I’ve been thinking about getting an embroidery/sewing machine for ages and finally found one that I like. Brother Innov-is NV955
I’m now playing with SewArt to produce my own designs. It’s a steep learning curve so suggestions welcome. You Tube is proving to be useful.
One of the big problems with this forum is that I keep finding out about new things that I didn’t know I wanted!
Nice toy! 
I have a Brother PE-770… Love to make wall art and embellishments for the grandkids!
Monogrammed dust cover for the Glowforge, coming right up!
That presumes that you aren’t going to be using it for something every day, and so far, it hasn’t worked out that way for me yet…maybe one day. chuckle! 
I bought a Brother SE400 on Amazon’s Prime Day just for the heck of it. I have a shop full of woodworking tools and metal working tools. I decided I need some cloth working tools. I haven’t even gotten as far as embroidering Glen’s name on anything yet.
Does anyone know a free way to make Brother-compatible .PES files?
I have a modest Brother sewing machine with a small embroidery hoop, but I have yet to use it since I can’t find a free (or at least cheap) way to make designs. $75 for Sew Art is a lot for something that I may not use much.
Long time machine embroidery person. Husqvarna Viking brand for years. Have bought embroidery software updates many times. Glowforge was cheap in comparison to the machines.
Loads of fun!
I’ve looked…and ended up buying Embrilliance. For the price, Sew Art may be your best bet.
That’s a great little sewing machine! I got one a few years ago and learned a lot. Then I broke it (through no fault of the machine. I was sewing-whilst-under-the-influence and tried to force 4-6 layers of fleece and corduroy through it. I was making a dog bed. Theoretically, anyway. The dog sleeps in my bed so I’m not sure who I was kidding).
But my parents got me another one when it was on sale on Amazon. Because they love me and probably don’t quite understand just how irresponsible I am.
But I promise to treat this one more kindly. So far I’ve kindly not taken it out of the box, but that isn’t it’s fault either. Don’t expect it to sew all the fabric ever, all at once, and you’ll probably get along great 
Rodeo boss wants to buy an embroidery machine for the business. He’s tired of paying and waiting for sponsor patches to come in the mail for his team shirts. Any suggestions on which to buy for making patches?
I checked the brother site but they’re really pushing this sort of pay as you go licensed art App Store based machine and I really have no interest in that.
I would just like to get my hands on my Glowforge first (UK Customer… 
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I have been thinking about this for a while and my limited research has brought me to this machine and SewArt for the following reasons:
The Machine has good reviews
It is both a sewing machine and embroidery machine
Although the embroidery area is only 100mm x 100mm that is probably big enough for me. Also, I believe this can be made bigger by purchasing a bigger hoop although I haven’t looked very deeply at this.
Embroidery software is a rip off. Some software is more expensive than the machine. It’s clearly such a small market that they can get away with that. SewArt has a 1 month limited trial which only allows you to use 3 colours however this may be enough for some. If you just want 1 design over and over you may get away just using the trial software.
SewArt looks and feels like old software but seems to work well. My next test will be with this design. Two colour and very simple. I’ll put up a picture my results. For what it’s worth, I have basic photo-editing skill and only some vague sewing memories from school so if I can do it, most people should be able to.
This is a picture of the finished work. I only had yellow thread so swapped the colours. IT was a little mesmerising to watch. Takes a little watching as you have to cut threads as you go but all in all pretty easy.
I now have to look at designs with more colours.
Turned out great! 
Thanks a bunch for posting that example, very educational!
Please, no lasing under the influence! 
If you know how to use inkscape, there is a free embroidery design extension called ink stick. It is not as advanced as the specialty programs, but it is free and you can download into many different embroidery compatible files (such as .PES).
I did not know about that but rest assured, that is getting downloaded and tried tonight. Thanks.
