Brother Sewing and Embroidery Machine, 4 Star Wars Faceplates, 10 Downloadable Star Wars Designs, 80 Designs, 103 Built-In Stitches, 4" x 4" Hoop Area, 3.2" Touchscreen, 7 Included Feet

I finally bought myself a brand new sewing machine. I have always had hand-me-down machines my whole adult life. I broke down and bought this one. I have been using it for a few weeks now and have enjoyed the process of learning it.Threading: very easy. Has a needle threader which I never had before. I have used it every time threading the machine and it always works like a charm. Winding the bobbin was a bit more tricky, but I discovered the trick to it and now do not have any trouble.Sewing Normally: As a sewing machine, this is very steady and even. It has a foot pedal, but you can also push the button and have it sew without the pedal as well. It has a speed lever as well (which I have never had before) so you can slow it way down if you are working with tricky fabric, or speed it right up when working through easy projects. The speed works with your pedal as well, so if you are not comfortable sewing above a certain speed, you can set the lever there. It's been a really nice feature that I didn't know I needed. LOTS of different options for stitches that come installed. Easy to find what you need and change the length of the stitches. Because I had always worked with a very old machine, this took a bit of adjustment, but now I have so many options. It's great.Embroidery: I have never had an embroidery machine, so this was brand new. Super easy to switch from one to the other. Throw the attachment on, change the presser foot and you are ready to go. I have been playing around with it and it has been really fun to put writing or monograms on things. It comes with several pre-loaded images or you can head to IBroidery.com to download more. I had to email customer service to help me with downloading my free packs of embroidery patterns, but they helped out and now I have both packs that came free with my machine. (Probably should be pre-loaded, but I can't complain too much!)Style: This machine is actually way lighter than any machine I have ever owned. I am guessing because more of the workings are made of plastic, but as we all know, sewing machines can be beasts! So, if I ever needed to take it anywhere, I wouldn't need to visit a chiropractor afterwards! It does shift around just a bit while I am working with it sometimes, but it hasn't been an issue. If I needed to, I could buy a silicone mat for it and that would take care of the slippage. Now, I happen to be a big geek, so the added fun of the faceplates are a bonus. But, you do not have to put them on! The machine looks just fine without the plates. I got the Star Wars machine and immediately put Leia on there. She looks great and I probably won't need to change it any time soon.Overall, I'm extremely happy with this purchase. So glad I decided to do this for myself.

The media could not be loaded. Overall - great beginner machine.This is my first embroidery capable machine. I had never worked with an embroidery machine before - and this one is super beginner friendly. I have not used it yet for regular sewing - but the embroidery is absolutely great. Very easy to learn and operate.The hardest part has been learning how to create my own embroidery designs. I highly recommend Inkscape with the ink stitch extension for this. Requires some tech skills to install depending on your computer type (I use mac), but there’s tons of videos on the internet and instructions on GitHub for this. Plus, Inkscape / ink stitch is free! Other programs for embroidery design run anywhere from $50-$1000 (and many aren’t supported on Mac). And there’s lots of tutorial videos for how to use the the Inkscape/ink stitch program to create your own designs. This machine works with .pen or .pes files easily.Alternatively, if you’re just looking to make embroidery designs you can download from a website like ibroidery, or just use the pre-programmed patterns in the machine, this machine is basically completely idiot proof. I was able to easily download the free Star Wars files from ibroidery (the website does look like it was built in 1999 and is a little cumbersome, and it does ask for a credit card, but doesn’t charge it), that was super easy and worked from the usb drive immediately after downloading.Absolutely fantastic beginner machine. I was able to plug and play right away. Get quality machine embroidery thread. It didn’t do as well with metallic or glittery threads, but I really think that’s more of a thread issue than a machine issue.Oh! And brother has an app. It’s got the whole manual in it as well as instructional videos which is way easier than thumbing through the huge manual the machine comes with.Overall, I’m a very happy customer! Super excited to incorporate this machine into my cosplay and costuming designs.

The media could not be loaded. I love this product. I did purchase myself.First thing I noticed I loved about this machine is the fact that it can thread itself. AMAZING.(That being said you do need to make sure the needle is in the exact place to get it threaded properly, which isnt hard to do)Second thing is that it sews effortlessly and so easy to use. The touchscreen is a huge plus and I love that it's in color.I'm a beginner at embroidery and this machine helped me to figure it out quickly with its touchscreen guide.

Great starter machine for embroidery. It's pretty self explanatory. Gives step by step instructions on the screen and the manual is easy to understand. The sewing is very good and so far the only down side with the embroidery is getting the stabilizer and fabric into the hoop straight. I do regret that I didn't bite the bullet and get a machine with a larger hoop. This machine is great and I have found a lot of patterns for the 4x4 hoop. Really glad I bought it!

I am new to sewing. I was teaching myself on an older model Brother and decided I wanted a more updated one. It’s a great sewing machine. It’s easy to use, has a lot of neat features and sews so smoothly. I haven’t tried the embroidery part yet as I want to get more experienced in sewing before I try that. The only reason for the four stars is because it arrived without a power cord. I was so disappointed. I had to call the Brother manufacturer to get one sent to me which took over a month to receive. In the meantime I found a power cord on Amazon that fit just so I could use it while I waited for the one from Brother. An extra expense I shouldn’t have had, but at least I was able to enjoy my machine a few days after it arrived.