Tip #5: Home Setup
Once you bring your machine home, you’re going to want to decide where your setup for your machine will be. A lot of women probably don’t have entire craft rooms set up in their dining room.
At the time that I had brought my embroidery machine home, I set it up in the dining room at the end chair of the table so that it was kind of out of the way. There was still some table space should I need it.
My machine was pretty much permanently setup there.
I’d clear it off my table if there was an event or a holiday where we had guests coming. And I’d put it away, but for most of the time, it stays set up in the dining area.
The machine itself is probably a little bit larger than most crafting tools. It’s going to take up some space on a desk or a table.
Consider Your Setup
You may not want to get it out every time. Or, you may just want to leave your machine in a set place. If so, you can easily come to it, turn it on, and get started with your project.
More than likely, once you get going with your projects and people start seeing your designs or your monograms, they’re going to want you to do one or more for them.
So get ready!
Simple monograms you can do in a night or a few minutes if you’re very well versed in your machine. Getting started with machine embroidery can be very difficult if you have to lug it out each time.
It might take longer. So, if it’s just already in a stationary place within your home, doing a quick monogram or two won’t be bad. And who knows, you could charge for monograms and have a side hustle going.
Related Post: A side hustle anyone can do.Â
The hardest part getting started with an embroidery project is just getting started. You have to pull out your stabilizers, your hoops, and threads.
You have to make sure that your program works within your software, and get it loaded in the machine. The stitching can be quick and fast only taking a few minutes of time with no issue.
Tip #6: Software
The next thing that you will want to look at when you bring home your embroidery machine, is software. Hopefully, have decided if you were going to purchase an editing software program when you were shopping for your machine.
Now there are several different types of software programs out there. There are some very basic ones that are not as expensive, like SewWhat-Pro. IÂ use Embrilliance where fonts can be used in a keyboard typing fashion.
Through Embrillance I purchased just about everything except for their digitizing software.
Related Post: Choosing Embroidery Machine Software
In the Embrilliance editing programEmbrilliance editing program, that’s a program where you can add a name to a design, like if you have an applique, or you can put a monogram in, and you get different fonts. You basically build your design or complete your design in the software.
The digitizing software, which is a little bit more expensive is an actual software where you create from scratch a brand new design. That is probably more the advanced level. You won’t be getting into that until you’ve been well into embroidery and design.
If you’re just beginning, I recommend that you do just a simple editing program. A program that lets you add a name or put a design or two together, such as SewWhat-Pro or Embrilliance.
Ask the dealer to tell you about the different software that is available for editing. You can also find software online and simple to download it.
Tip #7 Find a Community
Another tip that you’re going to need a community. Forums or some type of places where you can go for questions other than just your dealer.
You do not want to be calling your dealer every time you have an issue with your bobbin thread.
Call your dealer for machine issues, not user issues. If you know that it’s just you the user who doesn’t know how to do something, go to your community.
The best place to go for that is Facebook. You can always search there for your embroidery machine. You can even put in the brand name of your machine.
For example, type “Janome embroidery,” and see what groups pop up to join, and have that forum or community.
Tip #8: Purchasing Designs
There are lots of places that you can purchase designs. Mainly you can also purchase them through the internet, and several different websites.
If you’re looking for just a basic design or something simple, Etsy is a great place to start. Make sure you put in, “Embroidery file,” or, “Embroidery design” in your search so you can find the actual embroidery file that you’re looking for, and not someone else creating or making it for you.
Tip #9 Additional Classes
Lastly, I want to wrap up this post with embroidery classes. Â After you have taken your first class with your dealer, decide if you want more in-depth knowledge.
Therefore, I encourage you to take more than one or two embroidery classes., One place I actually like to check out classes is Craftsy.com, where they offer all sorts of crafting classes like a beginning embroidery machine class, which is a class that I’ve taken, and I found rather helpful when I had just got started with embroidery.
I really enjoyed it and watched the instructors go through setting up to embroider all the way to embroidery business. I loved this because I have added machine embroidery and personalized items to my shop for sale and to my local customers which you can find here.Â
I’m always happy to help if you have any additional questions. Happy embroidering.
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