Digital Embroidery Machine Setup

Locate an embroidery machine by visiting the Patron Supplies Room. Embroidery machines and carriages are located on the bottom shelf. Additionally, grab a USB cord (beige) and a power cord (black) from the wire bin labeled ‘Sewing Cords’.

Ask staff for all additional materials including:

-thread stand

-scissors

-embroidery hoop

-tear-away or heat n’ bond backing

-embroidery thread

Plug both cords into the machine. Plug the black power cord into an outlet. Plug the beige usb cord into the computer

Connect the embroidery carriage to the machine by sliding the carriage on. If the machine is NOT sliding on properly, make sure you remove the plastic storage case from the front of the machine.

For embroidery designs, you must use the correct type of thread. A regular sewing thread will not be strong enough to complete an embroidery design. Place the thread you’d like to use on the thread stand behind the machine.

Thread the machine. The picture shows the embroidery floss threaded through the metal hook on the machine. The upper threading is labeled with a solid line and a step number. The thread is pulled through the rest of the steps labeled on the machine until it threaded through the needle.

For detailed instructions on how to thread the machine, please visit our other instructable on threading a sewing machine. The instructable is for a different type of machine, but because both machines are the same brand, Brother, the threading is very similar.

Adjust the tension on the machine to 0.

Turn the machine on by pressing the black switch on the side of the machine where you plugged the cords in. If the carriage has been properly engaged, and the power cord is connected, you will see this screen.

Next, ensure the machine is set up with a quilting foot. The machine will not start your embroidery project if the wrong foot is attached. Using a coin key (Ask staff for assistance to find) unscrew the bolt holding the foot in place. Hook the new foot onto the screw, and tighten it back down.

Next, we will switch gears and set up the embroidery hoop.

Start by locating your embroidery hoop. Note the triangles on the inner and outer pieces. These will need to be aligned with each other in the next step.

There are 2 methods to setting up embroidery hoops. Method 1 is to use a piece of tightly-woven material and tear away backing. In this case, my material is canvas. Material pieces should be cut generously. My piece is cut to roughly 6x8”, but any size will do as long as you have at least 2 inches of extra fabric on each side of the 4x6” hoop.

Layer the canvas material over the tear away. Sandwich the materials in between the hoop pieces.

The outside hoop piece should be on the bottom of the layers.

Use the bolt on the outer piece to tighten down the material. The material should be so tight that it should feel like a drum when you tap the material. If there are any bumps in the material, gently pull the edges of the material to push out bumps.

Method 2 for embroidery material setup involved using a product called heat n’ bond and sometimes called wonder under. This product creates a layer of glue that can then be adhered to something else. If you have ever bought an iron-on patch, it had this material on the back.

Layer together a piece of heat n’ bond and your fabric that you would like to embroidery on. Using an iron, carefully press for 30 seconds on the stacked materials. This will adhere the heat n’ bond to the fabric.

Allow the material to fully cool down, before removing the white wax paper backing on the heat n’ bond.

Now using the iron again, heat the fabric/heat n’ bond on top of the canvas for 30 seconds to a minute. Make small circles with the iron to ensure a strong bond. Allow the material to fully cool down before hooping it.

Now, place the material in the hoop and use the bolt to tighten down and secure the fabric.

Place your hooped material (Either method) on the carriage. Use the clamp on the left-hand side to clip in the hoop.

The machine should look like this now.

Back to the machine. Using the touch screen, you’ll select the flower icon in the top left. This will take you to all the pre-loaded designs.

I’ve selected a butterfly design. I selected it by clicking on it. Once selected, my screen will look like the following. Note that the screen says Light Blue, this is because the design comes with recommended colors, however, you can use any embroidery floss colors you like. Next, press on the icon in the bottom right that is labeled ‘Adjust’

Once you press ‘Adjust’, your screen will change to the following. This screen gives you control over adjusting the size and layout of your design. Ask staff for assistance if you need help making changes.

The last step is to pull the press foot lever down. This will turn the arrow button on the front of the machine green. The machine can now be started by pressing the green button.

The machine will complete the design selected. Once completed, the hoop can be carefully disengaged from the carriage. If you plan on adding anything additional to the design, do not remove the material from the hoop.

Adding Text to a design. If you have completed a design and now want to add text.

You will press the return arrow on the machine until you see a screen that asks you to delete the selected pattern. Click ‘Ok’.

This will return you to the home screen where you can click the icon with A’s and B’s on it that will take you to the next screen.

When adding text, make sure to switch the text size to Small! This will make sure you can add the maximum amount of letters to your design. And to add a space, simply scroll over until you find a character that looks like an underscore (_). This won't embroider anything but instead will add a space between words.

The text screen looks like this. Click on the touch-screen icons for the letters you want to add. Use the physical arrow buttons on the machine to toggle between the first and second halves of the alphabet. A list of the characters you are adding will appear at the top of the screen.

If you have more than 6 characters the machine might signal to you that your text is too big. To resize text smaller, simply click on the M or S at the bottom of the screen. These stand for Medium and Small. This will allow you to type more characters. Once you are satisfied with your characters, click ‘Adjust’ in the bottom-right to adjust the location of your design.

In my design, I knew I needed to move the text down, otherwise, I would embroider over my butterfly. On the adjust screen, I used the touch-screen up and down arrows to move the location of my design down.

Next, start the machine by pressing the green arrow button.

Once your design is complete, you can remove it from the hoop, use small thread scissors to cut off the threads between the embroidered characters, and you can tear away the tear away backing.

Using your own design. If you are using a design NOT pre-loaded on the embroidery machine your process will look similar to the following. This guide is not meant to give instructions on how to use embroidery design software. However, because I did design the cacti you see in the image, I will give a brief overview of the digitizing process.

First, I created a simple design in adobe illustrator. I saved my design as a .jpg and opened it in SewArt 64. Next, I used the digitizing tool in SewArt to convert my file to stitches. Lastly, I saved my file from Sewart to the desktop.

Both illustrator and sewart64 are available for free use at the makerspace during open hours.

For a full breakdown of how to digitize a file for embroidery, instructions are available during Open Hours at inventHQ.

After digitizing my file, I save it. A very important step is to check the size of your file. If your file is over 3.5 x 3.5” it needs to be scaled down or it will not send to the embroidery machine. You can quickly size down a file by using the scaling factor to type in a decimal. In this case, I was extra careful and scaled my project by .8 which made the design 2.83 x 2.83”. I will be able to scale this design larger on the machine, but I want to make super sure that it will load correctly on the machine.

If you are using a pre-bought design, double-check on the file size you purchased.

Additionally, double-check the file type. Our machines typically run .pes files which is the file type for Brother machines.

Once the file is saved, I locate it in my file explorer or in my recent files. If the machine is plugged into the computer with the USB cable and turned on, you will see it on the computer as a USB Drive. On my computer, it showed up as USB Drive D.

I want to copy my file over to this USB drive. I click and hold on the file and drag it over to the USB Drive. I could also right-click, select ‘copy’, click on where it says USB Drive, right-click, and select ‘paste’.

Now when I click on the USB Drive, I should see only my .pes file

Back on the machine, I will select the icon with the USB logo (the icon that is third from the left on the second row).

Once I click the USB icon, I will see this screen. If my file is the right size, it will show up in an icon with an outlined version. I will click on the outlines, which will invert the colors to show it has been selected, and then I will press the small up arrow icon at the top right of the screen.

This will open my design on the machine. The machine will break out the different colors used in the design into different steps. In this design, there are 4 colors.

Next, I want to make sure I’m using the correct color for the design. If the color listed is not recognizable, and it’s hard to tell from the outlines what is being embroidered on this step, I recommend googling the color name to find out what it is. In this case, carmine is a pink/red color, and I can interpret that the machine is going to embroider the flowers of the cacti.

Once I’ve threaded the correct color, I can press the green button to start the embroidery.

When the color group finishes embroidering I can gently cut the threads between the different characters, and switch out the color threaded on the machine. The machine will automatically load the next color once the previous one is complete. So once you are satisfied with cutting the threads, and the next color is threaded, you can press the green arrow button again to start the next color.

This is how my design came out, note how some of the small details in the design did not come through on the embroidery. I still really liked the design, and so I added two more copies above and below in varied colors. I did this by using the layout feature of the machine which can be found under the icon ‘adjust’.

If you used Method 2: Heat n' bond backing. You don't have to do much else. For my project, I just cut out my design and sewed it onto pants as a patch.