the format .pen for Disney, etc.

All other designs for Brother embroidery machines will be the .pes format.

You will not be able to view downloaded designs on your PC without machine embroidery software.

Embird is the most economical program currently on the market – http://www.secretsof.com/content/1853

Before downloading (the Brother website also has many free, non-licensed designs you can download):

(1) Create a new folder on your PC and name it so you can easily find it.
(2) Choose the design you want to download and SAVE it to the folder.
(3) Most downloads are zipped (compressed for faster download time).
(4) Unzip/Open/Extract (depends on the wording of the Windows version being used) the design file.
(5) After testing the extracted file, rename if necessary for easy access and then delete the zipped file.

As far as selling items with copyright fabrics or designs – this can be done as long as the items are clearly advertised as "Not a licensed product". You do not want to sell, but when the garments you make are outgrown, you may want to put them in a yard sale.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

what program do i use to open a zipped file?

November 5th, 2012 5 comments

i purchased and downloaded files from an embroidery design website with the PES format. i cant seem to open them, what program should i use?

From your descriiption that’s not a zipped file. Embroidery designs are commonly saved as pes files. If the file ends with the extension .pes then that’s what it is. Some Wordperfect programs can open it depending on what prog the designer used. More up to date progs that they most likely used are:

Designer’s Gallery StudioPlus
Embird Suite
Buzz Tools BuzzXplore or BuzzEdit
S & S Computing SewWhat!
Threadsmith Format Foundry

Great programs that will easily handle pes files. Good Luck !

Forgot to say that BuzzEdit has a 21 day free trial so if it’s just this one time you need to open it go for it. If you have further use for it compare pricing with the others I named.

Download here:

www.freeembroiderystuff.com/

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.

Does anyone know of good websites to get free embroidery patterns in the PES format (Brother)?

December 25th, 2011 3 comments

I own a Brother SE270D and just bought PE-Design Basic and am looking for free patterns I can download. Thanks.

There are tons of sites where you can get free PES format designs. Just a few of my favorites are: http://freepes.designsbysick.com/, http://www.amazingembroiderydesigns.com/, http://www.cuteembroidery.com/, and http://www.cuteembroidery.com/.

At each of these sites, you can download a daily free design (either exclusively in PES, or available in PES) as well as vote for which design will be offered the next day. There is also the option of paying a fee and being able to download all the offered designs for a set amount of time (6 months to a year, depending on the site and option you choose).

Likewise, there are many embroidery sites that offer sample designs for you so that you can test their quality before deciding if you wish to purchase from them. I strongly recommend this because there are some REALLY good digitizers out there, and then there are some that are mediocre or even poor (maybe even relying on autodigitizing programs that don’t do a very good job). Here are a couple great ones that I am a paying member of: http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/ and http://www.stitchitcheap.com/.

Another good thing to consider is going to Yahoo!Groups and finding a machine embroidery group or two to join (I’m on more than 85 of them). Lots of them offer freebies in their group files, and you can learn so much from group discussion. Just be aware that some of them have VERY high volume, so know what you can handle. And it is considered bad form to join a group to get the freebies and then leave it immediately. You could be banned from ever joining again if you do that.

WARNING: In case you didn’t already know, collecting free embroidery designs can be addictive. Try to only save the ones that you think you might actually use, not just anything and everything that you come across, or else you will have room for nothing else on your computer! And be sure to create backup files frequently so that you don’t loose all those precious designs should your computer crash someday. I burn cds like they are going out of style.

Futhermore, it is illegal to sell or give away any design that you don’t own the copyright on, so be careful of any of those "popular character" designs you might find. If it’s Disney and a freebie, it is almost certainly not legal. Buying a pattern gives you the right to use it, not to resell it. =]