Today, we have our old friend John here, and he is willing to give some real talk to the novices who are new to embroidery.
John: In 2021, as a complete novice in embroidery, I had a lot of questions bothering me in the initial stage. Now I summarized the questions I met at first and attached the answers. I hope it will be helpful to some of you. And if you have better suggestions for novice embroidery, please leave your comments.
Q1:There is a wide range of brands of embroidery machines. How to choose the perfect one?
Answer: There is no perfect embroidery machine. You can only choose the machine that matches your needs as much as possible. Within the budget, you may first look at the price, the number of embroidery hoops and the configuration. I suggest considering the cost performance of the machine, the maximum embroidery area that can be provided, the difficulty of getting started, the failure rate of daily use, the difficulty of maintenance, the number of built-in patterns and the expansibility of the machine. Learn from trusted platforms such as Amazon,Ebay or the brand's official website and machines of big brands are not always easy to use, and machines of small brands may be more surprising. Try the one according to the recommendations of business friends, and don't consider second-hand machines of strangers first.
Q2: what tools or accessories are the best for novices to buy in advance to improve experience and efficiency?
Answer: The machine you buy may be accompanied by several necessary tools and accessories, but it is usually incomplete and the quality is questionable. You can buy 108D / 2 polyester thread, 75D / 2 cotton thread suitable for your fabric in advance, needle specially suitable for homeuse machine, prewound or roll type tearing stabilizers, plastic prewound bobbin (with shell). If you don't have a cross screwdriver, z-wrench, sewing oil and tape measure at home, you can also prepare them in advance. If you want to improve the experience and efficiency, the hob and backing plate for cloth cutting, a tailor's scissors suitable for your own hand, and left-handed people can buy special left-handed scissors, which are all very good.
Q3: Except for the patterns provided by the machine, is there a reliable website worthy of recommendation to buy patterns or learn pattern making?
Answer: you can use the official website of hatch or wilcom (pattern making software), because they have a lot of tutorials and a large number of users. and some websites that can be purchased in large quantities. You can buy tens of thousands of patterns for a small amount of money, but be careful not to be fooled and only spend money to buy the pattern you need.
Q4:I want to know more friends engaged in embroidery and get more knowledge and guidance. How to make it?
Answer: This is simple. The embroidery group of Facebook, the user group of the machine brand you buy, instagram and tiktok can pay attention to your favorite embroidery experts. YouTube also has tens of thousands of embroidery videos, technical teaching and maintenance videos. If you don't use the Internet much, you can give it to the young lads at home to help you register and follow.
Q5: How to adjust the tension of the machine? What is the best speed?
Answer: Although the numbers and forms of tension settings of different household machines are different, basically the small number represents looseness and the large number represents tightness. Generally, the bottom thread length on the back of the cloth accounts for 1/3 of the overall tension, which is the appropriate tension. Then adjust it according to your cloth. Don't always use the same tension. Observe your embroidered fabric for adjustment at any time; Embroidery speed is the same. If it is too fast, there will be wrinkles and affect the service life of the needle. Don't always use the max speed of the machine, and the needle will be broken.Trust me!
Q6: How to choose embroidery thread? What specifications and materials are nice for beginners?
Answer: Polyester thread is very friendly to novices. 108D/2,120D/2 is the most commonly used. The specification of the bottom thread is generally 2/3 of the surface thread. For example, for 108D/2 surface thread, 75D/2 bottom thread is suitable. Too much embroidery thread will be messy. You can buy some thread racks, net cover and storage boxes to keep the embroidery room clean and tidy.
Q7: How to choose the type of embroidery needle?
Answer: When searching for embroidery needles on the Internet, we must distinguish between commercial machines and household machines. Their needles are not the same. Use the brands and models recommended by your machine. Generally speaking, #11 and #14 needles are used the most. The larger the number, the larger the diameter of the needle, the more suitable for heavy fabrics. The smaller the number, the smaller the diameter, the more suitable for light and thin fabrics. Choose carefully.
Q8: How to choose the model and material of bobbins? Which is better,the one with side or sideless? Buy prewound or DIY?
Answer: Different machines of different brands got different models of bobbins. L/M/A and other models can be used. It is most common to buy bobbin cores suitable for your machine. I think the bobbins with side are better than the sideless, because the sideless will affect thread cutting. If you wind the bobbin by yourself, do not exceed 70% - 80% of its load, otherwise it will cause blockage. I prefer prewound bobbins. First, The amount of winding is more than 20% more than that of myself. Second, I'm lazy, haha.
Q9: Is there any shopping website for accessories that can be purchased for a long time? Reliable and stable quality.
Answer: Amazon is the most commonly used. You can buy everything you want, but it got some trouble. You have to buy everything separately. You can't do one-stop shopping. Allstitch was my favorite website before. The products are very complete, and there are many brand products, but the price is expensive and the customer service is average. Now I prefer richword.com, my friend recommended me to try. The experience is very good and the price is reasonable. I love their hoops and thread. The only disadvantage is that it is only sold to users in North America and I hope the shipping fee will be lower.The customer service said that it will open more countries in the future and the product will be sent to warehouses in US.
I will continue to update it if I got more real feelings. I hope everyone can embroider the most perfect work for the family.
(Shawn Wang)
