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

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.

I'm still using my Brother SE400 but wanted a larger hoop. My only complaint is Brother changed the hoops. For that reason I give 4 stars. I find this new hoop difficult to attach. I'm disappointed that I have to repurchase all my hoops again because they're not interchangeable. Otherwise I'm satisfied with my PE800. I am using it for myself and family only. I sew for pleasure. I'll update with pictures after I've had a chance to use it. Will add that it was easy to learn and use. The instruction book is very helpful. Appreciate the 90wt bobbin thread. Update: Have given 5 stars. Have attached picture of test stitch out. Came out perfect from the machine. Four stars for me because even though I used yellow chalk to mark my pattern I still got it slightly crooked. Practice makes perfect. I still find attaching the hook problematic but no longer worth losing a whole star.

I hadn't done much machine embroidery when I got this as a gift, and I find it's relatively easy to use even though I'm almost an idiot when to comes to software and transferring embroidery designs. Read the instructions manual and go at it. Leave the presser foot up to thread the machine or let it self-thread; that's the trickiest part, and it's a piece of cake. Online videos are available if you get stuck on something, but even a beginner shouldn't have too much difficulty once the basic set-up is completed. It sews beautifully (and I don't even understand how to adjust the upper tension yet, so that's quite a compliment). I've been surprised at how much I've done in a month, how much I actually can do and how great embroidery designs come out. Yeah, Brother!! Even on the Sunday of the NFL/AFL championship games this year, the conversation was a lot about what great products Brother makes. This is a winner!!! No time out, and no "Game's over."

This is a very lovely machine! Easy to use & fairly easy to learn. Has a authentic threader in which we have not been able to work for us but im sure we're not doing something right. We find it easier to just thread it our selves. Still need to learn more but enjoying the beautiful designs it stitches out beautifully. This has brought the family together for fun & some beautiful embroidered shirts & towels. The 14 year old niece caught on faster & has made some beautiful towels. Love the color display & you can import your own PES files that can be purchased on Etsy or embroidery sites. This is an embroidery machine only. I have a new Brother sewing machine that I love as well. I grew up on Singer but im really loving these 2 Brother machines!

I am working on my 6th simple embroidery and so far I intensely dislike using this overly fussy machine. The needle threader doesn't want to work consistently, the threading through the bobbin tension discs was unclear. It takes a long time to get the fabric and the stabilizer into the hoops. Snapping the hoop on to the machine and removing it is awkward. Getting the spools of thread arranged into the machine is difficult because the slick thread wants to go everywhere. I'm going to practice some more, but there's a good chance I'm going to return this machine. So far I love the results, but I despise the machine. It's not fun to use. Very frustrating! I think these problems may be inherent in embroidery machines and I'm not going to do this hobby. This machine should have come with an instructional DVD and it does not. I bought a serger from Brother years ago and I loved it, but it came with a basic instructional DVD which was excellent. I'm not a professional, but I have a lot of experience sewing. I'll update this review, but at this time I regret this purchase and plan to return the machine if things don't get better in a hurry. I didn't expect to be somebody who would dislike this machine. Brother is shooting themselves in the foot by not including instructional dvds. Update, 6 weeks later: I have figured out the automatic needle threader finally and I can get it first try about 80 to 90% of the time. I really like the machine now. I can't imagine why they didn't include an instructional DVD. I had to go through several YouTube videos to find anything decent. I raised the review to four stars. I'm quite mechanically inclined and I had some trouble learning this machine at first. I have a feeling that a lot of complaints people have about the machine or products they use with it are really because they're messing up some fussy little details (which should have been covered in a professional instructional DVD!)

Purchased this a number of years ago on a black friday sale. I had a pe770 and this has so many upgraded features. The screen is so much easier to read. Best feature is it remembers your stitch location if the power is shut off. Worst feature is it has trouble reading thread level on bobbins. It very rarely gives me a low bobbin warning. I've tried cleaning the sensor and using different brands of bobbins. I just have to pay attention and change it out when low. If you are just getting into embroidery I would highly suggest this machine. It's extremely user friendly and you can do so much with it. As a personal use machine (and light use small business machine) you can't beat the features or the price.

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.