My choice of the Best Books on Machine Embroidery
Machine Embroidery is one of my creative outlets. It allows me to make and share beautifully stitched out, one-of-a-kind creations.
What a pleasure it is to wrap a handmade creation in tissue paper and extend the labor of love, with a piece of my eyes, as my dear mother says.
If you are new to machine embroidery or
you want to extend your knowledge and use all the features of your machine, or
Like me, you set a goal to do your own digitizing, I sourced some of the best publications on the topic of Machine Embroidery.

John has more than 30 years experience in digitizing.
He describes how time-consuming digitizing used to be and how easy it has become with auto-digitizing.
He covers the following:
- The Three Basic Stitch Types
- The Elements of a Great Design
- Understanding Distortion
- Understanding Underlay
- Tips & Hints
- Editing your Software
- Digitizing for multi-needle machines
- The bonus CD enclosed offers Embroidery designs, tutorials, video files etc.
Although this book was published back in 2001, most embroiderers love it!
Teachers recommend it in their classes!
- It touches on every subject, from embroidery equipment to digitizing your own designs.
- The information is easy to understand, instructions clear and pictures are helpful.
- Nice sample projects
- Troubleshooting
This is the latest book on machine embroidery, published in 2016.
- Machine embroidery essentials covered
- How to create appliques, in the hoop projects and monograms
- DVD with 25 embroidery designs, including 3 in-the-hoop designs and an alphabet
- I must agree with another review that I read earlier, that most of the older books have really used outdated designs. By the looks of it, this book is far more trendy!
Get the most from your machine and its functions, including designs and built-in stitches.
Ideal for the novice embroiderers who need to know how to download, transfer and store her designs.
For the more advanced embroiderer who wants to start creating her own designs.
A particularly useful reference book.
A good guide no matter what the brand
Lots of photos and diagrams
6. Free Machine Embroidery Magazines
Our list will not be complete without some free resources. If you are not familiar with Issu - it is a very useful app (mobile downloadable) with lots of free magazines in all the topics imaginable.
I see trouble in the land of paradise once you start with this site! Make sure everyone is either asleep or at work because you will not even get up to go to the loo!
7. Creative Machine Embroidery (magazine)
This is a publication (digital as well) dedicated to all this related to machine embroidery.
Free downloads are available with each issue (monthly). Be sure to download it before the expiry date.
There are some free e-books available once you register to the site - Click on Freebies and then Free ebooks.
The magazine is also available in iTunes to read while you are on the go!
The list will be updated regularly to display new and noteworthy publications.
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Until next time - happy stitching!