What Embroidery Machine Should You Buy? 2024 Edition

If you're looking to buy an

embroidery

machine

, whether it's your first one or upgrading to a better model, I have a lot of things in this video for you to consider so you can get a

machine

you love that will save you money. Friends, I'm Lucy at Valyo Creations, where I design dolls, puppets, stuffed animals, these things here for

embroidery

machines and sewing machines, so I digitize for embroidery machines. I have been embroidering for many years. I have bought quite a few machines and 3 years ago I made a video on which machine to buy and to my great surprise it was a big hit on YouTube.

My recommendations from 3 years ago are old and outdated, the industry has changed a lot in recent years and that's why here. It's 2023, entering 24 and I'm going to talk about how to buy an embroidery machine, how to save money when buying and

what

machines you

should

look at maybe you don't want to look at and how to find the right one for you. I'm going to focus on embroidery machines for home use. I'm going to stay out of the trading market completely. I know many of you are using machines at home to make money so it is for commercial use but at home this video is for you too.

However, if you are buying one of the larger commercial machines for an embroidery store, I don't know anything about that, it's none of my business, I'm not going to talk about that, I'm going to talk about home embroidery machines, but that too includes. the multiple needles that people consider commercial use and I will briefly talk about the different brands that you

should

pay attention to, so the first thing you need to know when determining

what

you need in a machine is how much money in the first place. are you going to spend, what are you willing to spend?

Set a budget because when you go to dealerships they can convince you to spend a lot more than you planned, of course they have payment plans and zero interest and all that kind of stuff so really be firm with yourself about how much you really want to spend . The other thing you need to decide before you start shopping is what you want the embroidery machine for. Do you want to make your own designs? Do you want to make baby clothes? Do you want to make adult clothing, home decoration? Do you want to make stuffed animals in hoop project bags?

If you want to make towels, socks, hats, what you plan to sew the most should really help you determine which machine you buy and why. This is because different machines have different hoop sizes. You can't embroider the entire front of a shirt when you have a 4 x 4 inch hoop. I mean, it's not very big. You can make a logo on your chest very easily with this size. of hoop this is the entry level hoop size each brand has a 4X 4 in also 100mm by 100mm this is an entry level hoop size there are many machines that have hoops of this size and you can make little 4x4 designs on the underwear and baby clothes, this is a good size, for small children, you know, designs on children's clothing, if you're making dishcloths, if you're doing things like that, this hoop size is all you need if you want.

Make patches, maybe you're cosplaying and want to just add some things to your costume, like floral designs, or you know whatever you're doing, this could be all you need and a lot of people are very happy with this post. 4x4 level in hoops, but if you know you want to do the entire back of a jean jacket, you really need a hoop that can do bigger things if you're hooping projects like the ones I digitize when I'm making. Puppets use 8 by 12 inch hoops, which is about this size here. I mean, you can see there is a big difference between the 4x4 and the 8x12 and how much you can do on each, but a machine that has a hoop that big is going to be an expensive machine and are you willing to spend thousands of dollars to do that?

Maybe not, maybe you don't need it. I know what you're thinking, don't do it, you're thinking right. I'll just buy the $300 machine at Walmart. and then I'll go and buy another hoop, a bigger hoop, and I'll put it in there and it'll work great. You may be able to find a larger hoop that fits your machine. It's unlikely, but there are some out there. but then you have to do something with special software called split and layout, it's very complicated. I don't even like to play with it, some people don't care, it's just not the way embroidery really works if you want to do it big. designs, then you need big hoops, that's how embroidery works, so consider again what you want to do with the embroidery machine.

If you want to make small designs, then 4x4 hoop machines will be fine for you if you want to do that. bigger things look for the biggest hoops there is no such thing as a standard hoop sizes by the way there are um brother and baby loock have the largest market share in the machine embroidery industry so their standard hoop sizes are what which we consider standard because Other digitizers like myself work with those hoop sizes and since people always ask, I'm just going to answer the question: if you want to embroider hats that look professional, you will need a circular hoop like this and it needs to go away. on a machine that has this free arm or tubular arm like this one here where there's nothing underneath, that's really the best way to make hats and make them look professional.

There are ways you can take what's called an unstructured hat. It's very soft on the front and you can put it on a normal embroidery machine, it's fiddly, things often get messed up, it's not a good way to make hats that way. I don't recommend it if you want to get into the hat-making business. then you will need a tubular arm like this if you are a quilter and want to quilt in the hoop, which means you are making the patchwork material in the hoop or the actual quilting line sewn into the embroidery hoop. you can do both with an embroidery machine and an 8 by 8 hoop is a very good option if you are a quilter so look for something like that if you want to make bags in the hoop there are people who make bags and they have all kinds of little ones special pockets and things you can do with small bags, like small ones, like zipper makeup bags, like a 5x7 hoop that works great, but larger hoops, like 6x10, are better for bigger things and then you can know if you have a very large hoop you can make a very large bag in the hoop of your machine, it is very nice to see in hoop projects, that is my favorite thing to do with the machine, it basically turns your embroidery machine into a robot sewing machine to sew seams and everything well, there are three main types of machines that you will want to know about when you go shopping.

There's the single needle flat needle, which is what you're probably considering an embroidery machine and some of them embroider only the second one. type is the flat bed which is also a combination sewing machine and an embroidery machine, so if you know you need a machine that does both and you just want to take up space like that of one machine, then look at combination machines if you have the space To sew. machine and your embroidery machine separately look at the machines just for embroidery you can save money that way the other type is the multi needle or tubular arm there are tubular arm machines that look there is nothing underneath here there are machines that have the tubular arm which are not a single needle tubular arm with multiple needles and that is something newer.

We'll talk about one of them towards the end of this video, but those machines work a little differently than the platform ones and you can do things like they're much better. making hats on a tubular arm like this or if you're making baby clothes, even being able to have something that fits over here and not get wrinkled in the hoop, that's a plus, the main thing that drives the price of a Ro machine more High is the size of the hoop, so the larger the hoop, the more expensive the machine will be. There are other features that come with these machines and a more expensive price means more features, one of the features I always recommend.

If you can afford it, get one that cuts skip stitches. Be careful because everyone says that we have a thread cutter on our machine and that could mean that there is a small blade on the back of the machine that you pull the thread with and it cuts it. It could also mean that the thread is cut below where the bobbin is, but it is only cut at the end of one color of thread, so all the little stitches in between while you are sewing are not cut and you have to take little scissors. and cut each one of those threads and it's tedious most people don't like to do it a more expensive machine will cut those stitches while you sew so that's something to consider if you're working at home there are really expensive machines some of them You can do what is called couch thread, where you can have thread or some other embellishment that is sewn for you.

Some of the other big fancy machines have things like lasers to show where the needle is. They have scanners, cameras and projectors so you can see. exactly how the design will look on your fabric and those are on the very high end machines, they look really impressive, but are you really going to use that? Maybe not. I mean there are other systems to get perfect positioning that cost a few hundred, so if you spend an extra $5,000 to get the positioning feature you want on the machine or just spend like $300 or $500 to buy a separate system that does it do for you, you know it does if you've ever heard of it.

The internet of things or iot means connecting home devices to the internet using an app to control them and yes, it is increasingly seeping into the machine embroidery market. 3 years ago when I made the same video, there were only a few. high-end machines that used Wi-Fi and now there are more and more adding this app-driven way of using machines to the market. I'd say half the brands are now doing it and within the next year they'll probably all have machines that do it, so that's the direction machine embroidery is going. It's great for technicians who love using the app to control the machine, but for people who are not so technical. that feature may be something that just confuses you more than it helps the tried and true way of getting designs from your computer, so you go out, you go buy designs off the internet, you load them under your computer, you put them up. a USB stick like this and then you plug it into your machine which has been running for over a decade now it works great another thing no one talks about with embroidery machines but motor power matters if you know that you are going to use to make heavy materials eg leather, denim I use a lot of faux fur and on my platform machine it's just a festival of broken needles if I try to put faux fur on there even the fleece breaks the needles left and right but I put them The same goes for the multi-needle which has a much more powerful motor and just goes through it.

I mean, it hits wood, it doesn't break needles because it has a motor that can handle heavy materials like that, so if you know. If you want to work with heavy materials, you should look for a machine that has a more powerful motor. All machines will come pre-loaded with designs. You will most likely have to use those designs when you practice and learn how to use your machine and then you probably won't use those designs anymore, so don't buy a machine based on the designs it has because there is a whole internet of designs waiting for you. you discover it and that's where most people I'm not just saying this because I digitize and sell designs.

I say this because 99% of people who have embroidery machines are sewing things that they bought from other designers and that did not come preloaded on their machine. It didn't come from his brother or Bernina or whoever gave them the designs, it came from a third party. Each machine can handle a third party. Every digitizer out there knows how to digitize for all the different brands and machines. It's just one thing. Unless you're buying a used machine that's like 15 years old, you won't have any problems buying a design off the internet and bringing it to your machine, as long as you buy the right size and that's what we're talking about. with hoop size that matters, you can't buy a 6x10 size design and then put it on the machine that only works 4x4, it doesn't work that way, so if you know you want to buy those big designs you have to have a machine that can handle it by the way, the hoop size is not just the size of the plastic, it's actually about the sewing field and the size of the embroidery arm so you can move the hoop.

I will say this about the brother brand and Disney and Marvel and all those licensed designs, if you want to legally sew Disney Muppet Babies um Marvel and Star Wars, the only way to get them is through your brother, you can't just buy them from your brother and put them on a different brand of machine, they don't even allow that and say whatever they want about that sales method, it is what it is and that's how it works so I just want you to know that if you want those particular brand characters and Yes you want to be on the rise, then you have to buy a brother because that is the business model.

They have my last piece of advice if you're on the fence about aembroidery machine and you're looking at faces, but they're like, oh, maybe I'm not going to like this as a hobby. I'm not really sure. I would recommend you get the entry level budget machine and play with it. Here's why I say many people who machine embroider started with that machine. I started with the small machine. I loved it and then they finally upgraded to a bigger machine, some people upgrade the first week and think I have to have a bigger machine. I know someone who did that, within a week or two she was spending thousands of dollars on a bigger machine because I knew she liked it, but other people, that $300 machine is like, oh, it's a pain, I hate it, I don't know why someone does this and then goes into the closet and you never see them again, there are a lot of those out there.

In fact, you can also find them on Facebook Marketplace, but it's better to know that you don't like machine embroidery with a $300 machine instead of a more expensive one because if you're going to have something stored in the closet, I would prefer it to be the machine. $300 machine and not the $3000 machine that will just take care of you and then if you love it and upgrade to a bigger machine, what do you do with the small one? You can keep it and use it as a backup. A lot of people do that I have multiple machines and sometimes I run them at the same time, but usually not and some people just have them as a backup, like your main machine comes into the shop and you have to take them. go to the store for cleaning and service and it's good to have a backup, let's talk about where to buy an ambroid machine.

You can buy them online, especially the lower-end models, you can find them online like Amazon walmart.com. Joann's Michaels Best Buy. I have those 4x4 machines as much as a 6x10, you can still find them online, even a jomi with the 8 by 8 hoop, you can buy it online, but when you want the bigger machines you have to go to a dealer to buy them and in In some cases, you may even want to go to the dealership anyway because they will actually show you how the machine works. They may include things like free classes you can take.

They'll add extra thread stabilizers, things like that so you can buy it at a dealership or you can buy online until recently you couldn't go to a website like singer.com and buy the machine, but that's changing. actually does that and I think the singer might let you do that too. On other websites like Bernina you can see the prices, but when the time comes to buy, you must locate a dealer near you to buy through them, you can also buy. a used machine Facebook Marketplace Craigslist different places like that Facebook is actually very good where you can find groups that buy and sell used machines just search the Facebook groups for used embroidery machines and you will probably find some, maybe even one local to you, so that's another way I found a good machine, this machine here behind me I bought it on Facebook Marketplace, I got a great deal too yes, consider how much support you need consider how technical you are if you need a lot of help, go to a dealer because they will help you they'll help, you can call them and take the machine and stuff like that, whereas if you order it on Amazon, I love Amazon, I buy all my tech gear on Amazon, but I'm a technical person, I love it.

If I wasn't messing around with things, I would like to go to a dealer and have that support so that the customer service at the dealership is as important as the machine and that is a very important thing that I tell everyone to buy from a dealer who will like. and Trust, if you go to a dealer and you just don't feel very welcome there, then don't buy from them because you will have to take your machine there to get it repaired and if you don't like them, you don't want to have to repeat business with them.

Well, the problem with machine sellers is embroidery and sewing machines. Today they are sold like cars. They are like car dealerships. You know, you walk in and everyone says, Hi, how are you? and you would like some coffee and it's exactly like being in a car dealership and considering they sell machines that cost over $10,000. I mean, I know cars now cost more than that, but back when cars didn't cost as much, that's how car dealerships worked, so when you sell these high-end luxury items, there are certain sales things that people do and you may not recognize them all.

If you're really interested, I'll link to a book you can read called Influence. by Robert I think it's Chalini, he talks about everything about what sellers do and how to identify it and not get caught up in their network and it's not just about dealerships, it's all over social media, there are ambassadors, there are affiliates, I don't . If you have a problem with that, I think it's great that people are affiliates and ambassadors for these sewing and embroidery machine brands; However, if you don't know that they are actually making money by suggesting this machine to you, then you are being influenced by someone who is not being completely honest and that is a problem on social media and you have to wonder maybe your favorite YouTuber is using a particular type of machine and you just assume it's the best machine out there, but it could be that they're making hundreds, hundreds of dollars if you buy that machine using their link.

I mean, $500 is not an unusual amount for an affiliate to get an expensive machine, so it's important that you know that before making a decision. I'm just saying I think it needs to be said. I have said it before. I got in trouble for saying it before, but I'm going to keep saying it. Know that you are being influenced. Okay, this is the part of the video you really want to hear. because it's all about how to get a good price on the machine you want, so once you've figured out which machine you want or narrowed it down to a few, how can you get a good price and not get fooled?

A couple of different things I'll suggest here. Well, first of all, I have a price list or price comparison for all the machines I know of for sale on Home Market. I do not list all commercial machines. In that, but for all the brands, I have all their current models and their suggested retail price, as well as the price at which they are generally sold and, of course, they are two different things: the MSRP is a price and then there is the price that the machine is usually sold at a completely different price sometimes you will not be able to lower the price. um haggling may not work for you, but at least you can get things like a set of threads or stabilizers and add extra hoops. get more accessories instead of lowering the price, that levels the playing field, never pay, it's like a car, never pay the sticker price, you always want to make sure you get a good deal when they have sales.

Black Friday is a great time to buy an embroidery machine, other sales like Veterans Day and, um, not Veterans Day. Memorial Day is another big sales weekend in the tech industry. If you're at an event, I think state fairs are a good time. if you're at a sewing show, a quilting show, something like that where there are dealers selling machines, those are usually some of their lowest prices or they go to the store right after those events and take whatever they have left over. and they are also selling them for cheap, so another way to get a good deal is to look for those big events that sewing machine dealers attend and you can get good prices there.

Don't buy a machine right away. Every time you walk into a dealership and that goes with any big ticket item, really look around, have them show you the machines, give them a demo, play with them, do whatever you have to do. I would prefer that you shop at at least two or three dealerships before you do. make a decision and just tell them I'm just looking to see what's available if you're going to buy online like Amazon and you've already decided you want a machine, it's available on Amazon but you don't know if For the best price check out the website called camel camel camel.com because it tracks prices on Amazon for years, it will show you the history, it's a bit of a curve just for machines you can buy on Amazon or anything on Amazon, in fact if you're buying a machine somewhere else, then that website will not work for you, sorry, which brand of embroidery machine is the best.

People ask me all the time and there is no better brand. I see it all the time on social media. People like which one it is. the best embroidery machine and guess what everyone says is everyone says their machine is the best the one they are using is the best and the fact is most of them are pretty good I mean they all use the same technology that some have. Features that are more convenient than others Some have features that others don't have, but as far as how machine embroidery works, they all do the same thing, they all use the same technology, there isn't much difference between how the hoop moves and how the needle comes and goes.

They've been doing the same thing for years and years and they're all pretty solid. Some are sturdier and designed to last better than others, so let's talk about the brands and how they relate. between them because that's something you might want to know Bernina Bernett and Everson have a relationship, so Bernina and Bernette a lot of those machines come out of the same factory, they're all from a different factory, but they're distributed with the berninas and I think Some of the engineering of the Bernina line was introduced as the Bernette and Everone, so I consider them a family of machines.

If you love Brunnette but want a less expensive embroidery machine, check them all out. Jomi and Ela are now in the same group. one owns the other, I think Jomi absorbed Elna so Viking singer and faf or faf however you want to pronounce it, you even asked the dealership, they said I don't care, say it however you want, they are all owned by the SVP group. or senior vice president worldwide, so viking singer and his faf are owned by the same umbrella company and in recent years have been trying to restructure. Why would you buy one brand over the other?

The baby lock is tricky because people get so excited. This though, the Brother and Baby Lock embroidery machines for the most part, the low-end brothers you buy at Walmart are separate, but all the high-end brothers and the Baby Lock machine come out of the same factory , They are equal. The people at Mach hate when I say this but they are the same machines the same Hardware the same software the difference is some of the color on the plastic on the outside and the designs they put on it I will also say that I think the brother The Baby Loock line of machines is one of the easiest to use.

That's changing a bit in recent years, but they're a bit easier to use. The menus are more intuitive. You already know which buttons to press, while other machines like you have to go. and take out the manual to remember how to do something on some of the other brands, so it depends on your own style and how close you keep the manual to your machine. I will say one thing about commercial multi needles and that's it. I will say in this regard that the most respected brands in the commercial industry are Tajima, bar baradin or beran.

I don't know how to pronounce um zsk, people love happy, is another one I heard a lot of good things about. I did not use any of these machines. I don't work in commercial embroidery. I never wanted to do it. I'm just telling you what I hear all the time. There are many other commercial embroidery machines that are on the lower end and less expensive. and I'm talking about Roma, cesi, Avante, butterfly and those may work very well for you, but they are not as good as the others I mentioned, but the bottom line is that all of these machines do a decent job or better. machine embroidery, so what brand you buy is not really the most important thing, getting a machine that does what you want it to do at a price you are willing to pay, is really the most important thing, there is not a huge difference between the brands. go and compare and see which one has the features you like the most.

I wish I could make this video and not talk about any specific machine, but when I made this same video three years ago, there were hundreds of comments from people asking what's wrong? this machine and what about that machine and what machine you should and I can't give you a specific machine for your use case because I don't know what you're going to use it for. I have a skill sharing class that's about how to buy a machine for yourself and there's a worksheet and stuff and there's also like you want to ask me questions and I can help you but I can't do it in the YouTube comments anymore because it was too much. time. but I will tell you my favorite picks for the different classes of machines, if that helps for the entry level 4X 4 I would go with any of the brothers you can buy at Walmart, they are like SE 500, 600 and 700 class machines.

What is the difference between them? It depends on if it also doubles as a sewing machine, so it's a combo machine or it has Star Wars or Marvel or Disney. They put different machine numbers depending on the designs that come preloaded, but the brother is. It's a good machine, I know for sewing machines. The brother is notknown in the industry for having the best sewing machines, but in the machine and in the world they are the best, they really sell the most machines and have the most furious fans. um, brother's new sketch. It's a gray machine that looks strange, it doesn't look like a sewing machine.

I would definitely spend the $500 on that machine because it has a magnetic hoop, which is a really nice feature, it has the tubular arm that most embroidery machines have. I don't have the price and it works with Wi-Fi with an application. Now there is a paid version of the app and when this machine first came out you couldn't put designs on that machine unless you had the paid version. The Brother app has said that starting November 30, 2023, you will be able to transfer designs to that machine with the free version of the app. If you want a larger hoop like a 5x7, it used to be that the brother pe800 was the way to go. a 5x7 machine, but it looks like they're phasing it out, it looks like they're replacing it with the PE 900, but still I'm not even going to get into the fact that the 900 is a much more expensive machine, I think the All Sparrows are probably the best machine for the 5x7 hoop and it has Wi-Fi.

You can use an app. I don't think it even has a screen on the machine. You have to have an app or a cell phone or something to be able to. to use it and transfer designs, but most people have it now and it's a very solid machine too, so a lot of people are very happy with it. I think that's where I would spend the money at 750 for a 5x7 machine, which is the best, again, the best. Quality for the price on 5x7 machines, that's probably where I would spend my money on 6x10 machines. All brands have a pretty good and solid 6x10 line, even the ones with more expensive machines that could start at 6x1 and go up from there. so again I buy from a brand and distributor that you feel comfortable with.

If I were to buy a 6x10 machine my choice would be one of the Bernett's either the B70 or the B70 so there is one that is just for embroidery and one that is a combination sewing machine so depending on which one you like and they are in the, I want to say 12 here. I'll put the price here because I have to go get it, so it costs as much as the bigger one. Hoops, if you want something that can do really big projects like you want in the hoop projects you want to be, cover a jacket that you want to do like bedding and things like that, then you'll probably want to look at it as a 7 by 11.

Size 8 by 12 hoop, multi needles are great. I love mine. I wish I had bought one sooner, the jomi mc550. I really like that machine, it only embroiders, but for $3000 it has an 8 by 14 hoop that is huge. you can do a lot in a 14 inch 8x1 hoop and for $3,000 it's a very good deal because all the other brands of that size hoop cost thousands more, but again, they only embroider, all the other brands have their combo machines, too they quilt and sew. Not Just embroidery, so that's something to consider: do you want just one embroidery machine or do you need this to do double duty as an embroidery and sewing machine?

It's very easy to convert from one side to the other with most brands, just press a button and slide the unit out so those are my favorite options. If you were shopping, what would you buy? I know I've talked a lot about embroidery machines. I hope I have given you some things to think about and how to find a machine that suits your needs. and I hope you've also learned some tips to save some money along the way. Check out my price comparison if you're interested in seeing what the current prices are for all the different models of home embroidery machines right now and I'll go and give you a link see you later friends n