When things are a little quieter on the sales front, I try to use the time to experiment rather than endlessly refreshing the order notifications (although I still do!) 😅

One thing I really enjoy is going back through embroidery designs I've created for previous projects and seeing how they could work in a completely different way.

This tiger was originally created for a jacket that I made for myself, so I decided to restitch it and turn it into a banner — paired with Wild & Free. I love seeing how much the same embroidery can change depending on the fabric, colours and finished product it's used on.

It also means quieter days still feel creative and productive, which is always a win!

For those of you who embroider for work or just for fun — what's your favourite thing to stitch when you're completely off the clock and can make whatever you want?

Super excited about something more convenient to dry my lace in bulk after washing it!

These stacked trays have been excellent to dry everything but still allow me to keep it out of the way of everything while working!

TLDR; Is a like-new Singer SE9180 for $500 (usually $800-1,000 new) worth it for a semi-experienced sewist? Or are the headaches bigger than the cost savings?

I found a like new Singer SE9180 with 2 hoops for $500 (currently on sale for $799 from Singer website, typically goes for $1,000) but most of the reviews here on Reddit and in YT comments are negative.

I’ve found a couple of good reviews in different subreddits, but they’re old and there’s no finished product posted for me to judge for myself. I also tried TikTok, but not a lot of recent users and the videos I can find don’t show great results. That could be from user error or the machine itself. The 2 accounts I did find with decent results I’ve tried to DM, but alas.

Please help me 😭 I don’t want to miss out on a deal, but when I first tried machine sewing years ago the tension issues I had (in retrospect this was likely due to cheap materials + lack of knowledge) eventually made me quit so this will be my first attempt at it after about a decade. I hand sew and embroider but have designs that are bigger than what i can realistically pull off without a machine and I don’t have space for 2 separate machines.

If i need to be patient and keep searching second hand stores for a better brand (Brother, bernette, Juki, etc.), I will. I’m just very eager to start and have been searching for a couple of weeks

Just bought a semi-commercial machine and the only space I have is the corner of a bedroom. Can y'all show me what your workspace looks like? :D

Asking reddit because I can't seem to find other sources of reviews online. If you seen my previous post a few months ago I was in a rut with my current machines SWF/B-T601C that were partially working for me. Time has passed and I am currently looking at a new machine lease SWF/KX-T1501. I looked at different models and compared and decided this one. What I would like to know if I should pay the extra for the "training and installation" (leaning towards yes because its might be more complicated than I'm used to). The warranty says 7 years of manufacture defects where there's the 5 year, 3 year, 1 year of certain parts/repairs covered. So there is another optional protection plan for extra purchase (1 year or 2) that pretty much seems to be the warranty but added the cost of technicians travel and labor fee covered(if repair is under qualifying condition) so I'm unsure if I need this protection plan? Because my thoughts would think this is a new machine and I would not need a repair as early as in 1-2 years. The other catch is if you don't purchase the "training and installation" the warranty states that the damage done to machine of 'negligence and misuse of machine is due to purchaser and does not qualify for certain repairs'. And again this is a big deal because of course I want little as possible amount of repairs or even tech support through the phone because I live in Hawaii I want to use the machine for a good amount of years and it is very difficult to find help on your own without the help of a company. So to summarize:

1. Has anyone experienced this machine or own one? (Because I think it only got released a few years ago) Is there any cons to this machine because I can't seem to find reviews of it.

2. Should I purchase the training & installation? Or the protection plan as well? (I might need the training but not the extra protection) The installation does not mean there is someone that installs it in my house by SWF. The movers of the moving company decides if they help bring it in my house to where I want it placed.

3.Technical support that needs physical repair is hard to find let alone pay for, so does this machine seem like it would last quite a while with the right maintenance and care? Or at least not have major problems in the first 3-5 years?

1. I chose this machine because of the new features that are added convenience compared to my old machines, but I looked at the SWFs, and Barudans because I chose those two brands of what I like. Should I look at other machines, other brands, does this new one might have more cons than pros? Or should I start over and search for another machine?

The price plus shipping without "training & installation" and without "protection plan" was about 23k which is doable for me, so other machines might be more but this was already a hefty price for me. Barudans I asked quotes were more expensive and did not have the same features.

Side question: Does this new machine able to use mighty hoops, or Maggie frames? Because I saw videos that showed the machine and what it comes with, and the hoops I saw looked like the older style hoop that's the clamp style that gets tighten by screw.

Any advice would be very appreciated because I am so ready to closing this deal and look forward to a new machine so thanks plenty!

Hoping some of you who actually run caps every day can help me out here.

I run a sports apparel shop in Tennessee and we've been paying someone else $7 to $9 a hat to do our embroidery. Doing about 5,000 caps a year, almost all of it 3D puff with team logos. March is brutal, we push around 50 hats a day for three weeks straight and then it slows way down. Rest of the year is easy.

Found two options and I'm stuck.

First one is a used Bernina E16 for $8,000. From what I understand it's really a Melco underneath, 16 needles, has the Acti-Feed tension thing and a laser. It's a 2017 or 2018 and has 51 million stitches on it from a lady who ran an Etsy shop. She's including the Melco OS software, cap driver and frames, 19 Fast Frames, a Hoop Master and something like 145 spools of thread. Bernina dealer 30 minutes from me has serviced it.

Other option is a brand new BAI Mirror for $6,400. 15 needles, warranty, comes with everything. Only does 850 spm on caps though and the tension is manual.

Few things I'm trying to figure out:

Is 51 million stitches bad on a Melco or is that just normal and I need to budget for a service? What would that cost me?

How do these Melcos actually do on structured hats with foam? Not flat stuff, actual stiff caps.

Anybody running a BAI Mirror on hats? Is 850 spm going to hurt me or does it not matter since everyone runs puff slow anyway?

Whoever runs the machine won't be an experienced embroiderer. Does the automatic tension actually save you on puff or is that just marketing?

And honestly if puff on structured caps was your main thing, what machine would you buy? What actually makes or breaks it, the machine or the digitizing or something else nobody mentions?

Appreciate it.

(2) Second post, same info - for MachineEmbroidery community.

Hello 👋🏼

I come from a commercial embroidery background and I've been noticing a huge amount of hobbyists who do machine embroidery and who are using techniques that are just mind-blowing - all manner of use with pins and glue and tape to attach fabric on top the stabaliser, when commercial embroidery machinists don't do it that way all.

Newbies to machine embroidery are receiving mixed messages - who are they to believe? Asking for advice - The top 'back to basics' answers are: Read the machine manual, use cutaway stabiliser and learn to hoop properly.

But many in the machine embroidery community are perpetuating the idea of placing fabric above the hooped stabaliser as the way it's done.

"Floating fabric" is a flatbed embroidery machine workaround that's only meant for bespoke hard-to-reach places like Dad caps, and for making badges. It's a fiddly crafting technique and not something used in the real world.

Calling it just "Float/Floating" is confusing because that term means something completely different in commercial embroidery - when "Float/Floating" means to shift the panograph through the design without stitching, and usually done to repair a faulty stitch out, like redo an unpicked spot, or finish a logo that fell out of the hoop.

Why would the domestic embroidery market create so much confusion? Perhaps it's to cash-in on a market of crafters made dependent on consumables they don't need. Unfortunately there are hordes of YouTube videos by people saying 'floating fabric' is the "right way" to hoop the project, when really, it's only justified by sales promotions for their shop.

Domestic Embroidery is being made to be way more complicated than it needs to be. I've seen a tutorial video demonstrating cutting away the finished product from the hooped stabaliser while it was still hooped - that is madness! Unhoop it, and then trim. How do you think commercial embroidery backing is cut off? We don't have time to dawdle when there's hundreds of garments to be embroidered before lunch.

I think it's important to let the hobbyists know that there's an existing easier and inexpensive way to do the basic things. It's really not that complicated.

It's likely that this post will be met with some resistance ... I think it's important that the information is available and people have the RIGHT TO CHOOSE what works for them - ***The hard way, or the easy way.***

**To hoop** (correctly) means to sandwich the fabric and stabiliser in the hoop together. So, pack up the adhesive backings and pins because you don't need them.

Put the water soluble film and any tearaway stabaliser on the top shelf. You'll only use these occasionally.

Invest in a good quality heavyweight cutaway stabiliser. I recommend 80gsm

Here is a video by a machine embroidery tutor who will show you how to hoop correctly for both commercial and domestic embroidery machines.

**HOW TO HOOP FOR MACHINE EMBROIDERY**

https://youtu.be/zLGdOWpBnxk?si=Ss2CIMiEmuCc1L8a

So I use a Brother pe800 machine in a shared makerspace. Recently someone who doesn’t know how to machine embroider (or even sew) tried to digitize a design to do. And her results were nothing but bird nesting and broken needles. And I guess the machine shook a lot when she was using it bc she taped the needle plate onto the machine bc it became so loose

I did what I could to fix up the machine and remove any lint or tangled thread. But now the machine makes this awful rattling and clunky noise whenever you try to use it. It’s also having tension issues now on designs I never had any problems with before.

Do I need to open up the machine and dig around for any other tangled threads? Could a part be damaged? I can still work with it, but the results aren’t as good as they used to be. And thread has been tangling up a lot more than it used to. and idk if I need to take this machine to a repair tech or not

I’ve added a video below because I feel like I’m doing something wrong and have no idea what. I thread my machine by the manual but I feel like that the problem somewhere. I’ve been embroidering less than a year and this is a hand - me - down machine from my great grandma. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. This started because my top thread kept unthreading, like non stop. So I increased the tension- didn’t work. De creased the tension - didn’t work. Then I noticed my bottom bobbin is peaking through my designs. Like they are almost all white. So I took it apart, cleaned it and set it back up. Now it’s doing this. I somehow made it worse.

How can I prevent puckering?

I am about to get rid of my machine and call it quits on this fun hobby.

I am new to embroidery. I got a Brother PE900 machine because it seemed fun and I genuinely like arts and crafts. The machine is generally easy to use, but I CAN NOT figure out how to prevent puckering.

We have purchased a few embroidered item from Etsy and store bought which have either minimal or no puckering at all, but no matter what I do my designs come out with what I think is unacceptable levels of puckering for gift giving, etc.

I have watched videos, read articles and done everything they say helps prevent this. I know not to stretch the fabric or make it too loose in the hoop. I have tried cut away 2.5 oz stabilizer, double layered 1.5 oz mesh stabilizer, 505 spray to attach stabilizer to garment before hooping, i have lowered tension to 3 on the machine itself and also lowered the speed of the machine to 350 stitches per minute down from 600 which the machine is preset to.

PLEASE HELP ME. I love embroidering but this is so frustrating I feel like quitting all together and never touching the machine again.

You can see in the 'Overstimulated' design the O v e bunch up badly specifically but the entire design bunches up IMO. The BABE design letters all bunch up but the B and E are HORRIBLE. That is after I smoothed it out and it is laying flat on table and is really puckering up badly. Everything you can see has also been washed and dried on low FYI.

I’m new to embroidery and digitising. I found and used Ember Design to digitise an image. Everything went just fine until it came time to stitch it out. At first everything was stitching great but then things started to get offset.

I went back to the software and the design looks fine there. It also looks fine on the machine’s screen. What’s throwing me off is that not everything is off set.

Could anyone give me some idea of what I maybe did wrong in my process?

Hey everyone, I’m having an issue with my top thread tension wheel. It started feeling extremely tight and almost like it was grinding. I found that the tension wheel had come out of place, so I removed the back of the panel, reseated the wheel, and reinstalled the E-retaining clip.
Unfortunately, I’m still having the same issue. When I route the thread through the tension assembly and pull on it, there’s a lot of resistance and the thread feels extremely tight—even when the tension knob is completely removed.
Has anyone experienced this or know what could be causing it?

Had to share this stitch-out. I'm so thrilled with how it came out! The amount of detail in this one is wild.

Digitized with Ember and available for free!

Seeing designs go from something on a screen to actual thread really never gets old.

Which one would you say is the best/better overall out of these three? I’d really love to hear your personal opinions and experiences! These are the three that are within my budget currently. I’m completely new to embroidery and can’t justify spending $10–$25k+ on a machine 🥴 Eventually, I’d like to use it for a small embroidery business that I’ll be running from home!

It's not perfect but hey I'm getting better with every patch I make, and they seem quite happy with it which is all that really matters.

I have the Bernette 79 and I’m on the last stretch of my project, but for some reason now my machine won’t thread the bobbin up. I have tried everything from cleaning it, re-threading an entirely new bobbin, trying different sewing needles, but at this point it still won’t thread the bobbin and I just keep getting clumps of thread I have to take out.
Has anyone had the same issue? I would really appreciate any advice because I’m at a loss at this point and I don’t know if maybe something is wrong with my machine.

Hey everyone! Needing some help as I have orders that need to be completed this week🫣 my machine is making thing noise when done with a certain spot or finished completed. I believe it’s the internal thread cutter jamming. I’ve cleaned everything, taken it apart, re threaded everything. I fear I’ve done all I know to do. Has anyone had this issue?? I cannot find anything about it on the internet and I’m desperate!!

Hello everyone,I need some help. I recently formatted a PC for a relative who uses a SINGER embroidery machine along with the PREMIER+ 2 Embroidery software, which has an active commercial license.Because of the formatting, we lost the software. We reinstalled it, but we are unable to recover the account password. Furthermore, after doing some research, I noticed that even legitimately purchased licenses can no longer be activated because the license verification servers seem to be down.As far as you know, are there any working versions available, perhaps officially released by the company? Alternatively, do you know of any free alternatives that can handle this type of work?I apologize for any inaccuracies—this isn't my line of work, I'm just the family IT guy! I really hope someone can help us out. Thank you so much.

Hello everybody,
A while ago I designed and shared with you some 3D printed hoops that are compatible with NV880E and NQ3600D.
I wanted to let you know that i updated recently the hat hoop, this is how it works.

If you think that it is useful for your projects, you can get it from here for free:
https://makerworld.com/models/2404776

Just make sure that you center the hat properly and the laser pointer points to the middle line of the hat.

If you think that this can be improved, please let me know.

I also designed a socks hoop and you can get that from here also for free:
https://makerworld.com/models/2404769

Thanks to everybody from the community! Please share it with your friends or other communities that might find it useful.

( Initial Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineEmbroidery/comments/1r635qs/brother_nv880e_3d_printed_hoops/ )

Sharing a recent appliqué design I worked on. The original artwork had a few details that needed to be adjusted for embroidery, so I focused on keeping the shapes clean and making sure the appliqué areas would stitch out properly.

I really like how the final digitized version came together. It’s always interesting to see how a simple artwork changes once you start planning the stitch direction, placement, and appliqué sections.

What do you guys think of the result?
Would you like to see the final stitch-out as well?

I’m using an image that has a transparent background but the artspira app digitizer is still filling in some of the spaces that should just be empty. Is there a way I can fix this in artists?

I have the most awkward hole in one of my pants in the crotch region and thought a nice way to hid the mending would be with embroidery... but I need someone else to tell me it will look good before I go ahead with what I'm thinking.

Hello Everyone, since two week or so my Brother NV880E tend to skip part of the design files. It happened with files I digitized myself and design I bought.

During embroidery sometimes a part of the file is skipped I can find it again after using option to move in the file but it is not embroidered on the first .

You can see pic 1 is the "finished embroidery" and the second is what it should be. Is it just a software bug ? Did anyone experience this already ?

Thanks a lot !

Basically when I go to trace a design my laser is way off to the right and not directly under the current needle. Is this normal for Tajima machines?

I’m having a difficult time trying to find a way to correct this IF it’s even possible?

Please let me know your thoughts!