Brother PE-400D

HI Snappy - I have one - love it for what I do with it... It's my travel machine.... Classes, vacations, friend's houses, etc. Good motor, doesn't sew exceedingly fast but great stitch, embroidery is 4x4; excellent stitchouts, piece with it all the time. It quilts wonderfully with walking foot, just not much room in the arm if you want to tackle anything large.

I use it for many 4x4 designs instead of the ULT2001 I have. I've even stitched out the same design on both, and taken them to local repair guys to prove my ULT's alignment was out once.

It's 5mm throw instead of 7mm, if that matters to you.

Anything specific? Beowulf

Thanks for the information, Beowulf,

I am just a beginner. I don't own any other sewing machine. I was looking for a sewing machine that also does embroidery, but didn't want to spend the big bulks for ULT series.

From what I can tell, I won't be able to create my own embroidery patterns with this model without buying the PE Design software or something equivalent. I was looking at PED-Basic, but it can only download or copy pattern files, but not creating one. I don't think this will drive my descision, but I just want to know how it works.

So, here is what I figured out so far. Without buying any additional software, I can only use the patterns that are built in to the machine. I can buy additional memory cards to get additional design patterns. To download anything from the internet, I will need some kind of memory read/write box and a blank memory card. To create my own design, I will need expensive design software such as PE Design. Am I getting this all right?

snappy

Sounds like you've got a good handle on this, Snappy.

Other things to look in to regarding design/cards, etc. The softwares/hardwares available to get designs on to a card are many (PED-Basic, PE-Design, Amazing Box, Magic Box, Black Box, PES2Card, Ultimate Box, etc.) - you are correct - you would need one of them. As to digitizing, think about what you really want to do - there are other softwares (Embird for example) that you can do basic digiting, BuzzEdit where you can modify (and with the version coming, create), etc. and don't cost as much as PEDesign.

Beowulf

Have you considered the Brother Pacesetter PC8500 (or D version)? I got a great deal online at:

Marvelous Creations

shipped with the PE5 upgrade. I don't know if he's still runningthat special, but you might want to check it out. Out the door, I think (and don't trust my memory) I paid about $1500 and that was about 6-8 months ago. Marvin (the owner) also included all kinds of extras: 2 memory cards, stabilizer, thread, scissors -- and I don't recall, there was just so much.

Good luck in your hunt!