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how do Brother and Singer embroidery machines compare?

November 27th, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments

Trying to decide which machine to purchase as my beginner embroidery machine. Don’t want to spend too much under $500 would be great. Not sure that I will like doing it so looking for a lesser model. Thanks for your time and expertise!!!

Brother is the leader in home embroidery machines. They are easy to use, software friendly and most designs that are available on the Internet (best and least expensive way to obtain machine embroidery designs) are in pes format, which is the one used by Brother.

For your price range, you may be limiting your embroidery area to 4 x 4, which many of us started with. And many designs come within this hoop size.

The price may also limited you to using memory cards for designs which are not built into the machine. Most of us started with a reader/writer unit and rewirttable memory card for machine embroidery – the unit has to be compatible with the brand and format.

You can purchase a unit – PED Basic, a Brother product with a rewitable memory card for around $119. See Source.

To use designs from the Internet, you need to have a PC. On the hard drive, create a folder and name it Emb Downloads. Choose the design you want from the many sites on the Internet and save to the folder. The design most likely will be zipped. Mouse over and choose extract or open. A new file will appear and this is what you will send to the memory card. The zipped file can be deleted.

Save the folder to a USB flash drive (if your PC has a USB port) or to a CD as backup – do this everytime you add or change a design file in the Emb Download folder.

Open the manual and lay it next to the embroidery machine. Read through and apply each feature of the machine.

Some basic supplies you will need are – stabilizer (tear away, cut away and water soluable); machine embroidery bobbin thread; machine embroidery thread – polyester will withstand chlorine bleach, but rayon is more readily available. Start with a few basic colors.

Add to your supply list as you find the items on sale.

Embroidery Library has great tutorials and tips – http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

  1. CLICK 2 $AVE!
    November 27th, 2012 at 08:30 | #1

    I don’t know anything about the Brother embroidery machines but I can share what I’ve experienced with my Singer Quantum Futura CE-200 machine. I’m not sure if this particular machine is even still available but maybe the info will still help. It cost me around $600. It embroiders very beautifully. However, I’ve been extremely disappointed in the software. The limitations on the software are pretty outrageous in my opinion. I guess there is an upgrade to it which can be purchased for another $100 but I haven’t done that yet. The most frustrating thing is that you can’t combine more than one embroidery design in the same picture to embroider at one time unless one is one of the preset ones that comes with the machine. I wanted to combine animals with flowers, etc. but this isn’t possible with the software unless you embroider the first thing first and then start over and embroider the next thing. The only thing is that if you do it that way, it’s easy to mess up the placement of the various things. So, I’ve made some nice things with it, but the limitations on the software are very frustrating. It sews nice though and has lots of preset stitches to sew.

    A friend of mine has a Janome embroidery machine which she had commented that she loved the software. I think those machines are quite a bit more expensive than the Singer or Brother machines though.
    References :

  2. pattiann42
    November 27th, 2012 at 08:48 | #2

    Brother is the leader in home embroidery machines. They are easy to use, software friendly and most designs that are available on the Internet (best and least expensive way to obtain machine embroidery designs) are in pes format, which is the one used by Brother.

    For your price range, you may be limiting your embroidery area to 4 x 4, which many of us started with. And many designs come within this hoop size.

    The price may also limited you to using memory cards for designs which are not built into the machine. Most of us started with a reader/writer unit and rewirttable memory card for machine embroidery – the unit has to be compatible with the brand and format.

    You can purchase a unit – PED Basic, a Brother product with a rewitable memory card for around $119. See Source.

    To use designs from the Internet, you need to have a PC. On the hard drive, create a folder and name it Emb Downloads. Choose the design you want from the many sites on the Internet and save to the folder. The design most likely will be zipped. Mouse over and choose extract or open. A new file will appear and this is what you will send to the memory card. The zipped file can be deleted.

    Save the folder to a USB flash drive (if your PC has a USB port) or to a CD as backup – do this everytime you add or change a design file in the Emb Download folder.

    Open the manual and lay it next to the embroidery machine. Read through and apply each feature of the machine.

    Some basic supplies you will need are – stabilizer (tear away, cut away and water soluable); machine embroidery bobbin thread; machine embroidery thread – polyester will withstand chlorine bleach, but rayon is more readily available. Start with a few basic colors.

    Add to your supply list as you find the items on sale.

    Embroidery Library has great tutorials and tips – http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques
    References :
    http://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/Brother/EmbEquipment/1/PED-Basic.aspx?gclid=COOvvZLfoqICFVZL5wod4nnIwg

  3. Ruby Fargo
    November 27th, 2012 at 08:55 | #3

    I have been extremely pleased using Brother machines. I bought my first one on Home Shopping Network and returned it after one month. It sewed and embroidered better than my older top of the line Viking but I didn’t want to be limited to the 4×4 embroidery area. I purchased another Brother that has a 6×10 area to embroider on. I do still embroider 4×4 designs a lot though.

    In my opinion you cannot beat a Brother machine for price, quality and features. You really get a lot of features for the price. Find a good dealer. I would strongly suggest that your machine has a way to connect to your computer via USB. You will be really limited if you can only use the Embroidery cards. The industry is moving away from the cards I believe.
    References :

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