Big Bertha

I got several inquiries about my sewing machine, so I thought I'd give all the info in one post.

I have a Husqvarna Platinum 950E. I got it at Joann's for an ungodly cost. (And for the record, will probably never ever make enough money from this machine to actually pay for it!)

This is a stock photo, but it's exactly what mine looks like.

Anyways... would I recommend it? Hmmmm.... Would I recommend any embroidery machine? I just don't know... I guess it depends on how much expendable income you have to play with.

If you have a couple 3-4 grand lying around somewhere and are looking for a place to burn it - then go for it! If not, I'd seriously consider the purchase. :)

Maybe you'd like to start an embroidery business? The market is pretty saturated with those right now... but perhaps you have some sort of creative idea that no one else has thought of? It's very scary to embroider for someone else, too. Esp if they've given you something that belongs to them. You just never know when your machine is going to freak out and poke a big hole into something. (has happened several times to my own stuff!)

It's a neat little toy to have, but honestly if you count up how many things you will be embroidering in your lifetime and then check the prices at your local embroidery shop - you'd probably spend less just letting someone else do it. Unless you find a killer deal on a used one!

If you really really really want one, just be aware that there are lots of other things you have to buy with the machine. It's like buying an oven to cook. You will also need the pans, the measuring cups, the mixer, and of course the ingredients. :)

My machine was bought in 2004 for somewhere in the ballpark of $3000. I can't remember exactly. (probably blocked it out)

But then I had to buy the software b/c the machine is basically useless without it. With the software, you are able to go on your computer and make a design or a word or something. It will run around $400.

But the software is useless without the reader-writer D-card that transfers the information from the computer over to the sewing machine. There's another couple hundred.

Don't forget the hoops. Hoops are the contraption to which you secure your fabric, then the hoop clicks into the sewing machine, allowing the fabric to stay SUPER tight while the machine sews out a design. Each hoop runs maybe $100 or so. I have 3 sizes of those - small, medium, and large. You really need several sizes. In fact, I could use a mini one also.

But the hoop is useless without stabilizer. There are many different kinds depending on what type of fabric you are using, so again, you will need to keep several kinds "in stock." Stabilizer is necessary to keep the fabric still during embroidery b/c the hoop can't do it all by itself. After sewing, the stabilizer is also sewn onto the fabric and you can either tear it off, cut around it, or it might be water soluable. Stabilizer is the white "fabric" you see on the back side of an embroidery design - if you own anything embroidered you might see it on the back. Sometimes (like for baby clothes) it is really soft to keep the embroidery from scratching someone's skin. Stabilizer runs around $50 a roll.

And you'll need thread! But you can't just any thread. That would be way to easy. Special embroidery thread can get pricey. There are one or two brands that are clearly the best. My favorite is Robison-Anton. They are about $5-$8 per spool. I have about 50 spools, due to various projects where I needed to match the thread to fabric or something. Also, you'll need special embroidery bobbins and needles.

Then you'll want to buy designs. The designs that come with the machines are so lame and you'd never use them. Designs run from $5-$50, depending on what you want. I usually buy from the same people. A couple from ebay and there are several online companies I like. Embroidables and Band to Bow are a couple of my favs. After I pay, they send me a .pes file which I can extract, then open in my embroidery software. Every once in a while, I can find some free designs, which is fun. You can also buy cute fonts, but my machine lets me load any font I have in Word, so I lucked out there. I can turn the font into an outline, an applique, make it thinner/smaller, etc.

Last but not least - there's the fabric. The fabric itself is usually easy to find on sale or whatever. But some fabrics embroider better than others. Towels are tough to embroider. After you're done, you have to cut each little thread running from one letter to the next, without cutting the millions of tiny loops that make up the fabric of a towel.

Also, you can't embroider just anything. When you have a household machine that uses hoops, you are very limited. You have to be able to get the fabric into the hoop and into the machine. Onesies are very hard to manuever, and you have to sit at the machine the whole time it's sewing out to keep it from slipping and embroidering the front and back together. Something like a suitcase or a lunchbox would be next to impossible. Unless you have about $15,000 for a factory machine that can easily get to the front and the back of a fabric, you are out of luck.

There are tons of little extra things you can also buy to do more things with the machine. Like pricey little software that lets you draw something out and digitize it into a .pes file. Some machines have cool screens that actually tell you which design you are going to be sewing (I just have to remember the order in which I saved them on the d-card). Some have cool little options for making your design bigger and smaller without having to resize/resave them on the computer.

You'd have to make your own decision whether or not this is something you'd like to invest in. It's hard to find real-life experiences out there, so hopefully this helps someone. When I am struggling with something related to my machine, it's really hard to find advice out there and I just have to figure it out somehow. Good luck!! :)