# Embrodery Machine Question



## Hustle101Clothin (Jun 12, 2006)

Hey guys.... 

Right now I am doing heat transfer shirts but I'd like to move into the embrodery market. At malls, I usually see a guy who has a sewing machine that is attached to his laptop. He does wording on shirts. I think he uses photoshop. Does anyone know what these machines are called, or where I could get one for a good price. The shirts come out so much nicer I think than plain heat transfer.

Please let me know
THANKS A LOT


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## bungy (Aug 24, 2006)

Alex,
The software he is using would be an embroidery softaware like Wilcom, Pulse, Sierra etc...there are a number on the market.
A version to do just lettering will set you back about US$1500
A small commercial embroidery machine *new* from US$5000. Brands include Happy, Tajima, ZSK, SWF, Brother, Barudan.
You can pick them up second hand, contact the suppliers for each brand and see what they have.

I am in Australia, I have been running my embroidery busines since 1999...it is a steep learning curve getting a handle on the software so you can put out decent work. If you have any other questions, just ask.


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## gmille39 (Oct 18, 2006)

I am also kind of going this route. I was told by SWF that I need to allow myself 3-6 months before I start putting out a great product. There is a lot to learn as far as thread tension and a large number of fabrics and so forth. You can lease machines for fairly little per month and the payment is usually fully tax deductible. Not sure how the tax situation would be down under. You could alway take on the business and outsource the embroidery for a while as you are learning to use the equipment. You can take the work your source is doing and try to duplicate it on your own. Corec also has a program, Drawings XS, not to be confused with CorelDraw X3.

Good Luck


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## bungy (Aug 24, 2006)

I run both Happy (single head) and SWF (4 head) machines, both brands are very good. But these days nearly all the commercial machines perform well, the purchase decision comes down to after sales service and price (your budget) in many cases.

The digitising software is the biggest hurdle, learning how it works takes time. It can also get frustrating if you don't get good results right away. I have been in this industry since 1999 and I still have a lot to learn, you never stop learning.

Also I would suggest joining one of the online lists specific to your machine/software as they are a great source of information and assistance...even before you buy join and post questions, you wil get your information from end users and not some sales speech.

The easiest way to progress is to initially find a good digitiser to do your designs. Then watch how the designs stitch out on your machine, by doing this this you will see how your digitiser did the design, where they started, what order the did the various elements stitch length/direction etc, very helpful for when you do your own designs at a later date. Trying to learn the machine and learn to digitise (the way i did it) puts a lot of exra pressure on you as you try and digest all this information and try and use it to produce acceptable garments. If I had to do it again, I would probably hold off buying digitising software for the first year and concentrate on getting my machine skills sorted, then think about digitising. 

I think being a machine operator first has didstinct advantages, as you know how your machine works and handles various materials, you can then use this knowledge when digitising your own designs. The reason I say this is because each brand of machine stitches slightly different to another.

I can put the same design in the Happy & SWF and the result will be slightly different, both acceptable but I can see differences in the final stitch out that the customer would probably not notice.

I use CORELDraw X3 for my artwork, and Corel Drawings is still fairly new (last 5 years or so), but you need to buy a upgrade from the entry level if you want to do many of the adjustments eg stitch length, direction, density etc. If you have clean artwork I understand it is very good, but if you are given less then perfect art it doesn't handle it as well...you would spend a lot of time editing the design before you stitch it....probably easier to do it manually and in a lot of cases still do it in the same time.

If most of your designs will be of your of making, then Drawings could be for you, COREL Draw comes with it so don't worry if you don't have it beforehand. I don't think you can buy it without DRAW being bundled with it...check the COREL website for more info.


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## The Boston Joka (Oct 29, 2006)

Sorry about the dumb question, I am new but what is in a simple definition
digitism?


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## John S (Sep 9, 2006)

The Boston Joka said:


> Sorry about the dumb question, I am new but what is in a simple definition digitism?


"Digitizing" is creating a sewing file. 

A "Digitizer" would take an art file, like a vector or jpeg and create the commands that the embroidery machine needs to sew out the file.


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