I've been teaching my daughter how to sew and we've made some really cute creations [music] together, but we
wanted to take it to the next level. So, we decided to look into embroidery machines. [music] I wanted to get
something that was easy to use, easy to maintain, had a large enough [music]
embroidery area for different types of projects, and the ability to do
different types of fabrics, including hats. She wanted
>> colors. And that's how we ended up with the buy
mirror embroidery machine. [music] It's an entry-level commercial machine. And
the first question you might have is why commercial? The first reason is that
everything I read online said that you should get the biggest embroidery area
that you can afford. And this can do up to 20 by 14 in. [music] And secondly, I
wanted to be able to do hats and most small machines that are for at home
hobby use aren't able to do that. The other thing that she wanted was multiple
colors, which meant we needed a multi- needle machine. And lastly, Creator
Warehouse recommended it. It's a no-brainer at that point. They had friends in the embroidery industry who
said that the buy brand was basically a copy of the Tajima brand, which [music]
is the ultimate embroidery brand, but at a fraction of the cost. And this checked
out. When I went to the local suppliers, I saw Brother brand machines where they
had [music] six needles that were double the cost of the buy mirror machine,
which has 15 needles. The online ordering process was actually really
simple. [music] I just went online, placed my order, and I actually picked it up at a local warehouse and saved
$800 [music] in shipping, which was amazing. But it
meant that Lionus and two other guys had to finangle this machine out of the back
of the minivan. Uh, which was not great cuz it [music] weighs about 260 lb just
for the top half. Assembling it was really easy, though. The top half didn't
require very much assembly. We just had to install these handrails. And then for
the bottom half, it was as simple as a few thumb screws and we added the feet
and the wheels on the bottom so that we can actually move the machine. And it
also [music] came with all of these accessories that you see here. So, the
first one was the tool kit, a set of
bobbins that are pre-wound [music] for us, some extra needles, some
stabilizer, some oil and sewing oil,
>> some threads. >> Oh, yeah. It came with four different threads. It also came with some two sets
of hoops. The two sets [music] are exactly the same. And I think the reason
for that is because when you have something installed and the embroidery machine is working on it, you can be
getting ready to prep [music] the next hoop to use. And it also came with the
hat stations to be able to do hats. We haven't used them yet, but we're excited
to try. >> Now, it's time to turn it on. >> After lots of reading online and
watching tons of YouTube videos from their website, [music] I finally figured
out how to use this machine. The first step is what Cat did, which was turn it
on. Um, this machine actually uses a regular 120 volt [music] power plug. So,
we didn't have to do anything special for the electrical in here to get it to work, which is amazing considering most
people who buy this machine [music] start with it in their home as kind of a
side hustle business. The next step, >> oiling it.
>> We see like a little knob in here. You pull on it and pull out the bobin.
Here's the bobin. Thread's low. You should note [music] that. And then you
put three to five drops of sewing oil in
the bobin area. And we can pop it back in there and push till it clicks. Next,
we have to oil this part. ldstore.com.
Voila. One thing that I find really annoying is that [music] this plate
doesn't have pre-made holes in it so that you don't have to unscrew it and
screw it back on every single time you oil it. I've seen [music] lots of people make their own and there's just pre-done
holes.
See that hole? And you put three to five drops in that little hole. Then oil all
along the edge. >> She's in charge of servicing the
machine. As you can tell, [laughter] I don't do that part. The next step was
installing our different threads, but we [music] also had to program the
different colors in here so that it knew which ones we were selecting when we
were changing it on the screen. >> I select number one. So now I get to
choose out of all these 18 pages of
colors which color matches the most to
my number one. And then when you're done, click save.
We had to do that for all 15 colors. And you can see that the machine is numbered
[music] here so that you can see which needle belongs to which one. As well as
in the back here when you're installing [music] so that you can know which one
back here corresponds to here cuz I lose track of all the different threads. The
next step after that was connecting it to Wi-Fi [music] so that we could upload
patterns. It did come with a little USB stick, but it just seemed way simpler to
[music] connect it to Wi-Fi and get started. This is the online software. It's very, very basic, but it works. You
just click upload pattern and then you drag and drop into here [music] or you
can click here and open whatever file it is that you've got. They're also working
on their own digitizing software but it is extremely [music] basic right now. Um
but mostly what I do is I get patterns
from [music] online websites and then I upload it here to combine them all
because this one here is too basic to really do anything. It does say that
it's in beta [music] right now. So hopefully in the future there will be way more functions.
>> So the next step is to choose what pattern you want to use. You have to do
a tension test to make sure that the threads [music] on the top and the bobbin are at the right tension so you
get nice clean lines. Now that the machine is all set up, we have to
actually get the fabric all set up to put inside the machine. One thing that's
really nice about these frames is that the sizes are written right on the frame
and that corresponds with the machine. So, it's really easy to make sure that you've picked the right one.
>> So, you'll need two pieces of stabilizer that fit in the hoop.
>> The reason you need stabilizer is because it makes the fabric more stable when the machine is going back and forth
through the fabric. Grab your stabilizer >> and then you put the fabric on top and
then you put the front one on and then you press. >> You tighten the back of the hoop, the
little notches here. They slide under the little things on the handlebars and
you push it forward until it clicks into place on the little rectangle-shaped
holes. Then if you have like a whole bunch of drapey extra like this, you
just slide it over this little bar here. So then it doesn't get dirty if your
floor is not the cleanest like ours.
>> Oh, we forgot to select all the different colors. Do you want to show them that? >> What I like to do is just go one, two,
three, four, all the way up.
>> And the reason she has to do this is because it doesn't actually highlight
which area you're changing. So it's really difficult to know. So we we we
this is our workound for color coding it. You make sure that this says AA if
you're doing a test. >> Do you know what AA is? >> Yeah, it's like [music] automatically
automatic. And then we click ready.
>> Sometimes it's handy to run a trace. And
the reason you run a trace is to make sure that your embroidery is within the
hoop. The last thing you want to do is have a needle hit the edge of the hoop
and for your design not to fit. >> Then you press the green button.
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>> One thing that I forgot to mention is the tension test isn't [music] just a
oneandone thing. You actually have to run a tension test every time you do a
new fabric. We're not going to fish finish that one on camera because [music] it takes too long to do, but we
can show you some of the ones we did in the past. You're supposed to have a third of white in the middle and then a
third of the color on either end. [music] And that's how you know you've got the right tension. This one here is
probably perfect. After thinking that we got the tension [music] right, it was time to start our first stuffy. Uh we
tried this one, but you can see that we still didn't get it quite right. [music]
And there were a lot of things we learned along the way. >> So like when I go to select the color, I
find four. That's the insides of the ears. I want to turn that pink. So now
the insides of the ears are pink. Should we hoop it and get it ready to
embroider? >> Sure. There's actually three different types of stabilizers. So, the one that
came with the machine is the tear away stabilizer. [music] When you're done the embroidery, you
turn it around and to remove the stabilizer, you just tear it off. Uh
there's also cutaway stabilizer, which is actually more stiff, and in order to
take that apart, you have to cut it. There's also washable stabilizer, which
some people use to put [music] on top of a design, and then to get rid of it, you
wash it away with water.
So, I haven't actually [music] looked at this pattern, and you said something about how there's applique. Mhm.
>> Applique is [music] when you put another piece of fabric on top and embroider
that piece to the original piece. >> This is like green fabric [music] and we
added brown on top. >> You could theoretically just embroider
brown, but the reason we did it with the fabric is because we like the [music]
material and the feel of it, and also because it saves a lot of thread because
it's such a big space. >> Exactly. Do you want to run a [music]
trace to make sure it's going to fit? >> Sure.
And it's like going around and looking see if it's well traced.
>> Right now it's just doing like a little trace of the part that we're going to
applique. >> Now we have the white that we're going to use. A somewhat largeish piece just
in case. So you just like place it on top of the red shape and make sure nap
is right.
We haven't um there's actually an applique feature on here, but we haven't
figured out how to use that either. So I just stick my hand in here and I try to
cut it. >> You shouldn't. >> I know. [music] Sorry.
Now go.
>> The little screen shows what it's done so far.
Oh, we got an error. Tension break. So, when a tension break happens, it doesn't
actually tell you what's wrong. [music] So, you kind of have to figure out yourself. Um, my guess, because we
[music] noticed that the bobbin was low earlier, was that we ran out of thread
on the bottom. Tada. >> Thank you.
This machine does have the ability to actually go backwards or forwards in
stitches and retrace an area that got missed. Theoretically, you should be
able to put the hoop in, set it to go, and just take off and do something else
for a bit and then come back later to a finished design. Um, one thing that I do
recommend is just making sure you're nearby. You can be doing something else,
but the minute you hear an error like that, it's nice to be able to come back right away and deal with it. Otherwise,
you'll come back 2 hours later expecting it to be done and then it's not done because you have to deal with the error.
>> Does it give you a time estimate? >> It does not give you a time estimate,
but theoretically, you can figure that out because it tells you the number of
stitches this design is and then it tells you how many stitches per minute
you're going or you're running at. So, this design is about 5,000 stitches.
Right now, we're running it at 700 stitches per minute. So, about 7
minutes. I know that you I say you can go away and do something else, but
honestly, it's mesmerizing to just sit here and watch. We've had to do a little
bit more complicated troubleshooting before. For example, we couldn't get our
laser to start working, but watching the online videos, and honestly, the
Facebook community [music] has been amazing. Uh there have been a couple
times where I've reached out to the support team on WhatsApp, and they were
in a different time zone, so it took a little bit longer to respond to me, but when they did respond to me, it was back
and forth really fast. Some machines do have local suppliers and technicians
that can help repair, but I think this machine, their intention is that it's
all DIY [music] and you figure it out yourself. Um, but what happens if a part
breaks? That's the part that I'm not sure. Do they ship it to me? Uh, how
long is that going to take? Is it going to be easy for me to figure out? So far,
I haven't had any of those issues. Everything has been really simple
day-to-day operation issues. But if a part inside here breaks, what do we do?
We have to learn how to digitize. So, [music] right now we are just buying
embroidery files and >> done. Yes, it is done. Um, yeah, right
now we're just buying embroidery files and [music] they cost maybe like $3 to $5 each time, but that's still $3 to $5
each time. Uh, so recently I downloaded a free software called Inkscape [music]
and Ink Stitch and I've been trying to do my own files, but it's been it's been
a really tough learning curve. >> Let's tear the terror away. So, you grab
it [screaming] pretty much. I feel like every time we
use the machine, we're learning something new. Whether it's learning a
new fabric or learning a new design where it sews itself together, which is
cool, or learning how to applique. What else have we learned?
>> Well, we learned how to hoop the fabric. >> Yep. I feel like that's a constant
learning process. So, the end goal for us here is to a learn something new
together and b start a side hustle so I can teach her about business. She's had
people request animals or people before.
And so if we can turn her sewing hobby and embroidery hobby into something that
funds her next hobby, that's a plus in my books. In order to run the side
hustle though, there's stuff that we have to figure out. Consumables, like where do I get blank hats? Maybe
ltstore.com. Um, and blank shirts or sweaters. I also
have to figure out where to buy stabilizer, all the different types of
stabilizer that we talked about earlier. Uh, I might need to look into getting
better hoops. If it takes this long every single time to hoop something,
that's not very efficient. But I feel like all of that is to come later once
we get the basics going. And part of the basic that we need to figure out is
pricing. There are tons and tons of guides out there, including from buy
itself or from Maggie Frames, one of the magnetic hoop manufacturers. And there's
lots of online posts in the Facebook embroidery chat that go back and forth
about, hey, how do you price for this or how do you price for that? I've seen people say that they charge about $15
for 5,000 stitches if we're running at 800 stitches per minute. That's
approximately $140 an hour. Now, that
sounds like a lot, but we haven't factored in any of the consumables and my time yet or the cost of the machine
or rent if you're renting a space. So, lots to figure out still, but it sounds
like it could be something really good. [laughter]
I mean, look how far we've come so far from doing little felt eyes to doing
little embroidered eyes. So, I think we'll get there. So, how much does it
all cost? Well, it was about $5,400, but
I saved $800 because I picked it up. So, it was about $4,600. Um, and that sounds
like a lot, and it is a lot, but when you consider some of the other machines
that were capable of doing the same things, they were literally about 20 to
$40,000. So, it's a huge savings from
that perspective. Um, even the athome machines were about $800 to start and
they only did a single color, which meant that every single time you wanted
to change a color, you have to change the thread, which is extremely
timeconuming, especially if you're actually trying to turn this into a side hustle. So, I'm hoping once we figure
out the next learning curve for this side hustle thing and pricing and all
that, we'll actually be able to help recoup some of that cost. >> And here's the finished product. Now I'm
going to fill it up with stuffing. And then I get a needle and thread and I
just sew close the hole. >> That is so cute.
Okay, >> thanks for watching. Make sure to check out lttstore.com.
Bye.