Sew Inspired, LLC - Sleepless Crafter

I’ve learned a lot about my Singer XL400 Embroidery Sewing Machine since I wrote my review. Reverse Stitch Button One thing that I didn’t know about the XL400, that I had to edit in my review was the ability to “back-stitch” when the thread runs out or breaks. It was frustrating that the thread ran out and there was no way—or so I thought—to go back and re-stitch where there were no stitches. There’s a little magic button on the machine, called the “ Reverse Stitch Button ” just above the Start/Stop button.

I’ve had this machine for a few months now, have embroidered several designs from simple words to detailed designs of over 60,000 stitches, endured a few frustrations over it, but overall I love this machine.  My first embroidery machine was the Singer Futura CE250 , so I traded up for the Singer Futura XL400 . It has it’s pros and cons, which I’m going to thoroughly address here. I’m also going to give a few helpful hints, tips, and tricks on operating the machine. If you've lost the software to your machine, check out my post here .

I have a Singer Futura CE250 with AutoPunch Software. The capability to take any graphic image and convert it to embroidery is the main reason I purchased it.  The problem is, it doesn’t do a very good job converting the images to clean, good-looking embroidery designs.  So searched online to find a better program. I like to try before I buy. The programs I’ve found range anywhere from $50 to $2,000. Here are some samples of what some of these programs can do. There are many more programs out there, but they don’t have trial versions or the trial versions that they have do not allow auto digitizing. Click the images to see them larger.

My sister-in-law is having a baby in May, so I made her a diaper bag and blanket. I embroidered her baby's name, Ian, on the blanket. I went through 5 sewing needles before I finally got my sewing machine figured out. I had just bought a new sewing machine that does embroidery, and it was a pain getting it adjusted right. I was about to get rid of it. Then I started sewing with it and it worked like a dream. It put my old sewing machine to shame.