Free Embroidery Designs

The Brother 400SE at Walmart is a good bargain. You get a quality name brand machine that you can use as a sewing machine or an embroidery machine (EM).

There are designs and fonts for names and letters built into the EM.

You can select letter types, size and enter on the screen.

As long as the size is within the size of the hoop that comes with the EM, no additional software will be needed.

The hoop that come with the EM indicates the largest area that the EM is designed for.

In addition, this model has USB connectivity, which means you can connect to your PC and send designs that you have downloaded to your PC to the EM.

Create a folder on the hard drive of the PC and name it Emb Downloads.

Then search the Internet for free downloads and save them to the Emb Downloads folder.

Make sure they are .pes format and sized within the hoop size of the EM.

Then as you want to use one of the downloads, connect the cable that comes with the EM to the PC.

A new drive letter will appear on the screen of the PC.

You send the design from the folder to new drive letter and then to the EM.

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.

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

jef is the format you need.

If you find a design you like, but does not come in .jef format, there is a free conversion program that you can download and use. Pulse Ambassador is the software.

Designs that you download from the Internet will be zipped and you have to unzip or extract before they can be used. Windows is the support system for machine embroidery software and neither Windows, nor Mac can read a zipped file.

Another caveat, is the hoop size which normally indicates the limitation of the design that can be embroidered.

Create a folder on your hard drive for the downloads. As you find designs that you like, save to the folder, then unzip and use the new file.

I want to learn how to monogram. What kind of machine do I need? I have heard you can just get a software to hook up with your sewing machine. Is that true? I don’t have a huge budget so a low cost solution would be great.

If you already have a sewing machine you can learn to do this, but it takes time to learn as most will be free motion (you guide the fabric as the needle goes up and down).

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Machine+Embroidery/Howtos/Free-Motion+Embroidery+Basics.htm

Otherwise, you will need to spend at least $600 just to get started.

There are combo (sewing & embroidery) machines that can give you more for the money or you can buy an embroidery only machine.

The embroidery machines have a limited amount of designs, letters, numbers and punctuation already built in.

To add more you can download from the Internet. Some designs are free and some you have to pay for.

You add the designs by sending them to a folder on the hard drive of the computer, a cd or flash drive.

You then select the design you want to send to the embroidery machine and send it via a direct cable hook-up that comes with the embroidery machine.

If the machine does not have this option, you have to purchase a reader/writer unit specifically for an embroidery machine and a rewritable memory card for the specific format of the embroidery machines. These start at about $100 for Brother PED brand (on line) and go up.

The Brother sold at Walmart, plus the software you would be spending around $600 and then you have to have machine embroidery thread, bobbin thread and stabilizer for another $50 or so. The machine will come with extra needles and bobbin spools…which can be resupplied where sewing notions are sold.

This one is a good price – http://www.sewvacdirect.com/brother-se350-combo.html
It includes the reader software and the shipping is free.

Check with local sewing machine dealers. They may have a good price on an embroidery machine that the owner traded in on a more expensive model.

I have a Janome Memory Craft 200E. I have never used an embroidery machine before, so this is all greek to me! What format do the designs I purchase/download need to be in?

If this is your machine – http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp13701-0160.html

You need the jef format.

If you find designs that you like, but they are not jef, you can convert them by using Pulse Ambassador. This is a free software download used by many machine embroiderers.

http://www.pulsemicro.com/ambassadordownload

Before you download designs, create a folder on the PC’s hard drive and name it Embroidery or something you can easily recognize.

When you download a design, select SAVE and the folder you created.

The design file may be compressed or zipped – you will have to open this before sending to the embroidery machine.

Highlight the design file and select open or extract. You will now have two files; the zipped file and the open file. You can delete the zipped file.

If the file has to be converted to jef, open Pulse Ambassador and find the design file. Open and then SAVE AS using the jef format.

Make sure the designs you download are within the limitations of the embroidery machine – this is usually signified by the size of the hoop.

Back up your embroidery folder to flash drive or cd every time you add or make a change. This will ensure the saftey of the folder should the PC go wonky and loose you hard work.

It is also a good idea to have a catalog program so you can see the designs – Windows cannot read machine embroidery designs.

You can check Embird, Buzz Tools or Ann The Gran for this software. ATG has a demo you can download and try for a limited period of time.

Embroidery Library has several free tutorials, videos, tips & techniques that are very helpful.

http://www.emblibrary.com/el/elprojects/holder.aspx?page=techniques

Im trying to find a website to download free fonts for singer futura 150. Anyone know some sites.

Not many fonts are free, but there are many designs available for downloading that may have a few and other for sale.

You need to know the format of your embroidery machine. If the designs do not come in the format you need, there is a free software program where you can convert to the format needed.

Set up a folder on the hard drive of your PC and name it embroidery downloads.

Select the designs you want to download – these are usually referred to as files.

Save to your embroidery folder.

Most downloads are zipped it will look like a file with a zipper. To unzip, mouse over the design file to highlight.

A mini screen will come onto the screen. Select open, unzip or extract.

This is the file you will be working with and the zipped file can be deleted.

If you need to convert the format, download Pulse Ambassador.

Open the file in PA and save in the format you need.

One of may sites – http://apexembdesigns.com/

You have to join this site (free) and then choose Download Designs from the tool bar. All the designs that have a download icon are free to everyone. All are free to those who are members of Ann’s Club. The designs are .pes format and may have to be converted to the format used by your embroidery machine. http://www.annthegran.com/

To search and review the thousands that are available, put free machine embroidery designs in the web search box at Yahoo or google.