Brother Se400; Checking out the embroidery function

About an hour ago I got to play around with my Brother SE400’s embroidery function. The sewing machine arrived on Monday.

Brother SE400 sewing & Embroidery Machine
Brother SE400 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

 

I unpacked it the same day it arrived, just to see if I received all the parts, but I didn’t actually test it out until yesterday and then I only tested the sewing function. I won’t be using this for sewing, I purchased this machine solely for it’s embroidery feature. Today, I had a little time and so I finally tested out the embroidery feature. I stuck with simple designs and did them all on ‘scrap material’.

Cute designs embroidered with my Brother SE400
Cute designs embroidered with my Brother SE400

 

In hindsight, I should swapped out embroidery threads, especially for the kitty so you could see the contrast (and it’s eyes) but I was basically just checking out how it embroiders. The SE400 stops sewing so you can swap out the embroidery thread for another color. I didn’t swap, I just started it again to keep the machine sewing with the same color.

I'm really loving this embroidery thread.
I’m really loving this embroidery thread.

 

Also I should have used plain fabric but I told my daughter to grab some scrap fabric and she choose this. Currently I’m a newbie with machine embroidery… and it’s a strange feeling… I’ve been sewing for over 30 years, hand embroidery for almost as long, but this is my first time embroidering with an embroidery machine.

Wrong side of machine embroidered work
Wrong side of machine embroidery. I took this picture before I snipped the loose threads and removed the stabilizer – shiny clear stuff you see. Stabilizer is needed for machine embroidery.

 

Naturally you’ll need to use stabilizer on the back of your fabric… depending on the fabric you choose you might have to add a lightweight stabilizer to the front of the fabric also. The embroidery function is so easy, choose the design you like unplug the foot pedal and the machine does everything for you.

Once I become familiar with the Brother SE400’s embroidery function, I’ll start doing more elaborate designs. My initial reaction is that I like the machine. It’s runs quiet, and I love the hands off embroidery features… the self threading feature along with the automatic thread cutting are nice bonuses also.

In other news….

Of course I’m still knitting. Currently, I’m working on a pair of mittens for myself and I’m knitting the mittens two at a time!

Passion Play; Designing & sewing costumes for our Lutheran Church

Each year our Lutheran church performs the Passion Play. Have you seen it? It’s a reenactment of the events leading up to the death of Christ in Jerusalem. Last year was the first time my daughter and I saw the show and I was impressed by the performance, the sets and the costuming. I guess I shouldn’t have been, there are some talented folks at the church and I know at least one owns a theater, and another produces plays. Our church offers a few showings over a week period so it gives the church members and guests several times to attend the play.

This year is a first for my daughter and myself. I believe she’ll have a part in the play (non-speaking part — I couldn’t convince her to try out for a speaking role) and I’ll be designing some of the costumes.

The clothing design has me excited, I’ve always enjoyed working behind the scenes; Sketching the design, cutting the material, and transferring my vision into an outfit.  During my twenties, I’ve participated in local fashion shows.  I even had some of my designs featured in boutiques. I stopped when I didn’t want to do it anymore… but recently (as in the past few years) I’ve been thinking about doing something…

Martha and Mary Magdalene (c.1598)painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Martha and Mary Magdalene (c.1598) painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

 

I’m designing a robe for Mary Magdalene. Her brother, Lazarus and her sister, Martha are also mentioned in the Holy Bible. As a child, I was always fascinated by Mary and read the the small tidbits of information about her at an early age. She obviously was a follower of Christ, and based on some things she did, it led you to believe she was wealthy.

 

He's Risen!
He’s Risen!

I also have the honor of designing Jesus’ Resurrection robe. He was buried in the tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had set aside for himself.  Joseph was a wealthy man and was referred to by the Romans as “Nobilis Decurio” which means “Minister of Mines” there a few that speculate that Joseph was a merchant and that Jesus might have accompanied him on some of his journeys by ship.

And while we don’t know that for certain, I’m thinking it’s safe to assume that Jesus body was prepared with fine linens and spices. I’m designing two other robes also. The rest of the costumes are carried over from the past years and others are being rented.

Knowing that the Crucifixion was set during the first century A.D. is helpful. Men and women both wore robes (pants didn’t come until later) the types of robes they wore differed between the sexes. Having knowledge of the characters/time period is important in creating appropriate clothing.

Linen
Linen

 

I already have the designs in my head, the only thing left is to purchase the fabric and start sewing. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do too much until the second week in February and while I know the style of dress that Romans and Jews wore during that period. History along with designs throughout the ages has always fascinated me… I’ll be doing some more reading since I want to add little extras into what I create. I read more than the Holy Bible, there is lots of information available around that time period that can give you a better understanding of many things written  in the Bible. You just have to be willing to do some research.

Tomorrow I meet with the director (who also works in theater) and so I’ll be sure to bounce off some of the ideas I have (and show him a few of my sketches) and of course I’ll listen to his suggestions also. Lent is just around the corner, it is one of my favorite Christian celebrations. I’m thrilled that I’m at a church that actively participates in religious celebrations throughout the year. I was raised Baptist, and besides the obvious celebrations (birth and death/resurrection) that church didn’t recognize most of the Christian celebrations.

Purchasing fabric online

My daughter and I didn’t get to the fabric store this weekend, however I have had a chance to check out a few online fabric stores…

Ordering fabric online is a strange concept for myself since I’ve always purchased it from brick and mortar stores but I’m willing try something new. The first blogger that got me interested in possibly purchasing from online fabric stores was Quilts, etc.,  if you haven’t checked out Karen’s site you should. Her site mainly focuses on the numerous gorgeous hand sewn quilts that she creates, her work is inspirational. I’m always impressed with her skills and the gorgeous fabric that is displayed in the quilts she makes.

I think Curls & Q might also purchase some of their fabric online. I love their site, it’s an eclectic blog and has a delightful mix of knitting, sewing and various other crafts..

I love brocade silk
I love brocade silk

 

I must say this above fabric has me tempted… Isn’t it lovely? If I want to make the purchase I’ll have to act on it soon,  since the sale ends tomorrow. Also if I do make the purchase it’ll mark the first time I’ve ordered fabric online.

I love brocade silk and I think this would work up nicely in a package I’m sending to someone. I enjoy sending packages to people and do it often throughout the year. It doesn’t have to be much, but its my way of letting them know I’m thinking about them. This past year, I’ve added two blog pals to that list (Q and Nicky ) and I’m really looking forward to sending them something. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been working on their packages for a while and just when I think I’m finished I decided to add something else. I really need to stop that you know. 😉 I’ve given myself a few more weeks after that the boxes are being shipped.

I’m really looking forward to getting my embroidery sewing machine tomorrow, it’s a shame that I won’t have too much time to play with it, since I have a board meeting tomorrow evening. But you know I’ll be squeezing a few moments of playtime. How could I possibly resist? 😉

Honor Roll breakfast

Honor RollFriday, I received a certificate informing me that my nine year old daughter had made Honor roll for the second quarter.

She’s in fourth grade. The top grade point average is a 4.0. She currently has a 3.7 GPA (grade point average) so she’s maintaining an A average.

Based on her grades, I already knew she had made the honor roll. I see her tests and help her with homework when she struggles, I always encourage her to strive to do her best. I know her capabilities and encourage her to do better when I know she’s not using all her abilities. She made honor roll in the first quarter also. I review my daughter’s work nightly, occasionally I’ll tell her to look at her work again since I’ll see some errors but I never do her work for her since as I told her if I do your work that’s not helping you out at all. But helping my daughter with concepts that she might have problems understanding, that I will do.

Also on Friday, I received a letter from my daughter’s Lutheran school informing me about an ‘Honor Roll breakfast’. This breakfast is specifically for those children who’ve made honor roll and as a parent I received an invite also. I must say that I look forward to going to school to hang out with my daughter, teachers, her classmates other and parents. She has some amazing teachers and I thank them often for the great job they do with our children.

I firmly believe that our achievements are something that should be recognized. For myself, seeing other do well in areas I might experience struggles has always encouraged me to do better. Yes, even at an early age seeing others accomplishments was enough of an incentive for me strive to make improvements.

 

 

Machine embroidery sample; Monster High

I’m going to document my progress with sewing machine embroidery so I’ll be posting many of my new mistakes. One annoyance I’ve always had that many online don’t post their learning mistakes. That can be discouraging for some (not me since I’m very stubborn and will persevere until I get it right.) I really have no issue just showing mine, since we all start at the beginning with something and the results might not always be awesome.

This morning after my daughter and I came inside from playing in the snow I played around with SewArt for a little while…

I converted this Monster High logo…

Monster High Skull
Monster High Skull

 

to a Monster High embroidery version, and I was able to save it in the *.pes format

Monster High logo being converted to a *.pes file via SewArt
Monster High logo being converted to a *.pes file via SewArt

 

And here’s a close up of the simulated embroidery via the SewArt program…

Monster High logo turned to an embroidery file
Monster High logo turned to an embroidery file

 

Switching this logo into a *.pes file was fairly easy and should give you an idea why some companies are able to pass off knock off items as the real thing. If a person/business has the right tools … they will fool some people. Last evening, I saw someone selling a Monster High *.pes file on Etsy, due to trademark issues they would be in trouble if Mattel decided to pursue them, since that person is trying to make a profit off of Mattel’s intellectual property. Mattel doesn’t seem to have an issue with ‘fan based art’ and occasionally I’ve seen them link to those artists, but the difference is they aren’t trying to make a profit and I’m guessing they might view that as free publicity.

Oh by the way, the World of Warcraft character, Agrra, successfully converted to an embroidery file. Blizzard is another company that’s fairly good at giving recognition to fan based art. According to the above simulation it should take about 30 minutes to complete the above Monster High logo and Aggra will take over seven hours to complete. If I hadn’t reduced the detail it would take even longer to embroider 😉

If I have time, today, I might create my own designs and convert them to *.pes. My daughter is thrilled about this program since it means she can make her designs on a graphics tablet, convert to SewArt and transform those into a *.pes file to be sewn on an item.

The only thing left is to see how other images transfer onto fabric. Hopefully I’ll be able to post completed machine sewn embroidery sometime next week.

 

 

 

Embroidery software is new to me…

In preparation for my upcoming ‘crafty tech’ purchase… yes, I know it’s a embroidery sewing machine, but since it’s computerized I think it’s safe to say it classifies as ‘tech equipment’, right?

I’ve started checking out embroidery software. It made no sense to do it before, since the software packages I’ve been looking at also offer free trials and how could I test the software without the machine? My top priority is looking for a program that converts regular photos such as *.jpg, *bmp, *.png,  *.gif, *.wmf, *.emf, and other unsupported formats into a ‘workspace’.

From there I could convert it to *.pes which is the file format for Brother sewing machines. And while I looked at a few programs that did this, I wasn’t about to pay $400+if it’s something I don’t want to invest a lot of time with. I’m choosing Sew Art Embroidery Auto Digitiser. It does what I’m looking for and it only costs $75.

Features of SewArt (an auto-digitizer for embroidery files)

  • Reads raster or vector format images (supported input formats include *.bmp, *.png, *.jpg, *.gif, *.wmf, and *.emf)
  • Allows images in other (unsupported) file formats to be pasted into the SewArt workspace
  • Converts images to high-quality embroidery files for sewing
  • Supports output embroidery file formats including Brother (c) *.pes, Janome (c) *.jef, and Singer (c) *.xxx (these may be converted by SewWhat-Pro, or other embroidery editors, to a  much larger variety of embroidery file formats compatible with most home and commercial machines)
  • Contains tools for converting images into color-reduced, smoothed images suitable for digitizing
  • Includes a variety of pattern fills which can be applied to sew individual regions of the image
  • Supports both auto-digitizing and manual digitizing options to give substantial user control over the digitizing process
World of Warcraft Aggra
World of Warcraft: Aggra

 

How cool is that? Now that means I can (hopefully) convert my favorite World of Warcraft played character into an embroidery file. Well, I don’t actually play Aggra in WoW but I do (mainly play) female Orcs. Of course there are many other reasons I’d love to convert pictures to an embroidery file format…

I’ll definitely play around with it, before purchasing the full version and who knows as I advance with machine embroidery my needs might require that I purchase something more pricey.  At that time, I’ll start looking at other choices.

Guess what? My sewing machine is already in Maryland! It arrived yesterday the day I placed the order. Which means the warehouse where some of Amazon’s products are kept is close.  Although it’s here in Maryland, UPS has my package arriving to me on Monday so I’ll have to wait a bit longer. Unfortunately I won’t have time to play with it on Monday since I have a board meeting to attend that evening.

I’ve been frequenting machine embroidery forums, reading lots of information and I think I’m a well educated newb, hopefully that will be extremely helpful when my embroidery sewing machine arrives.

Gathering goodies for our Valentine

One of the free downloadable embroidery items available at the Brother.com website
One of the free downloadable embroidery items available at the Brother.com website

Our Lutheran church has many outreach ministries. Some of those ministries regularly visit a local nursing home throughout the year.

Many of the visits involve our church’s youth… they visit, play games, and even have piano recitals hosted at the location.  It’s a nice change for the residents and a great way to get the youth involved with interacting with the elderly.

I’ve attended most of the events since my daughter is on one of the children’s choirs and she also takes private piano lessons from the directory of contemporary music.

This February, all our churches children’s choir will be Valentine caroling’  at a local nursing home.  I know the residents will love that, they certainly light up when they see the children. The following week the adult choirs will be Valentine caroling at the same nursing home.

In honor of these events, the church had a ‘Valentine tree’ set up in our Narthax, naturally I was thrilled when I heard about this since  my daughter and I had fun with gathering gifts for our angel from the angel tree at Christmas.

With the ‘Valentine tree’ church members can choose a Valentine off the tree and purchase something special for a nursing home resident. Our church makes it easy for those who want to participate since they give helpful suggestions of what you can purchase for the residents.

My daughter and I will definitely include some purchased items within ‘Connie’s’  valentine bag and I’ll be sure to create and personalize a few of the items also. We’ve never met Connie, but it won’t stop us from doing something nice for her. The kindness of strangers can mean a lot to some people. I’m hoping we add a bright spark to her day.

You know where I’m going with this right? I’ll be taking advantage of my Brother SE-400 embroidery sewing machine, it’ll arrive in plenty of time for me to get comfortable with embroidering on a machine and turning some of my newly learned skills into some personalized items for Connie. I should be prepared for the unexpected. I purchased stabilizer, embroidery thread, additional embroidery needles and I’ll be getting fabric this weekend.

I’m pleased that Connie will be the first recipient of  a personalized item made with my new embroidery machine… of course I’ll post pictures. What’s even better is that my daughter can give her the items herself after the ‘Valentine caroling’ is complete. Over the weekend, she’s making Mrs. Connie (as she calls her) a nice Valentine’s card.