Brother Sewing UK

What’s that coming up the lane? It’s my lovely-jubbly Brother XP1 Luminaire – or Lumi-Loo as she will come to be known. I live in a fairly remote area, so my delivery guy had to put the extremely large and heavy box on to a trolley and trudge up the lane to my house.   Fortunately he was also sweet enough to lug it into the house for me. Once unpacked and set up in my sewing room, I simply could not decide what to do first – so many new and exciting features to choose from! Should I explore the new quilting fills in Design Centre or sew out one of the many new designs (including Disney!)? Perhaps I should take look at the new projector feature which makes placement of designs a breeze? Maybe I should sew out a huge design on the giant, new hoop? In the end, I decided to explore Design Centre and one of the new designs that particularly intrigued me; the patchwork applique set (image to the left). These are all such beautiful patterns – just imagine how fantastic ...

Hello Brother readers! I’m back again with another blog post. This time I *need* to share with you all the sweatshirts I have sewn lately to keep toasty warm this wintertime! At home, I’m the one creeping around the thermostat to knock it up a degree or two – I just feel the cold so much! Unfortunately, I can’t rely on central heating 24/7, which has led me down the road of testing out a number of different sweatshirt patterns to see which I love most. So, I wanted to share with you my thoughts and findings so that you too may embrace the joy of making a cosy sweatshirt! Firstly, I’d like to say how much I love sweatshirts for being a nice, ‘quick-sew’ project. They really don’t take long, so you can enjoy the rewards of making something yourself in super-quick time, especially if, like me, you sew on a speedy, easy-to-use Brother Overclocker 3034DWT! Being a working mum of a toddler, I don’t exactly have much time to myself to sew, so sweatshirt-making on the Brother has been ...

I recently took delivery of Brother’s new, top-of-the-range XP1 Luminaire sewing and embroidery machine. Having previously had the Innov-is XV machine, I was excited to explore the XP1’s many new features. The Luminaire XP1 has a large, high-resolution screen featuring touch gestures akin to smartphones and tablets, which means you can use your finger and thumb to pinch and zoom, resizing images and designs with ease. If you have owned or used the Innovis XV, much of the user interface will be familiar to you, and the XP1 has an even cleaner look and feel thanks to some of the icons now being tucked away in drop-down menus. The screen is very clear, and the new fonts are easy to read. The machine itself is pretty big! There is now a generous 13.1” from needle to arm, which is great for quilters like me. With the embroidery unit attached, you will need to make sure you leave sufficient room behind the machine to accommodate the largest embroidery frame (it is 1...

The Brother sewing and embroidery machine range is varied and covers all levels of sewing knowledge. With the release of the new XP1 Luminaire, many sewers are excited about the advanced technology that has been incorporated in to the modern machine – but some of these awesome features have been available on the V series for years, available with premium upgrades and accessories to give a first-class sewing experience. I often read posts on (UK) social media groups asking if anyone has purchased the upgrades and whether they’re worth the money, so in this article I will outline my favourite accessories and upgrade packages that are available and how they can help make the most of the intelligent, interactive features of the Brother V-series models. Premium Pack 1 [UGKV1] What’s in the box? 2 large embroidery hoops, positioning grids, CD, booklet What does it give you? 200x300 hoop and 200x200 hoop, 30 extra ...

Every time I use the Brother Innov-is XV I discover something new, so for this blog, I thought I’d share some of the tips and tricks that I’ve picked up. I’d be delighted if any of you have any tips and tricks that you’d like to share too – let everyone know in the comments section below! First off, let’s talk about the machine’s resizing capabilities . This was a bit of a revelation to me, as  while I knew that you could resize a design on the machine to a limited extent, what I did not know was that by simply pressing a different icon (the one shown above) you can resize up or down much more! The Brother XV/Dream Machine is apparently the only machine on the market that can resize up or down by – wait for it – adding or deleting stitches! How cool is that? Making a custom shape The next thing I learnt I came across when messing around in the Design Centre, making some quilted oven gloves. I wanted to make a very simple, three-layer, shaped and quilted piec...

I’m getting to know my Brother Innov-is V7, putting it to the test with the methods I use the most. It’s more than able to embroider and stitch decoratively on its own (there are more patterns than I’ll ever use!) but what about creating my own designs? I’m not referring to booting up my PEDesign 10 software – not yet, anyway – I need to know how it copes with something a little more freestyle. Free Motion Embroidery, Darning or Quilting; all different applications for the practice of dropping the feed dogs on your sewing machine and using your hands to guide the fabric in any direction, achieving a more fluid line of stitching. Professionally, I use this method for the application of delicate appliqué and lace hems to bridal gowns. It’s quick and easy to prepare the machine, which allows me to sew tulle, organza and chiffon with a more fluid technique than a straight stitch would allow. A personal favourite of mine is to create Freestanding lace, or use organza to create 3D...

Festival of Quilts 2018 The Festival of Quilts is Europe’s leading patchwork and quilting event, attracting 24,000 quilters from all over the world. The show is a celebration of quilting in all its forms, with over 300 exhibitors offering essential supplies; professionally curated galleries of quilts from leading international makers; 350 workshops, talks and demos; plus a magnificent display of over 700 competition quilts. As the ultimate patchwork and quilting experience, we set up shop at the Brother stand this year at Birmingham's NEC between August 9th-12th, and while it was a busy weekend, we had a few moments to wander around – here are some of the interesting exhibits we found. Entitled 'Hickory Dickory Dock', this wonderful quilted Cuckoo Clock really stood out! A remarkable piece, it was made by the Burgess Hill Girls, aged 12 to 16, and  was Highly Commended in the Secondary School category. We especially like the Cukcoo peaking out from behind it'...