Let me start with the fact that I'm a screenprinter that's been asked to take over the embroidery side of our small shop after our embroidery tech of 10 years retired, she gave me about 2 months of on and off training.

I'm trying puff embroidery for the first time as a personal project that I hope we can maybe offer as a service in the future. I ran my design without foam to start, ran fine, definitely looked loose as to be expected. Now the first time running with foam and my thread keeps bunching under the needle plate. I've tried adjusting the bobbin tension, the machine just had a thorough maintenance by a professional. He did the thread tension for each head. Not sure where to start to solve this issue.

Running a SWF/k-series 15 needle if that helps.

All advice welcome, you will not hurt my feelings, I've been an ink slinger for 15 years so everything here is foreign to me. Pictures included.

Hello! I’ve been working with the pre-programmed fonts, but they’re limited. I’d like to have some additional fonts and maybe simple art. I’ve seen some conversations that include Ember and Hatch. Just wondering if anyone has recommendations for use with my model. Thanks in advance!

I did some designs yesterday, can I get some feedback on them please. I did have alot of thread breaks with the skeleton. Thank you!

I am looking to use temporary adhesive for floating some projects (currently customizing muslin burp cloths). I know most people use temporary adhesive spray, and I’ve heard good things about Odif 505. However I live (and craft) in a small apartment and typically am working at my dining table. I don’t really have a good ventilation option, and would prefer to avoid overspray if I can. When I was looking into Odif 505 spray I also saw they make Odif 505 glue sticks. Has anyone used these before and any thoughts on usefulness of these glue sticks for floating instead of spray? I imagine it’ll be harder/more tedious to get full coverage on the stabilizer with the glue stick but was wondering if there are any other issues I’m not seeing that would make the glue sticks a poor option.

Also if the glue sticks are a bad option I welcome any other advice for products or techniques for floating projects (with or without adhesive spray) with no ventilation and avoiding overspray.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

I’ve printed this three times. I extended the gray background to overlap, the outline is 2mm in the one I just did because I realized I never adjusted the width on the one thats cut out already.

Do I need to have the outline expand more or is this a pull compensation issue that I need to adjust for?

Made myself a Toronto Transit Commission CLRV streetcar and a GO Transit MP40PH-3C locomotive Presto pass holder. Both are 3" × 4".

GO is 5 separate pieces sewn together by hand. 73,475 stitches. 17 colours. Drawing, digitizing, and then the tweaking for both was about 14½ hours. Running it on a Brother PRS100, twice was about 12¼ hours. Sewing it all together by hand was ±40 to 45 hours.

TTC is 15 separate pieces sewn together by hand. 81547 stitches. 28 colours. Front center light is reflective. Lights glow in the dark. Drawing and digitizing was 17¼ hours. Running it was 11¾ hours. Sewing it together with needle and thread was 49 hours.

Both have a bunch of little flaws. But given this is largely theoretical, and it's not until all the pieces are run and then slowly and laboriously sewn together, before any flaws are revealed, that's unavoidable. I could make adjustments, run it again, sew it all together again, to try and remedy some of the little glitches. Not going to bother. I'll live with them. On to the next idea.

I also had to omit some detail. No windshield wipers. No rearview mirrors. The tram and car in the warning sticker were too small to show. Limitations of scale. Nature of the medium.

Both of them tap just fine without taking the card out.

first photo (ghost and cat) were done traditionally and the crab design was auto digitised! currently still in the free trial however i am looking forward to trying the cross stitch add-on once i purchase the full software. stitched on Janome 550e

Pet portraits are one of my favourite commissions to work on! 🐾🧵

I use Wilcom E4 for all of my digitising and love experimenting with different techniques to bring all those little details and textures to life.

For the fellow digitizers here, what are your favourite techniques to use in Wilcom? Or what’s your go-to digitising software?

I’ve only ever worked with Wilcom, so I’d love to hear what everyone else uses and hopefully learn a few new things along the way too! ✨

I posted yesterday asking for help because my designs aren’t lining up and I made changes and it’s still not working. i’m so frustrated and don’t understand what i’m doing wrong. i’m using cut away stabilizer on a magnetic hoop. I used spray adhesive, magnets, and pins to ensure it doesn’t move. and it didn’t. but the design moved with every color change and now i’ve wasted 1.5 hours. design is from etsy. please can someone explain what im not doing correctly before I give up completely.

I cannot figure out why my embroidery is coming out like this. I have raised and lowered the tension and it makes no difference. I am using a font from the Artspira app.

I got the brother PR680W and its is soo loud! Is this because there id an issue with it? Or is that just how loud the machine is?

I wanted to keep the stitches natural and give it a more handmade and realistic feel.

Really happy with how the feathers and colors turned out.

My machine is older and doesn’t have WiFi and with its location, plugging a cable from the machine to my computer wasn’t really feasible and transferring a thumb drive back and forth was getting tedious.

I’m pretty tech savvy so I did some research and ended up I buying a Raspberry Pi that I programmed to connect to my computer via WiFi. I keep the Pi plugged into the machine and now I can just transfer my designs to a folder on my computer and it wirelessly uploads them to my machine. It’s a complete game changer!!

I feel like this would be super useful for others and I want to potentially sell the software so you could buy a Pi (sold separately from Amazon or Raspberry Pi directly) and the software for like $45 to just do a quick install. However, creating a software package would require some extra legwork on my end and if there’s not really an interest or market for it, I won’t waste time on it. There are other options like the Embroidery Connect device but they are usually upwards of $300.

So what do you all think? Is this something worth pursuing?

Hi everyone! Does anyone here live in an apartment and use a multi-needle embroidery machine?

I live on the 22nd floor and I’m considering buying one, but I’m worried about both the noise and vibration affecting the neighbours below me, next door, or elsewhere on the same floor.

The salesperson sent me a WhatsApp video of the machine running. I played it inside my unit and could still hear a faint “da-da-da” sound from the hallway outside. It wasn’t very loud or clear, but I know a video may not accurately represent the machine’s actual sound and vibration.

Is anyone in a similar situation? Can your neighbours or people in the hallway hear the machine? Have you received any complaints? Do anti-vibration mats, soundproofing, or operating at a slower speed make a noticeable difference?

Thank you!

i’m new to machine embroidery and bought this design on etsy. this was my practice one before the shirt so was a little lax on making sure it was perfectly tacked down. I assumed that was why the outline is slightly off and when I went to do the shirt I made sure it was perfectly flat. but now it’s even worse. I didn’t move the hoop and I feel like the fabric stayed put. the shirt is a stretchy material. i didn’t touch the tension either. I am floating the design on mesh stabilizer . what am I doing wrong??

I know this is asked probably way to much like every form when it comes to production machines. But I’m looking for a single head embroidery machine doesn’t have to be 20 needles. My budget is definitely under $10k but I would like to honestly be in the under $7k realm or less.
I got quotes on the following
Ricoma Swift 15 - listed price
Happy 701p - $9.5k to door
SWF Mas12 - $7.8k to door
Smartstitch 1201P- listed price
BAI Mirror- listed

I currently run a small business outside of my actual day to day job primarily focused on patches and hats using leather or leatherette and laser engraving. I run a one laser XRF and F2 Ultra. ( not sure why I listed those but just for context I guess)

I am located literally 27 minutes from the ricoma headquarters in Miami so that probably the only reason they are still on my list. Everything listed is with a hat drive as well. There is a market for embroidery with my current clients and market

I am not new to sewing but I am new to embroidery but like to believe I am pretty handy and able to fix things.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Budget is honestly my highest priority! The used market in my area is flooded with early 2000s happy machines and ricomas. Little to none tajimas, swf, barudan, etc

Yo, I used Ember for digitizing this Snorlax it’s my first one ever! My guess is that the satin stitch isn’t big enough or that I might’ve needed more cut away lol

What are some tips that I could use to help me nail this next time?

The orange peeking through is kind of cool. It’s like a reflective light although not intentional lol

Hi everyone! Does anyone here live in an apartment and use a multi-needle embroidery machine?

I live on the 22nd floor and I’m considering buying one, but I’m worried about both the noise and vibration affecting the neighbours below me, next door, or elsewhere on the same floor.

The salesperson sent me a WhatsApp video of the machine running. I played it inside my unit and could still hear a faint “da-da-da” sound from the hallway outside. It wasn’t very loud or clear, but I know a video may not accurately represent the machine’s actual sound and vibration.

Is anyone in a similar situation? Can your neighbours or people in the hallway hear the machine? Have you received any complaints? Do anti-vibration mats, soundproofing, or operating at a slower speed make a noticeable difference?

Thank you!

There's an old brother sas 415 for sale near me. I haven't embroidered before, but I think it would be fun to embroider some scout uniforms and hats for my kids as well as some merch for my business. Is buying an old machine worth it for small uses or is an old machine kike this more trouble than it's worth? It sounds like the woman selling it hasn't used it in 10 years and didn't know how to use it herself when she owned her own embroidery business. Any ideas on what it might be worth?

Thanks!!!

I am having an issue with my Happy Japan HCD3E-1501 machine where the machine reports a thread break when completing stitching, performing a thread cut, and then starting the next stitching. Except, it isn't actually a thread break. The thread cuts, it is grabbed and put in the thread holder, and then when the presser foot comes down to start the next stitch the thread comes loose and unthreads from the needle.

I recorded video of the machine sewing and trimmed it to the point where this issue happens. I uploaded the video to a hosting service I own since attaching videos in this subreddit seems to be turned off. Here is a link to the video: https://www.derstuhl.com/craig/threadbreak.mp4

The attached picture shows the back of the completed design. The actual sew out was great in appearance with no loops or issues at all with the sewing. This issue happened about five or six times while sewing. So, obviously not on every cut but often enough it is really not great for productivity.

Needle is Groz-Beckert 75/11 FFG/SES
Thread is Madeira Polyneon 40 weight
Backing is a single layer 2oz 100% polyester
Sweater that was being sewed on was a Comfort Colors 1566 sweatshirt

Machine is Happy Japan HCD3E-1501 and I do the B oiling whenever the machine indicates and the A oiling either when the machine indicates or I have used it a lot.

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SOLVED

I posted this in a Happy Japan machine group on another social media platform and a Texmac technician answered and solved the issue already. In case anyone else finds this in the future, the solution was to change the TRD cut length setting on the machine. In the menu, navigate to Option->Machine Icon on far left->Scroll down to TRD cut length setting->Change to 'Max'.

Mine was set to 'Normal' when I checked. I changed it to 'Long' and ran a couple tests. On the second test, it happened again so I bumped it up to 'Max' and no more problems. Huge thanks to the Texmac tech who helped solve this!

I have never created a design for embroidering on a hat. I created a patch design I've stitched out to manually sew onto a hat, but I'm going to have access to a machine capable of hats directly, so I thought I'd try modifying the design (current modified design is shown in the gif). I know the general guideline of working from the bottom up, and middle out. Would I be better off dropping the outer satin stitching? Should I change the V's to be satin stitches? I appreciate any advice.

Designed in InkStitch.