Tuesday 28 May 2013

Digitizing Embroidery – Equipment

You may wonder what sort of equipment a seasoned embroiderer would have in their workshop. Let’s look at what a typical embroiderer who enjoys doing Digitizing Embroidery would use and why. This is also a good overview if you’re considering purchasing your own equipment.

Often sewers learn to sew from someone in their family at a young age. It’s possible that you did too and that you may not even have been that interested at the time. But as one grows up and realizes the cost of clothing, being able to sew and indeed accessorizing items with the use of digitizing embroidery may become an enticing concept.

So, the best place to start is with a reasonably priced sewing machine and eventually includes items like a sewing box and serger to your growing collection. You will then need to outfit your sewing box with essentials like notions, pins, needles, bias tape, and buttons and so on.

Many a sewer will set up in a room or corner of their home and eventually start finding or taking on part time work for both experience and extra income. As you begin to grow so will your fabric stash and chances are you’ll need a bigger space for equipment and products and so you will begin to look into upgrading your equipment. Fortunately, serger and sewing machine technologies don’t move forward very quickly so investing in the best machine you can afford to start out with is a good idea.

Sergers

There are two main types of sergers. There are the cheaper kinds that can be purchased in main stores or top of the range types that can be found at specialized sewing stores. Of course, the cheaper models are just fine for casual sewers who don’t plan on using them extensively, but if you are serious about sewing your money is better spent on the most expensive models which are generally built better, function better and last a very long time.

If you have been an ardent sewer for a long time, embroidery may seem somewhat fussy and complicated what with all the hoops, stabilizers and computer programming that allow machines to sew on their own!

But if you love the look of beautifully adorned items or even gorgeous vintage clothing, then embroidery and indeed Embroidery Digitizing is the way to go! Take vintage clothing for example, recreating looks is made simple thanks to the software and equipment that allow you to virtually make your own fabric.

To make things even easier, there are embroidery machines that have loads of pre-programmed graphics that make recreating patterns a sheer pleasure.

Thursday 16 May 2013

Digitising Embroidery – Embroidery Machines

The evolution of the electronic embroidery machine has been watched closely. And many seamstresses interested in Digitising Embroidery will do their research before purchasing a machine. A good way to keep an eye on the technology and decide what type of machine would suit you is to visit your local sewing machine stores and find out what all the different manufacturers are up to and what new features are being added. Asking for demos of the machines is a great way to find out what they can do first hand.

Embroidery machine technology has moved forward rapidly since then 1990s. Perhaps not as fast as computers but it’s a close call what with components such as machine motors; steppers; cutters and robotic embroidery being computer operated and are in fact the most important parts of the machines.

Let’s take a look at a couple of machines that are great for Embroidery Digitising:

Brother SE400

This is a combo machine that can do both embroidery and sewing if you simply remove the embroidery arm. The machine has a large colour touchscreen display which makes it easier to decipher a design with more than 20 colours. Designs are also easy to load from a computer to the machine. 
 
 
This combo machine allows you to both sew and embroider.

The machine comes with a variety of sewing features as well as 98 stitch functions and 67 sewing stitches. It also has the ability for home décor embellishing, clothing, digitizing embroidery and so much more. The library comes with 70 built-in designs, 5 lettering fonts and 120 frame pattern combinations. You can also just use your computer to upload designs to the machine.

The Brother SE400 is great if you don’t really like using a foot pedal as there is no need to use one. Instead there is a “go” and “stop” button for ease of use. The machine has 3 speeds that allow for an array of abilities and a user friendly LCD screen that is easy to look at.

The best function is that you can sew and embroider. The machine allows you to switch back and forth between the modes. As well as a DVD that demonstrates and explains fully.

Another great advantage is that the machine works both on a Mac and PC and because it is motorized you can hop online for designs and import them. It comes complete with 5 pre-installed fonts that are easy to use and get started. The machine is also easy to thread.