Brother PE800 Embroidery Machine, 138 Built-in Designs, 5" x 7" Hoop Area, Large 3.2" LCD Touchscreen, USB Port, 11 Font Styles

This machine is easy to use right out of the box and does an excellent job on virtually every fabric. Others have mentioned tension and thread breakage issues but I have had no issues with tension or thread breaking once I did two very simple things - first and MOST IMPORTANT is adding a simple felt pad to the back end of the thread spindle. This simple thing will save you from the frustration of broken thread. The reason is the thread spool spins faster than the machine can stitch the thread so the thread tangles and wraps itself around the spindle, the tension is off, the thread breaks. The felt pad reduces the spin of the thread spool so the thread pulls off at a controlled rate thereby maintaining the machine tension. So simple, but effective. The other trick is the spool net. This simple 'sock' keeps the thread from jumping off the spool. The felt pad and spool net eliminates virtually EVERY thread tension breakage issue, both these items are inexpensive and can be purchased here on Amazon. Who would have thought it could be that simple! I have used this machine to embroider cotton, wool felt, cotton cording, and vilene (used for lace making) and have had ZERO tension/thread breaking issues. So, back to the machine...easy and intuitive, but it does come with an excellent, easy to read, logical owners manual that will get you embroidering in no time. Lots of preloaded designs, the on board computer screen is large and easy to see, design edits are possible and easy to accomplish. Stitch size is a good 7x5" which is a very reasonable design area recognized by virtually every digitized designer. Accepts a standard USB flash drive, insert the drive into the machine and your designs are viewable on the machine's screen. Can't get much easier! If you are toying with the idea of purchasing an embroidery machine, do it! This machine will not disappoint you.

Amazing machine! Super simple to use right out of the box, especially with all the YouTube videos available out there. Some of my favorite online places to download patterns is urbanthreads.com and emblibrary.com and etsy.com . I've only had it 5 days and these are some of the things I've made with it.One of the things I've learned along the way is you must use decent supplies and not skimp and cut corners. I ordered the pack of "new brothread" embroidery thread from Amazon and it works wonderfully and one box of 40 colors is going to last me for awhile. Even with all I've done, these 500m cones barely look used still. You also must use a good backing. I love the tear away backing also by "new brothread". You have to have a spray adhesive and I've learned go lightly with it, don't use too much. Just enough to barely stick it together. And the last thing I've learned is the bobbin thread must be #90. New Brothread also sells a wonderful black and white bobbin thread set and it comes on a teal cone so you can tell it apart from other large cones of thread. Winding your own bobbins is super easy. I've read reviews where people said it didn't work well and all they purchase are pre-wound bobbins. The machine comes with 4 bobbins and so far that seems like enough if you stay on top of winding them. Although you can stop your project at any time and wind and replace bobbins without it messing things up. I found that by using quality supplies, I can walk away from the machine while it's working away on something and most likely there won't be an issue. If you use the wrong stuff, it will malfunction constantly and be very aggravating.It's an incredible machine at an incredible price. The on-board editing is a little limited and could be better, but I've read about computer programs out there that make it better and someday hope to buy that. Also, when you download things to the thumb drive it's hard to tell what is what because it shows up as blobs on the screen. But it does go in order of downloads so if you want your most recent download you just go to the very end pic.I would totally recommend this machine! It's been SO MUCH FUN!!!

The Brother PE800 is a big upgrade from the Brother PE770. I'm a beginner at embroidery, and after a lot of research on You Tube, blogs, and forums, I am a very happy owner of this Brother PE800. I have used the PE770, a very good machine, but very hard to see the images on the b&w screen. The color screen on the PE800 is very clear and easy to use, allowing you to actually see what you are embroidering. I have a lot more to learn about the machine, but will share some of the features I have found I love. The PE800 allows you to add and edit multiple designs and fonts on screen, place letters in an arc and on 2 lines, drag and drop embroidery patterns, and move and position your pattern with the touch of your finger. The PE800 has a built in color palette that allows you to change individual thread colors on screen. The workspace and around the needle is super illuminated with 2 bright LED lights.The bobbin uses 90 weight bobbin thread; I ordered a big box of pre wound bobbins and much prefer to use them than winding my own. Use good quality upper thread, correct weight of bobbin thread, stabilize your material correctly, and you should have a really good time using this machine. Sit down with your manual and go through it step by step. It's fun and there are so many possibilities with the choices of patterns out there. The PE800 has the USB flash drive port, making it easy to put any purchased embroidery patterns on the machine to embroider.The PE770 and PE800 both take the same hoops. Big plus for me because I had all the hoops for the PE770.

Love this product. I’m still learning things that I can do with it! Will continue to recommend it to anyone.