I get asked a lot where should someone begin with embroidery - what is a good starter machine? Do I need to pay tons of money? Generally to this I reply with two questions...
1 - What do you plan to Embroider?
2 - Is this going to be a Hobby or a Business?
Personally, I'm a fan of Brother Embroidery Machines - I've gone thru four of them as I taught myself the ropes of embroidery and worked my way up from hobbyist to entrepreneur. (It's worth noting that I purchased my machines on my own and this is purely my own opinion, you will find people that recommend differently and still produce beautiful embroidered pieces; I truly feel like Embroidery Machines are a lot like cars - theres many options to get you from A to B, and a lot of different opinions on which is the best for your money and why)
Having gone thru four different Brother Machines, I'm going to walk you thru the pros and cons of each, as well as who I would recommend each machine to be the right fit for.
Brother SE425
Price Range: $200 - $300
I ended up a Brother user by default. I decided to start embroidery on a whim; I was looking for a hobby that I could potentially turn into income, living in South Carolina I knew the one thing that would sell without question was monogrammed anything. Despite having never even operated a sewing machine, I decided I could teach myself Embroidery and went to Walmart to pick up whatever Embroidery machine they sold which turned out to be the SE425. Below is a more in depth look at this machine, but in short my overall thoughts are if you’re looking for a budget friendly embroidery machine for personal use only - small items or primarily monograms, this is a great buy!
Pros:
Price point - very affordable for an embroidery machine!
Both a sewing machine and an embroidery machine
Fairly easy to use, good learner machine
Comes with 170 preloaded designs, 5 fonts, and 67 sewing stitches.
Cons:
Single Needle - you’ll need to stop and re-thread the needle with each thread color change.
Made to Embroidery a 4x4” area (although you can use a split hoop to do larger areas then this if using embroidery software,) you most likely will find that you quickly outgrow this if looking to do things more then newborn items and simple monogramming.
Stitches at a slower speed - designed for personal use embroidery, not work efficiency.
Brother PE770
Price Range: $500 - $700
In my opinion, this machine is the BEST for the hobbyist or even a small starter business machine. Personally I pretty quickly outgrew the SE425 and upgraded to the PE770, this machine worked great for me to get into the embroidery business, however I will say I literally ran it into the ground putting over two million stitches on it in 6 months. (That’s a LOT!) As the brother dealer would say when I constantly brought it in for repairs, ‘it’s just not built for commercial level embroidery” - and two million stitches in six months, is commercial level stitching. The insides of the machine are built out of a lesser quality metal then commercial embroidery machines in an effort to keep the price down, all in all, it’s great for the hobbyist or the starter business, but keep in mind that if business starts booming, it might not hold up for long.
Pros:
5x7 Embroidery area with option for split hoop option for up to a 6x10 stitch out (mostly anything you want to stitch can be done in this size hoop)
The price point is hard to beat for this stitch out window size
Comes with 136 designs and 6 fonts preloaded.
Cons:
Single needle - you’ll need to stop and re-thread the needle with each thread color change.
The arm on this machine is larger (because of it’s capability to stitch a larger area) so you end up needing to float smaller items such as onesies.
Not built to withstand heavy use
Brother Dreammaker VE2200
Price: $4000 - $6000
My biggest regret of my embroidery machine purchases is this one, and the truth of it is to this day I wouldn’t recommend this machine to anyone - not for personal use, hobbyist use, or business. I was in the midst of the Holiday rush, I had picked up my 770 from the shop only to get it home and have it break on the next project I hooped (again, the 770 just isn’t built for the amount of stitches I was demanding of it,) frustrated and with literally no time for downtime, I headed back to the Brother dealer to purchase a new machine. The man selling me the Dreammaker STRONGLY advised against it, but knowing he stood to make a commission off of my purchase, I figured ‘ of course he’d rather me spend an extra couple thousand dollars…’ in hindsight, he was absolutely right. This machine has some bells and whistles that coming off a 770 machine seem exciting, but in reality you are paying a HEFTY price for a slightly spruced up hobbyist machine.
Pros:
On screen editing of designs (not as in depth as the options available on computer embroidery software, but enough to be helpful)
5x7 and 7x12 hoop sizes
Position recall - if you lose power, your design isn’t ruined, when the machine turns back on it will recall the spot that it was stopped at.
Comes with 318 designs and 14 fonts preloaded
Cons:
Hefty price tag for a single needle - you’re paying close to what you would pay for a multi needle machine (possibly more then a good condition used multi needle machine) to still have a single needle machine. Theres more that comes with this then just the fact that you have to re thread every time you need a new thread color, it’s also in the way that items on a single needle machine like this must be hooped - it can be limiting having this big embroidery arm to maneuver around.
Hooping - as mentioned above, hooping on this machine can be difficult, mostly all items need to be floated including items such as a small womens shirt; often these projects end up requiring ‘babysitting’ (sitting there moving excess fabric out of the way) the entire stitch out.
Brother PR655
Price: $6,000 - $10,000 (depending if this is purchased used or brand new from a dealer with some added perks such as warranties, repair contracts, etc.)
The Big Leagues! When I realized it was time to fully commit to this embroidery gig, this is the machine I purchased. I’ve been running it for over two years now, heavy daily use embroidery on all sorts of items and it’s a work horse! I can’t stress enough that my Brother Dealer was 110% right when he suggested this machine to be LONG before I purchased it - and I’m not endorsed by Brother, nor out to make a commission off of your purchase so I have nothing to gain in this. If you plan to make a living off of embroidery, this (or whichever current six needle machine brother has out) is what you want! I cannot stress enough that if you know this is going to be a business, investing in the right equipment is crucial - unlike other business start ups, embroidery doesn’t require multiple big ticket item pieces of equipment that you have to budget for, it mainly all comes down to embroidery machine, so choose and invest wisely.
(It is worth mentioning that Brother also sells a ten needle machine - it’s a pretty penny and truly a luxury that you can absolutely do without. It’s very rare for a design to require more then six colors (designers like myself keep this in mind,) so having a ten needle machine is something that will only occasionally result in a few minutes saved; unless you’re a big time commercial business that wont notice a few extra thousand being spent, save your pennies and just go for the six needle.)
Pros:
Six Needles - Keep thread colors changes to a minimum and rarely find yourself needing to re thread needles mid-project.Auto Threading Needles Automatically cuts jump stitches as it goes - such a time saver!
Realistic preview of stitch out area
Compatible with various hoops - EMS Hooptech Clamps, Magic Hoops, etc.Comes with various hoop sizes (1.5x2”, 4x4”, 5x7”, and 8x12”)
Comes with a total of 85 designs, 25 fonts, 10 frame designs, 28 embroidery lettering fonts
Stitches out 1000 stitches per minute - I constantly get comments during my live tutorials at how fast my machine stitches out projects (think: the faster your project is stitching out, the more you can get done in a day)
Cons:
Will need a stand or sturdy table of it’s own - this isn’t really a con, it’s just the difference of going from a single needle to a multi needle machine, they’re not very portable (the PR655 weighs over 80 pounds and is very awkward/difficult to carry)
Requires oiling of the bobbin hook at the start of everyday that it is going to be in use, and bi-annual oiling of the springs. (*Don’t let this scare you off, it’s very easy to get the hang of and takes less then a minute to do each day)
Requires pre-wound paper bobbins (this is a pro if you don’t like having to wind your own bobbins) and you can actually get a bobbin winder and make your own, I just always find that bobbins I wind are the ones that will end up giving me a headache (birds nesting, missed pick ups, etc.) so I find buying pre-wound bobbins in a box to just be the easiest.
So there you have it! In short...
SE425 ($200-$300) - I would recommend this machine for personal use only.
PE770 ($500-$700) - Great hobbyist machine that I would even recommend for someone toying with the idea of entering the entrepreneur world, but not quite committed enough to spend the money for a commercial machine.
VE2200 ($4000-$6000) - Wouldn't recommend it! It's a hobbyist machine with a few bells and whistles added, sold at nearly commercial machine pricing. Learn from my mistake and skip this one!
PR655 ($6,000-$10,000) - The best investment you could make for your business! Or if you're a hobbyist with some money to burn and want the freedom to embroider nearly anything with ease - this is the machine for you! (Also, if you can swing buying this one new, I definitely recommend that as the bumper to bumper warranty on mine and the free servicing has been awesome!)
10 Needle Brother Machine - I'd only recommend this one for a large commercial business. It's not worth the money for a small business to save themselves a few thread changes a day.
Again, I'm not endorsed by Brother, this is just my honest review and opinions of the machines I've worked extensively on over the past five years - I have heard good things of some other Brand machines from my design customers, but not having worked them as hard as I have my machines, I can't give much input there.
I'd love to hear what machine you're stitching on! Comment below with machine brand/type, what you love/hate about it, and whether you're a personal use only hobbyist (you stitch for you and some family/friends) or if you're an entrepreneur!
#Embroidery #BrotherEmbroidery #Entrepreneur #SE425 #PE770 #PR655 #StitchyMommaDesigns #BegniningEmbroidery
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