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Kamala Embroidery

all about the Brother SE400 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

Brother SE400 Video From YouTube

By KAMALA in Videos • 10 Comments

This is a video from HSN demonstrating the Brother HE-240 Sewing and Embroidery machine with USB port. The HE-240 is a private label that Brother made exclusively for HSN. It’s identical to the SE400 except perhaps for some accessories and bonuses HSN includes.

Don’t be put off by the price in the video. You can get the SE400 for more than $130 less at Amazon. If you want the bonuses, than buy the HE240 from HSN. But be sure to check the prices sold separately. HSN also offers a monthly payment plan which may be worth it to you. Otherwise your best buy is the Brother SE400 from Amazon.

Click here to read my detailed review of the Brother SE400.

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  • How do you make a 3 letter monogram with a larger middle letter?How do you make a 3 letter monogram with a larger middle letter?

Our Readers Respond ...

  1. Pam says

    September 25, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    With the bobbin do you need to change each color your using for your thread, in embroidering a design? I’m new to all this. I haven’t sewn much since I was in middle school. Thats been a very very long time ago Thats a little bit of sewing here and there throughout the years. When they taught Home Economics classes. Back in the day they taught us how to sew and how to cook. Back then when we were sewing your bobbin thread was the same color as the thread you were using on your project.

    Reply
  2. Betty Roberts says

    June 18, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    I am new to the SE-400. When I attempt to transfer an embroidery pattern from my computer to the machine the # of KB show up but no picture of the pattern. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
  3. Paula Dwyer says

    February 26, 2017 at 1:23 pm

    Hello Kamala,
    I need your help. I have just purchased the Brother SE-400. I cannot figure out how to change the cm to inches. I also cannot for the life of me understand how to increase the font when I change the layout from portrait to landscape. If I put the size to L or M I receive a message that the size is too large for my size of frame.
    Also, I have been playing around with the feature of downloading images from my computer. The instructional video says a window will pop up on my screen once the USB cable is plugged into my machine. That does not happen. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
  4. ana munoz says

    September 23, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    I just got my brother 400se, when I embroider, only my white bobbin thread sews onto the fabric. None of my top colored thread even is sewn onto my fabric. What did I do wrong?

    Reply
    • Susanne R Rallis says

      January 21, 2018 at 6:30 pm

      Hi,
      I had the same thing happen. Check the threading then check the threading of the bobbin. I found I had to put some effort into making sure the bobbin was threaded correctly so the bobbin tension was correct. You may need to loosen up the top tension and slightly tighten the bobbin tension.

      Reply
  5. Rita says

    March 13, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    I bought the se400 embroidery machine. I’ve tried a few embroidery designs but twice it has jammed and the upper thread gets wrapped around the bobbin. I’m using the bobbin thread on the bobbin and the embroidery thread on the spool holder and using stabilizer I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong?

    Reply
  6. Tammy cronk says

    December 1, 2014 at 8:00 pm

    I changed my embroidery se400 brother machine back to sewing and now it won’t feed the material threw. Please help

    Reply
  7. Tammy cronk says

    December 1, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    I came by and brought green machine back to a selling machine and now it won’t feed the material threw. Please help

    Reply
  8. Jane says

    December 3, 2013 at 7:26 pm

    Hi Kamala! I have to say your website is most helpful! I’ve just gotten a Brother SE400 and am a complete rookie- still trying to understand what I need, particularly with regard to software. I got the machine from a points catalog at work, so no retailer to help me out. There seem to be so many options and I’m afraid to purchase for fear that something may not be compatible. My main goal is to simply embroider monograms and lettering, though I may venture into letter appliques as well. I the machine and included hoop/accessories, thread adn some tear away stabilizer, but am stuck on the software. I know I’ll likely purchase fonts or alphabets (not sure exactly the difference yet) to be able to do single inititials as well as the traditional 3-letter monograms (with circles, diamond pattern or swirly with smaller outside letters). I know I need to be able to merge and size, particularly if the letters are individual files. For monogramming, with potential for later expansion, is there an inexpensive ~$100 ish software you recommend? I’ve seen a couple out there, but am unclear if they will all work with the brother. It seems somet things are proprietary and may not. I’ve also ordered an adapter to (hopefully) be able to save files from my computer to a flash drive and use the adapter with the USB cord to get it to the machine, rather than carry the machine to my desktop computer. I’m also baffled by the quanitity of fonts/alphabets out there-some free, cheap or expensive – any guidance as to what to look for in a quality piece, or is it a “you get what you pa for” situation? Sorry for the rambling questions – I’m excited to get started, but don’t want to waste money buying software/fonts until I really understand what I need for my particular goal- monogramming. Thanks a ton for all of the information so far!!
    ~Jane (Richmond, VA)

    Reply
    • Kamala says

      December 3, 2013 at 8:23 pm

      Hi Jane, Welcome to the world of machine embroidery with the SE400! Fonts contain computer instructions for displaying letters like in MS Word or other software that runs on your computer. They can’t be understood by the SE400. You would need a computer program to convert them to an embroidery file. Alphabets are embroidery design files, one letter or symbol or flourish or whatever per file. You can transfer them to the SE400 and stitch them. But as you said, you’ll need software to merge them into a monogram. In my opinion, it’s too difficult and time consuming to try to get them lined up if you stitch them individually. However, there’s a lot of confusion about the terminology and some people call alphabets “fonts.”

      All the third-party software (not from another machine manufacturer) I’ve heard of will work with the SE400. The software runs on your computer and must be able to save an embroidery file in a .pes format and support a 4×4 inch frame size. This is a very common format. Brother of course has their own software. I don’t know much about it because I have the impression (could be wrong) that it’s expensive.

      I use Embrilliance because it runs on my Mac (also on PC). Many people like Embird. The basic software will do what you want and they have add-on modules for more advanced features later. It might be a bit more than you want to spend. http://www.secretsof.com has Embird for about 10% less than Embird.com so look there too. People also like SewWhatPro, but I’m not sure of its expansion potential. All of those will work with the SE400 and have free trials, so you can try them first and make sure it doesn’t what you want.

      There are also special programs just for monograming, if you really only wanted to do fancy monograms. I don’t know anything about them because my general-purpose software suits my needs. I’m not sure I recommend this approach because I think that once you get into embroidery, you’ll find many other creative projects you want to do. ;-)

      I don’t think the adapter will work because the SE400 can’t copy the files from the flash drive. The SE400 looks like an external drive to the computer, and the computer’s system software does the copying. But I would love to be wrong about this. So please let me know if you get it to work.

      It’s difficult to judge the quality of a design without trying it. I think there are a lot of cheap designs out there that might not give you the quality you want. But then for some projects might be OK. I’m not sure it’s always true that the price goes along with the quality. Some designers just seem to charge more. I usually try for a middle range that I’m happy with. Letters in particular are difficult because there are so many styles to choose from. I generally just find one I like and look to see if the designer has free designs. Most good designers offer free designs as a sample of their work. If not and I really like the design, I might just risk it if it’s not too expensive. Or just buy one letter in a set to try. Then I stitch it out to see on some test fabric before investing a lot of money. I always test a new design first before risking it on a project.

      Hope this helps, Good luck and I’m so glad you find the site useful.
      Kamala

      Reply

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Welcome to my BrotherSE400 Blog

Kamala Kelly, Brother SE400 EnthusiastHi, I'm Kamala. I love all the textile arts and started making my own clothes when a young child. As an embroidery machine, the Brother SE400 was my first love, and I started this website to share my experiences, discoveries, and also to provide reviews on anything related to the Brother SE400.

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