I recently decided that I would like to open an Etsy store and make cute toddler bracelets for this store. Since my sewing machine is going on 20 years old and does simple straight and zigzag stitch only, I thought it was time to update my machinery.
Upon getting my new Brother SE 400 embroidery sewing machine in the mail and out of the box, I quickly realized that machine embroidery is much more involved than I anticipated.
First of all, my machine did come with some accessories, but in order to do a project, you need special thread for embroidery. Also, you can't really just stick a piece of any old fabric in there and hit start. You need to take into account what type of material you are embroidering on. If it is a thin fabric, you need a thick piece of stabilizer behind it. If it isn't that thin, you still need to use at least a tear-away stabilizer while you sew.
I went to my local sewing machine store to get supplies and advice. The conversation I had with the store owner made my head spin a little. I talked to her for half an hour and walked out with bobbins ( because of course you need SPECIAL bobbins for this machine) and a sample pack of stabilizers. There were probably 15 different types of stabilizers in this pack. This is much more complicated than I imagined!
***One tidbit I learned it that if you use the wrong kind of stabilizer for your project, it may look beautiful when it prints out, but when you wash it the stitches can pull on the fabric and it can become all wonky and wrinkly and basically look terrible.***
The owner was very nice and sent me to Joann Fabrics because they were having a big sale. I picked up a bunch of embroidery thread and 3 kinds of stabilizers, as well as a spray adhesive. Now I was ready for business!
First, I used a flannel pillowcase for fabric. I figure, it's for practice and this is just sitting in the spare bedroom closet. It'll work. I chose a medium weight stabilizer to try out underneath.
I cut a section of the pillowcase to be a bit larger than the embroidery hoop.
Next, I cut stabilizer the same size as my fabric.
The woman who cut my fabric at JoAnn's was super helpful! She told me I'd need this temporary adhesive to attach the stabilizer to my fabric. So I went in the basement and sprayed this on the stabilizer and attached it to the fabric.
Yay! It's in the hoop. Let's get started!
OK, if you just got one of these machines yourself - WARNING! Make sure when you attach the embroidery presser foot that you make sure it is REALLY TIGHT! The first time I tried this I did not tighten it enough, it stitched maybe 5 stitches and then - SNAP! Needle broken. The presser foot vibrated out of place. So make sure to tighten up that screw really good!
Hoop is on, embroidery foot is on, let's choose a pattern!
I decided to try a penguin design. Unfortunately it is not too easy to see on the fabric I picked. It is a small pattern that has only 3 colors. I actually used 2 colors because I substituted white for the off white color it recommended.
When it stitched the final color, black, I could see there was a problem. I stopped it 3 times and re-threaded the machine, but couldn't get it to work. So I printed a second penguin design. This time I looked over the directions for threading the machine. I redid the bobbin. I re-threaded the black thread several times before it seemed to be pulling through correctly. Not sure what I was doing wrong, because it seemed I did it the same every time. But - SUCCESS!
Aw! Look at the cute penguin and baby penguin! Much better!
So that was my first attempt at using my Brother machine. Does anyone else have one of these?? Any tips for beginners? There seems to be so many things to know, it's kind of overwhelming.
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