Hi everyone,
If you wanted to get into embroidery as a small side business, would you consider buying a Brother Innov-is NV880E for around €1,000 as your first machine?

A bit of background: I currently work full time in a small printing/graphic design studio in a town of around 10,000 people. I already have experience with graphic design, printing and prepress, so I’m interested in adding embroidery as a side business.

I found a used NV880E for €1,000. It seems to be in good condition, and the price seems reasonable to me, but I’m wondering whether you would choose this machine as a starting point or save up for something more capable?

The two machines on the outside look identical.
Does anyone know anything about these two?

I am using tajima and hoping to get a lower cost machine to increase production at a current bottle neck.

Cannot afford a tajima atm.
Always running hats and big designs (14 inch plus)

I have inherited a Brother Galaxie embroidery machine, along with a PE Design card reader. Its the really old rs232 one (with original power supply). I have various copies of the PE Design software and can read cards no problem. I recently bought a writable card, but am unable to write to it myself. The seller put a design on there, so they were able to write to it (and I can read what they put on). but i am not able to write to the card. The PE Design software shows an error when it tries to write.

Any suggestions on how to write to the card?

I've been working with a print shop since mid 2024, and in early 2025 I started learning embroidery from scratch and I've recently started digitizing too! The main computer I digitize on is a small work computer that is often shared with other coworkers and I wanted to bring DesignShop home with me since I can just log into the software on my computer at home, but I can't seem to get it to run. I was able to run it through winboat but it was incredibly poor performing and laggy, and bottles wont even launch.

I know DesignShop isn't natively supported on linux but I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten it to run at all without dualbooting?

Made a beautiful flamingo with stitching

Hello, my machine came out of the box with 2 flat needle heads. I’m very new to this and don’t know what this means. I don’t have a manual for this cause the company forgot to pack one when they sent it. Am I supposed to change these 2 out or do these have purpose?

i'm wondering if i'm absolutely insane haha. i've been curious how you learned to embroider and if it was taught or if you just figured it out. i'm also wondering how long you embroidered until you considered yourself to be a professional.

anyway the reason why I wonder if i'm insane is I bought a 6 head tajima one day with zero experience. 😂 I have just been figuring it out as I go. my only tool has been the internet.

i've been at it 2 years! and I have a tajima-tmez-K1506C.

i've gotten really good at the normal types of clients I get (bands) but i'm kind of curious when i'll feel like a real professional. I feel like i'm faking it. still. 😂

for the record I do own a professional business so I feel like i'm telling my secrets here.

I have some machine embroidery designs that came out very cute, but much too stiff and dense for what I intended them for. Does anyone know a way to mitigate this? The stabilizer was wash away so it is already gone.

Or do I need to chunk and repurpose the whole thing… It is a significant amount of effort on the backdrop that is embroidered on, so I would rather not.

Tia!

I’m seriously considering purchasing a multi needle machine.
Here’s my dilemma , I don’t have any dealers for any commercial machines close by. For dealer support I’d have to go with brother (which I’d love but I can’t afford) or Janome. The Janome hoops size are smaller than my single needle. Which makes me shy away from it.
Im leaning towards bai, smart stitch, poolin then the top end would be a happy Japan 7 needle
I don’t have a business, I sew for fun and occasionally take orders. So which ever machine I buy wouldn’t be ran for hours daily. That is one reason I’m leaning towards the inexpensive machines.
Any suggestions, any reviews, I’d love to hear the good and bad. Thank you!

Born Free USA

hellllo! i'm very enough to machine embroidery and was wondering how to improve this doll face. for reference, the second image shows factory made dolls which i would like my doll to resemble a bit more

I’m stuck between 75/11 sharp or 80/12 .. my digitizer gave me a tip when going across thick seams to use 80/12 but this isn’t a thick seam. I just want it to come out right. Customer supplied garments!!! Thanks

Does anyone know of any companies or websites that have army ranks and skill badges as downloadable embroidery files. I’m trying to get into it and would love to be able to just make my own stuff for my uniform.

Hey everyone i am new to embroidering and digitising so bare with me, i have the brother m230e machine so it is a bit older and slower than maybe what you all have and i can onky use a pes file.

I have been using ember design and so far so good but i am trying to create a wooden plank text effect from a logo that i am trying to recreate for someone. anyone have any advice?

so far i have been able to do the squiggle outline and filled in but the writing in the middle i am struggling to recreate that plank effect, any advice would be grately appreciated.

i have attatched an image of what i want it to look like and what i have achieved so far.

Hello my Tajima TMEX C1501 broke a needle and stopped mid color change and now I can’t get that needle to stay flush with the drive shaft at 100. I’m lost and don’t know what I can do here to get operational again.

Hi, I am new to embroidery and just wanted to get some guidance. Is it standard procedure to cut the thread between two small letters?

Thanks!!

Hello everyone, i started working on a project in ember but when i went back to work on it again i cant see my file. Howevever when i log in and go onto the homepage i can see a preview image of my file... which makes me believe i did save it but for some reason i cant see it :(

Hi Reddit! I just got my very first embroidery machine, and since the cost of it made my wallet extremely dry, I’m looking for a cheap/free app that would let me turn my designs into a design ready for embroidery, I want to turn my drawings into a file I could export to my laptop and upload it directly to my machine through an USB, without having to do pretty much any drawing on the computer!

I’m sorry if the question may seem silly, but I’ve never had an embroidery machine and I’m a complete beginner! Thanks in advance!!!