Crafts
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
New to board and I got a new machine
I recently read some older posts about embroidery machines and it helped me in my research so thank you all! I just got a new Babylock Sophia machine. The main thing I want to do is put names on burp cloths and bibs for my baby and my niece who will be born soon. I have already done a couple names and initials and it works great! Now I am ready to do some designs or something more elaborate.
Those of you with embroidery machines, what kind of projects do you do?
Re: New to board and I got a new machine
I LOVE to do machine applique shirts for my boys-- so easy & fun!! Here are a few I've done:
I do have an etsy shop, but I sell personalized stationary (notepads, notecards, etc) in it-- Edited--violation of TOS.
I purchase the machine applique designs from sites like Applique Momma, Applique Alley, etc They come presized and in the correct format for my machine, then I just open them in my software and add my kids' names. I transfer the final design to my machine by a memory card & then it stitches it.
Did you purchase any software with your machine? If not, there's a free one online that works really well!
I have a Janome MC9700-- your SE-400 should be able to do machine appliques with no problem!!
The software is called Stitch Era Universal. Someone on the board told me about it-- I'm sorry to say I can't remember who it was! (I actually have Janome's Digitizer Pro, but my dongle broke, so I downloaded SEU to use while it's getting fixed. It works so well, I haven't been in much hurry to pay the $80 to fix the dongle!)
Here's a link to the software's homepage & here's a link to where I downloaded it from. (The download option is at the bottom of the screen!)
So basically, you'll go to any of the applique websites to purchase your design in the correct format (Brother uses .pes files, I believe), you'll download it and save it on your computer. Then, you'll open Stitch Era Universal (You'll need an internet connection-- they run ads down the side of the program. That's why it's free.) & you'll open your design in the software. The software will let you edit the design-- usually all I do is add a name. (SEU can use any font installed on your computer as an embroidery font!) Then you save your design in the same format (.PES) and transfer it to your machine, either by USB cable or by memory card (I can't remember which one your machine has!), then when you turn on your machine, the design will be one of your embroidery choices. Several ladies on the board have an SE-400 so they could probably walk you through the specifics of that part.
If you've never done a machine applique before, this is a good video tutorial to walk you through the process: the machine stitches an outline, you lay your fabric on top of the outline, the machine stitches another line to tack it down, you trim the fabric as close to that stitch as you can, then the machine stitches the final outline (which is thicker than the two lines before). It's very easy once you get the hang of it. I'm happy to answer any questions I can!
Yes, thank you! I am glad for the websites to download designs. So I could probably skip the software if I added the name in a separate step? I will check out the tutorial later. I saw the applique part in the book so I will start experimenting soon.