Brother Quilting Machine Reviews

Relatively cheap and packed full of features. A must have for any home, workshop, or makerspace that wants to include sewing of any kind.

Introduction

The Brother Se400 and Se425 are combination sewing and embroidery machines. They are computerized, meaning that you can drop in a design and the machine will physically move a gantry to stitch your pattern into the fabric, much like a plotter. The computerization isn’t limited to embroidery as there are also built-in stitches for utility, like button hole stitching at the press of a button. Brother has a great reputation for making sewing machines that are easy to use and reliable.

Features directly from the manufacturer:

• 67 built-in sewing stitches, including utility, quilting, heirloom and decorative stitches.
• 70 built-in embroidery designs, 5 embroidery fonts and 120 frame pattern combinations
• Large 4″ x 4″ embroidery area
• Easy-to-view back-lit, touch screen LCD display
• Design editing features including rotate, mirror-images, increase and decrease the size of your designs
• Computer connectivity for importing designs and updating your machine(USB cable included)
• Easy threading, with automatic needle threader
• Super easy bobbin winding system
• Quick-Set™ drop-in top bobbin
• Built-in tutorials on how to use the SE400’s sewing and embroidery functions, right on the LCD touch screen display.

My Observations

I have sewn off and on for many years. I’ve never really focused on this particular skill though. My familiarization with each machine has been limited to getting the task at hand completed. In doing so, I have actively sewn on roughly 5 or 6 different machines multiple times. I am not a complete beginner when it comes to machine sewing, however I am a complete beginner when it comes to embroidery (beyond simple hand stitching). I picked up this machine because I have some patches in mind that I would like to create. If you’re interested in following along with me as I learn about this and figure out how to make patches with integrated circuits, you are welcome to follow my personal youtube channel. There will be more concise and clear tutorials published on Make: as I figure things out as well.