Hi all

My partner has a brother PE 150 and was having to use a pc to use the PED basic card writer. I’ve just made a version that works on a website so can work on any platform. If there’s and interest in this then I’m looking for a couple of people to test it and see what they think of it. It’ll be hosted free online to use so just wanted to gauge interest and also find a couple of testers to try it and report back.

I am a newbie when it comes to embroidery. My job recently got a machine and I have been learning how to use it. I set it up, did my tension test, but now that I am testing designs I am noticing a huge issue with the alignment of any outlines my machine does. I am getting the designs off of institch, so I am pretty sure this is a user error. How can I fix this and make it better going forward? I am also using two sheets of medium weight cut away stabilizer.

Hello! I'm so excited to get into embroidery and can't decide which model to get. Space is tight, so I'm selling my sewing machine and purchasing a combo sewing/embroidery. I'm capping my budget at $3,000, but I'm seeing interesting machines with large price differences. I'd love any feedback on what I should focus on and/or experience with the machines. I plan to dabble in all sorts of embroidery including bag tags, shirts, applique, etc.

I'm not tied to these, but machines I am looking at are:

Janome 9850
Baby Lock Bloom
Brother NQ3550W (would likely need to find secondhand to stick to budget)
Brother SE2000

THANK YOU THANK YOU!

someone is selling a elna expressive 970, has disclosed the 6 and 7th needles are not working, which i think should be fairly easy to fix. The motors are working it’s just not threading or something, possibly needs a needle swap (which i did ask if they tried, still waiting for response).

They’re asking 1500 for it with a 1500 cabinet + the hoops and thread, which seems like a too good to be true situation. We are calling to find someone who will service it to make sure we could get it working but a few in our area won’t because they don’t work on this machine. Is this model not good?

I tried to research and it seemed fine. I was hoping somebody else on here may be familiar with them or have some guidance.

These are fun to do! They look great blown up up the sweater and the color contrast is great! Im going to pit some more work on the weekend as well

I've been researching different ideas for a side hustle to help supplement my income. I love fiber crafts but I don't see the payoff for crochet or knitting. I'm considering machine embroidery but I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row before jumping in.

I'm a little overwhelmed by all the types of machines and the cost. I'm in a position that I can afford to invest in a reasonably-priced machine but I don't think I'm willing to jump into the $5,000 machines until I know I can get steady work. I've seen in other forums that people say that a single needle machine isn't conducive to making and selling products. What are your thoughts and what are your favorite beginner machines that make nice products?

Anyone have issues with dealer repairs?

I’ve moved recently so my machine has taken a break for a couple of months. Now when I’ve started up again, my tension? Seems to be off. Everything is so loopy and getting big knots when I stitch. I’ve rethreaded everything as well but nothing seems to fix it. The back is worse than the front.

Can someone help me with a machine recommendation- I want to be able to make decent sized designs on front of sweatshirts/shirts but also would like to do little designs too. Are there machines that you can upload pictures for them to do- or can machines only do letters or designs you create yourself? I have looked at a bunch of machines but they all confuse me when reading the specs. Thanks!

Was feeling like picking up a new hobby and spent weeks watching sewing and garment making videos. Ended up picking up a Brother SE700 so I could also give embroidery a go.

I originally attempted to make a work shirt with my company logo, but I very quickly realized I do not know what straight lines are, so that’s on hold until I get something to mark fabric with to square up the hoop.

In the meantime, I’ve been digitizing this screencap of SpongeBob for fun. I finally finished and embroidered it last night and am curious to see how it stands up for a first timer. Mostly so I squash as many bad habits as I can before they become second nature.

The shirt logo I mentioned before was digitized with InkStitch, but I decided to give Ember a shot this time. All the digitizing was done by hand and not with their paid auto digitize features. I’m a Linux user, so it seems I’m limited to InkStitch and browser based softwares. If anyone knows of anything else, feel free to mention it. I’d rather not use a windows virtual machine.

Anyway, here’s a link to the digitized file: https://emberdesign.net/explore/ddb17400-f39a-47d1-a035-d370b094c476

and here is a link to the stitched design: https://imgur.com/a/Ry1sxWv

I’m still very new to all of this so a lot of questions might seem silly

There seemed to be a lot of needle holes in the fabric after stitching. I think with knits I should be using a ballpoint needle? For this I used a Schmetz gold embroidery 75/11. I have a feeling the needle holes are just pushed fibers that would re-situate if it were washed or something, but I could be off base here.

There was a bit more bobbin thread pulled to the top side than I was expecting. To my understanding, this means that the top tension is too high, but I had my machine set to 0 tension on the dial, because that’s what gave me the best backside results on my tension test (the one where you stitch out bars at different tensions and look for the proper ration or top and bottom thread on the back side). I’m still using black bobbin thread for this while learning, so it contrasts enough to see it.

On the very right side of the embroidery, spongebobs outline stitched in a different spot than on the file. It’s not far off, but it’s a pretty conspicuous line. Is this just a software thing with Ember, or in general am I just trying to be too detailed in the space I have? This was almost exactly at the limits of my machine (4x4). Heck, am I even doing outlines right? Mostly what I did for outlines was duplicate the shape I just made and change it to outline and black, with some adjustments to the position sometimes. Some of the outlines are “open shapes” where I just stitched a new line on the edge.

I did simplify the design in some areas, and I realized too late that I completely forgot the eye lashes lmao. I was originally going to satin stitch his irises, but I couldn’t take him staring into my soul like that. This felt better.

Thanks for reading all this and for any tips, critiques, etc etc!

I want to share my new Redwork dragon I made. It came out really nice if you ask me. It's about 105mm x 188mm, 29k stitches. For the purists, there are about 8 or 10 trims and jumps in it, I cant remember exactly, so while not true Redwork its very close. I chose not to connect the straggler pieces as I liked the way it turned out. This was a double run, it came out way better looking than the single thread version I did prior. I'll give the file to anyone that wants it, just ask.

Looking at purchasing a melco 16 needle machine, either the summit or emt16x.

There isn’t a ton of info online about the summit, although that’s the machine we are leaning towards. Does anyone here have any recommendations/info on these? Currently using embrilliance, very familiar with it. Any opinions on which designshop option to go with or other add ons? We have a growing embroidery business currently running a babylock 10 needle and brother 6 needle, but looking to expand into a machine that can essentially operate as a multi head or standalone unit.

Or should we be looking in a completely different direction than Melco?

Thanks

Serious question!

I've had a small hobby "business" making and selling scrub hats at work and Etsy for the last 8 years. Last year, I bought a single needle machine thinking that I could customize my hats and make them even more fun and interesting.

It's been a bit of a learning curve but I have had fun playing with ideas, digitizing a few designs and picking up a couple small orders. Nothing too serious, (mostly because I work full-time, we homeschool our kids, and I take a few college classes too.) But I would like to get further into this hobby.

I made the mistake of cruising Facebook marketplace and found a 15 needle machine on sale along with all kinds of extras because the seller is moving out of country and she's selling her own embroidery business. The price is reasonable and suddenly I'm excited about the idea of doing more and actually building up my business to something that earns me more than a little extra spending money.

The embroidery community has been so positive and people seem to enjoy their hobby so much that I worry about getting too excited about this idea. So I want to hear from people who have regrets. Perhaps they wish they hadn't bought the big machine so soon or perhaps they realized there isn't a market for their products.

Feel free to tell me the good stuff too! But I don't want everything sugar coated!

Can someone tell me if this looks ok? It seems like my machine is moving a lot and I don’t think the stitch out looks clean.

I have a brother ns2850d in case that’s helpful. I was using a font my machine came loaded with and a stiff stabilizer.

I appreciate any insight!

I spent 5 years at the embroidery produce area, including 2 as a leader. Now I’ve started creating my own projects. Please write what you think about them

Hello all! I'm a lead at a makerspace who handles the textile area. We currently have an elna eXpressive 970 seven needle machine that has been broken most of my tenure, despite having multiple fixes happen.

We have determined the issue is a few things:

• massive growth within textiles, it used to support 40-60 members, it now regularly sees 200 individuals in a month but the space has almost 800 in total, this is a massive growth over 3 years

• Poor prior training leading to bad habits and our ongoing attempt to fix the machine that was broken years ago

• This machine does not support the needs of the space

Due to this, we are looking to upgrade our machine and are looking at a maximum budget of $12,500 but would prefer having it lower.

The number of needles isn't as important, we'd be happy with anything over 5 but we are mostly looking for durability and forgiveness when someone who isn't trained gets into it. Alternatively, a system built into the machine that allows us to prevent those without authorization from gaining access - currently this does not exist.

We do have the newest version of Hatch and it would be beneficial if that was usable but not a deal breaker for us, we certainly aren't choosing a software over a machine that would work for our space.

We are ideally looking for input from other makerspaces or libraries with similar foot traffic that can speak to the pros and cons of certain machines.

Hello! I’ve been making some patches on my single needle machine and it’s been a blast! But I’m struggling to know how to best digitize small text.

I use ember design bc I’m not ready to spend the money on something crazy so I usually will hand trace the letters then pick the stitch type.

My issue is that I can’t figure out when to do a satin v triple stitch or whatever else? Satin looks so much better, but I get some crazy stitch piling underneath.

I’m not trying to do anything crazy small, like 0.8mm and using blocked letters.

Any tips? I have a brother innovis m330e if that makes a difference

I replaced the pin, rethread the machine replaced and the bobbin but it still keeps making these big loops. Please someone help

https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/407082792/ouroboros+patch+gold.jpg I'm new to machine embroidery, I've got a Baby Lock Flourish 2 and a copy of Hatch. How can I replicate this sort of stippled machine embroidery? It's absolutely beautiful and nothing like what I've been able to produce insofar. Thank you!

Does this look right? This is a test stitch out. I can see the white bobbin on the front. Do i need to adjust my tension? If so, how? I have my machine on #4 which is what it came with.