Sew Inspired, LLC - Sleepless Crafter

When I was about six years old, my aunt gave me and my sister her entire Barbie collection (which was a lot). Over the years, they have gotten worn and needed some touch-ups. I researched how to touch up the paint, what kind of paint to use, etc. Then I went to work. I had a lot of fun giving my vintage Barbies makeovers and making them look like new. My daughters brought me their Barbies, too, to touch up or change the color of the lipstick.

Joann’s Fabrics had their 99-cent sale on Simplicity Patterns, so I bought a bunch of Barbie clothes patterns. My daughters saw all of them and squealed as they picked out which ones they wanted me to make. My oldest daughter was so persistent, she picked out the fabric and said, “Come on, Mommy, let’s make my Barbie dress.” So I gave in.

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 absolutely love this machine!

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 thought it would be a super cute idea to make my son matching pajamas for him and his Cabbage Patch Doll. It took me a few days to get to the fabric that I’d purchased at Joann’s and he kept asking about his new “nighties”. I finally got around to making them and he absolutely loves them.

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.