Free Embroidery Designs

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.

I’m looking for an embroidery machine that will do custom logos. I need to upload images (gif/jps whatever) from my PC. All it really needs to handle is one color, but the more the merrier. Would also like it to be able to do at least a couple of fonts so I can write names. Thanks!

Any embroidery machine will do what you want, but the design has to be in the embroidery format of the machine (pes, sew, hus are examples).

The machine will not recognize gif/jpg/jpg and whatever.

You will need to purchase digitizing software and then you need a way of getting the design to the embroidery machine.

The less expensive machines use a memory card for machine embroidery, which requires the purchase of a reader/writer unit and rewritable memory card. These have to be compatible with the brand/model and format of the embroidery machine. These are usually less expensive online. http://www.allbrands.com

The more expensive embroidery machines either have USB Port B (direct connect) where you have to have the PC next to the embroidery machine or both, USB Port B and USB Port A (removable flash drive/stick), which is self describing.

You can download trials and demos of the software before you purchase – the easier to use the better. However, even auto-digitizing can need tweaking. Here is one that is free during the trial stages http://www.sophiesew.com/

Visit sewing machine dealers and tell them what you want to do and they will show you what they have. Expect to pay out at least $2,000 for the entire kit and caboodle.

Or, you can buy the Brother at Walmart and the reader and card at Allbrands for a total of around $700. This how I got started – it may appear confusing, but it is not rocket science.