Morning, I have a set of dish towels I need to embroider as a gift. What’s the status of the embroidery machines?
The embroidery machine is working.
Have you been trained on it?
It has a few fonts in it, but if you need a whole embroidery file I’d advise you to buy a design you like off of Etsy. Creating embroidery files is not easy, and we currently do not have a teacher/the software for it.
It uses .his and brother embroidery files.
For towels, be sure you have wash-away stabilizer for the top, so the loops of the towel do not toilet through, and be sure to set the machine’s speed to the slowest setting.
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I used to teach it actually 
. I was only asking because I saw a post a month or two ago where Beth said it was making funny noises
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Yep!
It’s all good now. A piece of trim was squeaking against the main drive shaft.
Prior to that, an embroidery needle had broken and gotten lodged in the hook area.
When are you planning on coming in?
I’ll make sure we have some fresh embroidery needles out for it.
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Oh, not totally sure, hopefully before thanksgiving 
Will there be classes in the near future? I’d be interested in learning how to use it.
It’s been a hot second since I used it, but once I refamiliarize myself (read through my notes and run some files), I’m not opposed to teaching a class or two
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Classes focus on how to use the machine to print out a file. We usually do about one class a month on how to use it.
We cannot teach how to create your own embroidery file in a single day or afternoon. Using the machine and creating the files are two very separate things. About like the difference between knowing how to type, and becoming a writer.
The machine itself does have fonts, so you can do monogramming. And it’s easy to upload custom files into it- that is covered in the class. If you want a custom files, I do have a list of good digitizers that can make a file for you (usually less than $20).
Embroidery files are not simple vector files, and a bad embroidery file can hurt the machine.
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Second this. I tried diy file once and it’s frankly just not worth the time and effort unless you’re really invested and willing to get good software and practice. And tbh it was a bit of a pain to be working on the file at home and then have to drive up and test, or having to spend ages up at the space tweaking this, testing tweaking. And it’s fairly affordable to just buy files or pay some to design a simple one.
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Understood, my desires are pretty simple for the moment anyhow. I’d definitely like to see that list.
I’ve been thinking about putting up the class. Are you better with Thursday evenings or Sunday afternoons?
If it happens to be the week before thanksgiving then Thursday, otherwise either is good for me. Will be out of town for the holiday, so I felt I should mention it.
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That’s cool. While I am running the Maker Sale for that weekend, I’d prefer to skip classes on holiday weekends. I like to have my classes fill.
I’ll put it up for Thursday 11/21 7 pm. That will have it on the Calendar long enough to fill up.
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Thank you so much, see you then!
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Now live on the Calendar…
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/23254
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If there is a online orientation class for sewing could you please post a link.
Thank you.
Sewing machines aren’t something you can learn from a video.
For experienced sewists, there is an in-person orientation next Wednesday evening before the sewing sig meeting.
Otherwise sewing 101 will happen twice next month, and has been put in weekly this month.
Thank you, looks like I interpreted some info wrong.
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You can email [email protected] to let us know you would like the 101 class. We do respond to emails!
Sewing can’t quite do what ceramics does, because sewing machines are more breakable. Instead, we offer experienced sewists the opportunity to ‘test out’ of sewing 101, or get certified on the industrial machines, as well as a quick ‘where is everything/what are the rules’.
On 11/20 have an hour booked before our monthly meeting to do the 'where is everything
Additionally, in response to email volume, we put up more classes, and try to work out individual solutions for those that already have sewing experience or have unique schedules.
Thank you!