Embroidery Notes

NOTE FROM C D

USE 75=11 needle with emb thread

emb foot labeled Q

7511 needle

use speical thread and use foot q for emboridery

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Stitching away on my new Brother Embroidery machine is fun. Wonderful to work with using the many accessories that I am not use to having on my other machines.

This one has a scissor cut off makes it a dream machine. I have much to learn and am almost ready to tackle my first embroidery job.

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Brother SE400 Combination Computerized Sewing and 4x4 Embroidery Machine With 67 Built-in Stitches, 70 Built-in Designs, 5 Lettering Fonts

•Sew, quilt, embroider. If you can imagine it, you can create it! Enjoy comprehensive sewing functions, plus 4-inch-by-4-inch embroidery capabilities

•Easy-to-view back-lit touch screen LCD display accesses 67 unique sewing stitches and 70 built- in embroidery designs, with 5 lettering fonts.

•Computer connectivity for importing thousands of embroidery designs purchased from iBroidery.com and other sites, and for updating your machine in the future

•One-touch automatic thread cutter cuts your top and bobbin thread with ease

•Bilingual user manual, 25-year limited warranty, and free phone support for the life of the product. We do not recommend using this machine in countries that do not support 120V AC even if a voltage adapter is in use

REVIEWS

The embroidery designs are pretty basic, but you can download better ones (and create your own, if you have the programming) if you want.

Amazing sewing machine. I purchased this as a replacement for my old machine. It is fantastic. Runs like a dream, is easy to use and has lots of bells and whistles. I have no complaints. I don't particularly enjoy sewing, but with this machine...it makes it fun.

I bought this at a local big box store because I was worried I wouldn't use it, wouldn't like it, or wouldn't be able to figure it out. Let me tell you about me, so you understand why those were my concerns...

I'm about as crafty as a sock, my only sewing experience was sewing little bags with yarn closures as a kid, and I have NO PATIENCE. I don't like manuals too much, which doesn't help.

For whatever reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to try this. Not sure why... but anyway, I'm a gadget junkie, so maybe that was part of it.

I bought this at a local big box store because I was worried I wouldn't use it, wouldn't like it, or wouldn't be able to figure it out. Let me tell you about me, so you understand why those were my concerns...

I'm about as crafty as a sock, my only sewing experience was sewing little bags with yarn closures as a kid, and I have NO PATIENCE. I don't like manuals too much, which doesn't help.

For whatever reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to try this. Not sure why... but anyway, I'm a gadget junkie, so maybe that was part of it.

I bought it, the little sample pack of thread at the same store, and stiched out one of the included patterns. It was AWFUL, but recognizable for what it was... Santa with some trailing letters. But the bobbin thread came up so much, most of the pattern was white... it was pretty bad. I thought "other people can do this... let me google it". So I googled it, re-looked at my machine, and I had my bobbin threaded wrong (I missed the little lip it has to go under). Tried again, did a free "mouse in a stocking" pattern I found at emblibrary, and it was AWESOME! Super, duper cute... an inch away from perfect! The challenge there was I relied on the machine to tell me what color to put in, rather than the color change chart from the designer (FYI: apparently a common rookie move). So my mouse had pink feet and ear edges, instead of grey, but besides that... PERFECT!

So I did the next thing, and it was GREAT. Here's my lessons learned:

1) Polyester (what comes in that sample pack) stretches a lot... so if you have a dense design, it will cause pucker. There's probably ways to avoid it, but I avoid it by using rayon :).

2) If it's acting funny, it's because it's threaded wrong... most commonly for me, it's the "lip" thing in the bobbin case. Then you get too much white. If it dies after a color change and about 8 stitches, says "recheck upper thread", really, just rethread it, even if it looks fine.

3) REALLY try to not stretch the fabric when you're hooping it. Causes some scary puckering.

4) There is a difference between different vendors of designs. Some are super good, some not so much. So try a sample or two from a site before you go hog-wild there. They may look cute on the screen, but when you try to stitch it out, they have 5 layers superimposed, which causes some issues, the margins are too thin, or the color changes are really poorly defined.

5) You're likely going to want some software. Many people apparently use Embird, so I wanted to like it, but I don't like their business model... I may be missing something, but my understanding is that it's a chunk of change for the base model, that much again if you want to make your own, that much again if you want to use letters, etc. It's not nickel-and-diming, but hundred-and-hundred-and-fifty-dollaring. Same concept, different scale. They let you try it out, but it's truly crippleware... you can't save images you've built (like what that's supposed to tell you, I don't know... how can I know if this is ok if I can't stitch it???). But I suggest you try it out... for whatever reason, it's very popular. I found Stitch Era Universal, which is freeware that requires a constant internet connection, has ads, and is really free and useful. There are some things that are less useful than Embird (harder to see where your edges should be is my only concern right now), but I can take a design, add some text, save it to the file format I need, etc. I even got fancy and made part of a P-51 red so that I could do a pattern for the Tuskegee Airmen. Took me a while (~1.5 hours) to figure out how to do it, because I had to split objects, insert color changes, etc, but I did it. You can also digitize, but I'm guessing that's hard. :) Both of these have active yahoo groups. There are other software products, but I don't know them, so can't comment effectively.

6) Don't pay full price for any design unless you LOVE it and HAVE to have it now. There's going to be a sale, you're going to get a coupon, or something. That may just be at the sites I'm at, but so far, the sales make it super tempting to get those really neat designs. Put it in your wishlist, wait for a sale or coupon. YMMV.

7) Get the free stuff! Sign up for the club, see what they offer free. Emblibrary has a great Christmas club, and a super nice selection of low cost designs that changes weekly. Bunnycup has a REALLY great selection of free retired sets (the ghosts are super cute!), great designs from a technical perspective, and frequent additions to the "new sets" page. It tends to be "cutsier" than I would love, but if you're looking for cutesy, that's a great start (lot of applique, too, and good instructional stuff).

8) Get most of your non-thread stuff on amazon... it's just cheaper and convenient. The things that I wouldn't trade for the world are my pre-cut stabilizer sheets (Tearaway Embroidery Stabilizer, 8x8, 200 Precut Sheets for Embroidery Machines, pre-wound bobbins (144 Prewound Bobbins for Brother Embroidery Machine Size A (156), aweseome weird looking scissors (Havel's Ulti-Mates Angled Machine Embroidery Scissors, and any curved forceps for finishing the threading process (unless your fingers are more agile than mine). I got mine at a local craft store in the jewelery making section for $3. Yes, I'm lazy, and I trade money for time... you can probably get roll stabilizer way cheaper, wind your own bobbins, use any old pointy scissors, and finish the threading with fingers. But for me, being able to grab a sheet, have a really full bobbin with exactly the right tension without having to learn how to use my bobbin winder-thingie, and cut stray threads without contortion are so worth it. (Note: I'm likely going to have to learn bobbin-winder-thingie at some point, since sometimes you want bobbin and upper threads to match, like for applique, but I'm not beating feet to it :) )

9) Shop around. The prices for the exact same thread varies from $2.85 to $5.99, with everything in between, with similar variation in other stuff I've seen. brothermall2 and allthreads are relatively good sites, although the user interface is clunky at the first, and it has a limited selection, but prices are great (especially for the easy glow-in-the-dark thread, and fast shipping.

10) If you can afford it, you like madeira thread, and you think you're going to do this a while, get the set. It's expensive, but you get the drawers that go with it, pre-filled and with little stickers for where the spools go back to, and a cross-reference by number (it's sorted by color sheet order). For about 10x what I spend on 30 threads, I got 356 threads, nice wooden drawers with spool-hugging plastic inserts (to avoid rolling) I'll use forever, and not having to worry about getting a particular color for a special pattern. It solved two of my biggest concerns: storage and inventory. How do I know what I have, find what I have, and store what I have? Now I can easily see what has a hole, find anything, and not be flipping through boxes of spools to find stuff. This set was SOOOO worth it for me. I bought several spools of that brand at a cheap thread site, tried it on a pattern or two, and took the plunge early.

11) This is shockingly fun so far. I can make a neat pattern in a short time... I put Mario's gold flower on my son's pajamas, a glow-in-the-dark ghost on my daughter's blanket, and am working on a state quilt. So for non-crafty, non-creative me, this is something that I look forward to doing... it's almost funny. My kids like watching it stitch out, I like the "set and forget" and good results (with a few setbacks for learning issues), and I am so impressed with what I can make.

12) Research stuff before you buy it. I almost got the "hard" glow in the dark thread, which apparently glows longer, but requires special handling, instead of the "easy" glow in the dark, which you use, launder, etc, just like regular thread. And I almost spent $6 for thread, and I avoided spending $600 on modular software. I bought metallics, which are beyond my skill set, because I violated this guidance...

13) Keep the manual close... my first several times threading, I had the book open next to me. As someone who had literally never threaded before, it took me a couple of times (probably 5) to figure it out. It's clearly labeled on the machine, and you'll be doing it in your sleep pretty quickly, but you have to hit all the marks or it just doesn't work. I also watched the first video, and looked in the manual for repeating a color or stitch (they call it "re-sewing", if you want to look it up in the manual) when I had threading issues. So I flipped through it, and refer to it (despite my anti-manual leanings). I also read other people saying you have to read the manual cover to cover, and I won't say they're wrong. I may have had fewer threading issues if I would have complied :)

So, this a long review, I know, but if someone else is thinking they may be interested, that's the path I took, and my results!

I just purchased a Brother SE-400 computarized sewing and embroidery machine from Ken's Sewing and Vacuum Center via Amazon.com. It arrived within three days. So far, I am VERY pleased with this machine.

Loving embroidery, I decided to purchase the Brother SE-400, as it had all the features I wanted and it was within my price range. Prior to my purchase, I read all the web reviews I could find on the SE-350, as there are barely any reviews yet for the SE-400 (new on the market). Noteworthy is the fact that the SE-350 and the SE-400 are the exact same machines except for the additional computer connectivity that the SE-400 possesses. The SE-400 has a port for computer connectivity and comes with a USB cable which helps connect directly the sewing machine to your computer. This is an advantage over the SE-350 as this feature allows you to upload embroidery designs directly from the web(or your computer) to your machine, and update your machine's operational software from Brother whenever updates occur.

The SE-400 is compact enough, comes with a handle at the top, which makes it truly portable. Even though it is relatively lightweight (compared to my good 40-year old "all metal" Kenmore), the SE-400 feels sturdy while sewing and it is a very easy machine to operate. The manuals that came with the machine are very well written and the diagrams easy to follow. It took me only a few minutes to figure out how this machine operates. I love the self threading feature of the machine, as well as the built-in thread cutter, bobbin sensors, and drop in lower bobbin.

I was also delighted to find out that the embroidery part of the machine has the following built in features: You can reflect an embroidery design; and rotate the design 1 degree, 10 degrees, or 90 degrees at a time.

I appreciated all the enclosed accessories that came with my SE-400. I wished though that it came with an additional large embroidery hoop too, besides the medium hoop. I guess I will have to buy a large hoop sooner or later, if I am to become more involved with machine embroidery.

The SE-400 is a good choice for a home sewer. I give it a 5-star.

One more note. If you are looking for a hard carrying case for this machine, I highly recommend the Brother 5300 universal hard carrying case. It is the perfect fit for it.

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FROM THEIR SITE

From John M. Douthat, Founder of AllBrands:"AllBrands is a Brother Authorized Dealer and ASC Authorized Service Center for warranty repairs. We give unlimited tech support by email, fax, phone, text and cell, plus service in our shop and referral to nearest ASC. This is a premium service that mass merchants can't offer, as they simply don't have the tech service or repair departments for your equipment. They are unable to help you directly, only referring your operational, mechanical or electronic questions back to Brother customer service desk—not their mechanics—instead of taking care of the problems themselves. Brother and customers should expect that any problems you might have will be taken care of by the dealer who sold you the equipment, not simply by referring your requests back to the manufacturer, and this is something we guarantee on our Brother machines." The computerized SE-400 combination embroidery and sewing machine is designed to help you give your projects a customized, high-end look—all while being priced to fit your budget! Featuring 70 built-in embroidery designs, 67 built-in sewing stitches, 120 frame pattern combinations and 5 embroidery lettering fonts, the SE-400 is the perfect machine for all your sewing, embroidery, crafting and home décor projects. Computer connectivity allows you to easily import embroidery designs directly from your computer. Features like the automatic needle threading system and backlit touch screen LCD make working on the machine easy on your eyes, while the Quick-SetTM drop-in top bobbin, easy bobbin-winding system and built-in push-button thread cutter add a new level of convenience to your sewing and embroidery crafting. With an impressive assortment of included accessories, the SE-400 is truly an affordable, feature-rich choice for the budding fashion designer. Computer connectivity - Import designs and download machine updates from Brother. Computer Connectivity, USB Port & Cable to Transfer Designs from Your Computer, or to Update the Main PC Board to Latest Version number with Free Downloads from BrotherSolutions.com website. 70 built-in embroidery designs, 5 monogramming fonts and 120 frame pattern combinations 67 built-in sewing stitches with 98 stitch functions Easy-to-view back-lit, touch screen LCD display On-screen reference guide in 16 languages Quick-Set™ drop-in bobbin and automatic needle threader Built-in push button thread cutter Large 4” x 4” embroidery area Brightly lit LED work area Fast, automatic bobbin winding One-touch start stop, reverse operations Operates with or without foot control Full Assortment of Accessories Electronic Variable Sewing Speed Control allows you to choose the most comfortable sewing speed for your project Free arm/flatbed convertible sewing surface Quick change presser feet Stitch width and length control Adjustable thread tension control Safety power and light switch Lightweight with built-in handle for portability Instruction booklet in English and Spanish The computerized SE-400 combination embroidery and sewing machine is designed to help you give your projects a customized, high-end look -- all while being priced to fit your budget! Featuring 70 built-in embroidery designs, 67 built-in sewing stitches, 120 frame pattern combinations and 5 embroidery lettering fonts, the SE-400 is the perfect machine for all your sewing, embroidery, crafting and home décor projects. Computer connectivity allows you to enjoy future machine updates and easily import and digitize embroidery designs directly from your computer. Features like the automatic needle threading system and backlit touch screen LCD make working on the machine easy on your eyes, while the Quick-Set™ drop-in top bobbin, easy bobbin-winding system and built-in push-button thread cutter add a new level of convenience to your sewing and embroidery crafting. With an impressive assortment of included accessories, the SE-400 is truly an affordable, feature-rich choice for the budding fashion designer. - See more at: http://www.allbrands.com/products/26715-brother-se400-sewing-and-4x4-embroidery-machine-5#description