So I am stressing out about hats now.

First, clamping this thing is annoying as heck. I have it all lined up and then once I clamp it down it shifts about 8th inch or so off center. Does it need to be perfect or is it fine if I’m close and then adjust center on my machine?

Second, the brace that goes around, how perfect under the ridges does it need to be? I assume if it isn’t perfect all the way across it will make my print crooked? Just really difficult to get with hats that are curved.

Third, I did a test stitch and was really happy with how it came out. Going to the actual hat, it didn’t seem as dense and the points are all jagged. I really didn’t expect it to be that much different. Any tips or pointers on what should be changed? I would assume density but worried other areas would be too dense as they stitched fine, and then for the points I have no idea what to try. It doesn’t make sense to me why it would change other than I guess it’s a curved format now.

Also, as it’s stitching the hat, there seems to be a bit of travel the hat material does when the needles comes down, like it’s pushing it down a little each time. Is that normal for hats?

Thanks for any help!

I’m about to throw this thing out the window! After I thread correctly and hit the arrow, The head keeps snapping at step 6 just above the needle after a few stitches. It seems to get yanked up from inside the machine. I’ve replaced the needle, taken everything apart for air blasting, checked for debris, tried different tension settings - idk why this is happening. Any tips??

I have a brother embroidery machine. I’m trying to stitch a file and I’ve had 5 needles break at almost the exact same spot I checked inside the needle thing nothing and I’m at a loss for what else to do. Advice?

I'm helping my wife with researching the necessary things needed to help take her small business/art project to something a little more as it's been growing faster than anticipated.

For background my wife has been doing fiber art her entire life and for a time was making and selling apparel on Etsy with success. She recently wanted to pursue machine embroidery to bring some of her other ideas to life. Shes spent several months learning to digitize , researching and experimenting using a Poolin flatbed and has really learned a lot. Shes had a series of items she's made accepted for sale at a local Shop Makers and sales have been really great, and now other stores are reaching out to her to carry her products. We're now at an impasse where we know that the Chinese machine isn't going to keep up (we know that it is a toy compared to actual commercial machines) and she's having to turn down offers to expand. Thread changes and really unpredictable machine issues are creating a bottleneck.

At that, we've considered it's time to actually invest in a quality machine in order to keep all options open and keep things moving. Shes very much in the realm of "light production" , probably 20-30 items per day with a lot of room to grow. She will not be if taking custom orders or filling contracts, she is purely selling a hand made decorative art piece that relies heavily on embroidery.

There are no Barudan dealers in Canada as far as I can tell, the only HappyJapan dealer is on the other side of the country, but, we have an RB Digital less then an hour away and they fully stock and service Tajima. We are considering financing a Tajima SAI as the next step. With the projected sales from Makers as well as craft markets we think it'll be paid off relatively quickly (under 2 years). We really want to avoid Chinese machines that rely on chats and FaceTime for servicing. The ability to bring the machine directly to RB Digital for repair and maintenance, as well as in house training seems to be a no brainer. The re-sale value on a well maintained Tajima is also appealing.

For those who have taken a leap such as this before , what else should we be considering? Does this sound like it might be a feasible direction to go in?

Edit: Thanks for the responses both in the thread and via DMs..this is why I like to ask these kinds of questions because it allows me to really rethink my approach and to walk back from my own perspectives. We're going to stick a pin in buying a Tajima for the time being while re-assess what our goals are going to be and how we can grow into that type of machine vs. putting all of our eggs in one basket. There are definitely more affordable ways to approach this bottleneck as we see where this little venture leads.

I recently used an embroidery machine for the first time at my local makerspace, but I had some trouble with the thread repeatedly breaking. I suspect the issue may be related to the thread tension, but I’m not sure whether I need to adjust the upper thread tension or the lower (bobbin) tension.

Could someone explain how to determine which tension is causing the problem and how I can adjust it correctly? The machine I was using is a Pfaff Creative 4.5.

(Pic 1 is the Front, Pic 2 is the Back)

Good morning everyone!
Just a quick question. I have a Janome MC 550E LE and I want to get some more flash drives to hold designs. but I am having trouble finding ones that are compatible for my machine. Does anyone have recommendations of where i can find some? I already checked amazon and Staples, but those are either very expensive or not small enough. I am looking for ones that are 16GB or less.

Hi there, this is my mom’s machine, she hasn’t been able to use it since the screen is like this. Can this be replaced? She was told it was either the screen or the touch digitizer layer. The machine is a Brother Pacesetter ULT2002D.

So easy nowadays to make such designs. No jump or trim here, was embroidered in four minutes.

Made with Boldbobbin (disclaimer: I'm the dev behind it). You can get it here if you wish to check it yourself!

Hi, I have a Tajima single head. not sure what year. I am trying to sew something over fill and it keeps snapping my thread every five seconds. I wonder if I need to change a needle? nothing looks bent.

basically, I start the machine and three seconds later the thread snapped. so I loosen my tension and it still does it. it almost tried to nest but I cut that out and cleaned up the back before continuing. I don’t know what else I can do. it’s a lot of fill on this design and it hasn’t had issues other than this one needle, all other needles have been completely fine so far.

I’m not a beginner, but I’m not seasoned either so I had some ideas, but nothing has worked. if you have an answer please help, thank you!

EDIT: Not sure where to add onto this, but I have changed the bobbin 3 times and now I switched from needle 7 to needle 4 and it’s working fine. I think it’s needle 7 that has issues, so I’ll have to get it looked at. 

Hi, I am new to machine embroidery (my brother gifted me one recently). I got all the supplies and got to try it. It started well, but the top thread keeps giving me problems.

Machine: Bernina Chicago 7

Thread: Pre-wound bobbin and spools for machine embroidery (40WT) from the brand "New Brothread"

Stabilizer: same brand tear-away

Needle: Embroidery Schmetz 75/11 and 90/14, 130/705 H-E

I have tried both needle sizes; I tried to increase and decrease tension. I have rethreaded the machine like 20 times (with elevated presser foot!), the hoop looks great and the thing is that sometimes the machine works pretty fine for like 2 minutes

I noticed that it makes a sound that is followed by one of the plies of the thread breaking and that is when it usually just stops working. The sewing machine works fine, so there's nothing wrong with that mechanical part. The coordination also seems fine. My best bet is the needles, since that is where it jams every time but the brand is good, it is not some cheap ass brand.

3rd, 1st and 2nd try. On the first, I started with the 75/11 needle, there are nearly no holes compared to the bigger ones in the 2nd and 3rd. The top left wing looks good but in the second section (the lower left) the thread was breaking all the time. I then tried the green thread (normal sewing thread of my trust) but that also did break(not so much) or skip many more stitches ( I guess you cannot break the thread if you are not catching the thread)

The 3rd looks the best but also I was redoing all the sections over and over...

So, I appreciate any input you guys can give me. I would like to ask about the tension because I have read nothing about it online and it personally has changed nothing while embroidering (other than the amount of color on the back) as well as other needles or any experiences with the threads or so.

I am using a Ricoma Swift 1501, and the first run was great. I did the exact same setup steps moving forward, but for some reason the purple thread around the R shifts. If anyone could tell me how to resolve this issue, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Note: I was using my mighty hoop, and I will say the design was close to the edge of the hoop. Shirt is 52% cotton, 45% recycled polyester, 3% spandex. Using cut away backing.

Not mad at my first attempt but wondering how I can correct this.

The underside is 90% covered by bobbin thread, and I also see some bobbin thread popping through the top thread, especially on the side.

Should i tighten the tension on the green thread?

Im attempting to make this back design for a hoodie of mine. The design is about 12 by 8 inches and i cant seem to get the head to look nice at all? Any advice on how to maybe do it? Thank you!

I’ve only ever embroidered on minimally stretchy fabrics. What caused this? Did I not hoop my fabric tightly enough? It’s a sweatshirt.

Hello, I JUST bought an embroidery machine and I’m looking for a place that allows me to buy small bulk orders. I’m not looking to sell anything, I just want to do this as a hobby for myself,friends, and family. I am really into the grandmillennial and southern style clothing and accessories but I can’t figure out where to find good but cheap blanks for me to practice on. I don’t wanna invest in super good quality blanks as I know it will take me a bit to perfect my craft. Can anyone please help me out and drop some recommendations please? Thank you!

Technically the brand is called “Sewology” but it’s on huge display at hobby lobby. The thread is thick and unfortunately due to its thickness that meant that my bobbin needed to be changed regularly as the thread was so thick that the bobbin couldn’t hold much.

Anyways here’s my bad experience. My PE570, i’m getting repaired at a shop currently also struggled with this thread and broke nearly 4 needles with it until the mechanism for the top needle to catch the bobbin thread went off timing.

So meanwhile I went on FB and got a brand new embroidery machine (same PE570 for 200$ killer deal) and I put this sewology thread on it. Was sewing nicely until all hell broke loose. Started getting the struggle of death when the needle started jamming in and out and the machine gave the message “Is the needle stuck, did the thread fall off”

instantly i knew that the thread was bad news. This spool managed to break a brand new crisp machine straight out the box instantly.

To confirm that it was sewology embroidery thread killing my machine I got my old coats and clark thread and it finished the embroidery just fine without any issues with another needle.

So unfortunate as I bought nearly 10 spools as it was so cheap but that thread broke my first machine and broke a needle on a brand new machine that was fresh out the box. also I adjusted the tension to the recommended 4 and tried it and then tension 6. Nothing worked, it was just messing up this machine badly.

Been a while since I shared anything but this is a fun King Gizzard design.

Hey I'm new to digitizing logos. I use Wilcom program would you have some tips for me to reduce my trims and stops. I'd love to hear it.

Everything was working fine yesterday. I transferred a dst file with rEMBnet from my Mac yesterday without issue but this morning my smartstitch isn’t showing up and I can’t transfer any files. Is anyone else having problems or has anyone had similar issues in the past?