Emroidery "Hobby" Startup

amywiebe@gmail.com · December 1st, 2010, 12:17 AM

All - I've seen a lot of posts and advice around starting up a full-on embroidery business. I'm completely inexperienced with embroidery, but I have a LOT of friends who want their children's names embroidered on things. I'm thinking about getting a machine so that I can embroider names for my own kids as well as use it to make gifts for showers and also do it for others for a fee. The "for a fee" part would really be more to pay for the materials and the machine over time rather that to turn a profit. If I turned a bit of a profit, that would just be bonus. Does anyone see any pitfalls with this idea? There's a Craigslist ad for a Janome 9000 machine with a custom cabinet that comes with it for $900. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether this would be a good starter machine for me? Too little - too much? Any thoughts or feedback would be quite welcome. Thanks!

Jerri Ann · December 12th, 2010, 10:45 AM

I discourage parents and especially grandparents not to embroidery kids names on clothing.
The only thing I would do is a back pack. Or towels but not something the general public will
see. I don't even like my name on clothing.

My two sons never wanted their names on anything. Now my grandson is the same way.

chipper · October 26th, 2011, 02:40 AM

Your choice of machine sounds fine. Investing in the machine would be a whole lot better if you think into earning a profit on your work. Good luck!

drdoct · October 26th, 2011, 08:37 AM

I personally think that's too much for your first machine. I'd look for a cheap brother 400 type. It will do 4x4 which is plenty to get you started on. You can find them for $200 or so and then have enough for materials later plus you can resell it for around that later if you end up liking it. FWIW, most questions and answers here are more on the commercial side of garment handling. If you do a search for sewforum you'll get a more home/hobby type crowd. They're awesome people there and you'll find a lot more help for starting up. I'm not running you away because there are lots of great subjects here, but like I say, mostly commercial. Good luck on your machine.