For Day 6 of my series, All About Machine Embroidery, I am going to talk about built-in designs.
Every embroidery machine comes with a few fonts and a some designs built into the machine.
If you are keeping up with this series you will know that I’ve mentioned this here and here.
When I bought my first embroidery machine, I didn’t really understand this or anything about machine embroidery {hence, this series}.
- My machine came with lots of designs like flowers, some animals, and several fonts. I thought I was set for life.
- I embroidered a few things from the machine, but quickly learned that there was a whole other world of affordable designs available to me. Why limit myself!
- Then, I discovered I could purchase designs and fonts. Well, my friends, machine embroidery became a whole other game.
- Now, some manufacturer’s are adding exclusive licensing designs into their machines. An example would be Brother, which has an exclusive on Disney designs.
Bernina and a few others offer exclusive designs from other renowned digitizers. These are mostly floral in nature and you see them embroidered on sweatshirts that have been converted into jackets. Not.me.not.ever!
Let me state here: I’ve never used any of the designs built into my current machine. Instead, I always find what I want on the internet.
For me, built-in designs are not a deal-maker or a deal-breaker. And, I would suggest it shouldn’t be for you, either.
If you are inexperienced but want to dive into machine embroidery then those built-in fonts and designs will matter. They may be all you use for a while.
But, once you advance a little beyond what comes on your machine, then you will be looking elsewhere for designs.
And, I will be discussing where to get designs soon. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This is an excellent series. Really wished I had read something like this before I bought a machine and got started. But I bought years ago. Thanks for doing this for all the newcomers!!
I have a Brother embroidery machine. It came with only 1 hoop (4X4) and only has one other size available. I wish I had read your information and suggestions before purchasing my machine. I need to be able to embroider on socks, sock-hats, tee-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants. In other words a variety of different clothing sizes. I plan to sell my machine on EBay and purchase a machine that will accommodate all of my needs. Can you please recommend a machine or machines you think will be best for me?
Hi Lesie, I am an embroidery newbie but I will be purchasing a combination/embroidery machine soon. Would I be able to do custom embroidery designs on the Brother se400? I am an artist/painter/designer and would love to draw my own designs then scan and embroider. What do you suggest? Thank you!
This is such an excellent question. In order to scan in designs to embroider you will need embroidery software. If you look through the series Day 16 and Day 17 cover different software options. The machine you will be purchasing does not have digitizing capabilities.