Downloading Embroider This! Free Designs

Embroider This! offers over 200 free designs that you can download anytime and stitch out on your own embroidery machine. We offer our free designs in up to 18 different file formats to accommodate the many different sewing and embroidery machines available on the market today. Read on to learn what the format means, how to download, unzip, and use these great free embroidery designs brought to you by y0ur friends at Embroiderthis.com.

What’s in a File Format Name?

The machine embroidery design files are “formatted” so they can be read and used by embroidery machines from different manufacturers. Different brands of embroidery machines “read”  different file formats in the same way a MS Excel program can read a .xls file and a MS Word program can ”read” a .doc file but not vice versa! 

Before you download the free designs, you need to know which format your particular embroidery machine needs.  This information can be found in your embroidery machine owner’s manual, on the website of your embroidery machine’s manufacturer, or from your local embroidery machine dealer. If you already have some designs for your embroidery machine, you can find the format by looking at the name of the file for the design. The format is expressed as a three letter extension at the end of the design name after the “dot” (.) like:  flower.pes  (pes is the file format) or flower.sew. (sew is the format).  

Following is a list of common file formats and the embroidery machines associated with each:

 Once you know your embroidery machine’s file format you will be able to select the correct free design file to use on your embroidery system. Some of our early free machine embroidery designs have the option of downloading a zip file containing only the specific file format you need for your machine. As the number of formats we could offer expanded, we began to offer our more recent free design files in a zipped package that contains all of the different formatted files in just one zipped file.  When you unzip the file with your zip software you can extract (save) just the file format  you need for your embroidery machine. You will find the details on downloading, unzipping, and saving the files below.

Downloading the Free Design Files

Downloading is actually pretty easy. In essence, when you are downloading, you are simply saving a file from our website to your computer. The file you are downloading and saving is a ZIP file.  The designs are provided in a zip file to make the download process faster and to protect the integrity of the files during the download process. Due to the file size, if it were downloaded without being in a zip file, the embroidery files may become damaged and unusable (corrupt).   Zip files are explained in greater detail later in this document.

To download a free design, first go to the page of the design that you wish to download. Scroll down the page until you find the place indicated for you to “click for download”.  As described above, some of the older designs will have a table of individual file format links for you to click and download a zip file containing only the format used on your embroidery machine.  The more recent free designs will have only one place to click and download all the file formats together in one zip file. In either case, when you click the download link, a standard computer “dialog box” appears with an option for you to either ”Open”,  “Save” , or “Cancel” the file. You always want to choose SAVE.

When you click on the SAVE option, a “Save As” dialog box will appear allowing you to navigate to the place (folder) where you want to save this file. This a is very important step because you must remember later where you saved this file so you can find it!   Most computers will default to the place where you last saved a document for this “Save In” dialog box but this may not be someplace you would think to look for the file later, so be sure to navigate to where you want the file to be saved before saving this embroidery design file.  I recommend creating a folder called “My Embroidery Designs” in your My Documents directory and always using this folder to save your designs. Use the little down arrow next to the “Save In” box to see where the current folder is located. Use the up folder arrow to move up a folder level, click on a folder in the window, or create a new folder in which to keep this design. Make note of where the  folder is located so you will be able  to find it later.  Another option would be to  save the downloaded file initially to your desktop then you will find it easily because the desktop view. You can always move it later if you wish to a file folder somewhere else on your computer.

Unzipping

The free designs are provided in a zip file to protect them during download and facilitate faster transfer over the internet.  This zip file must be first saved to your computer, then unzipped to remove the files you wish to use (sometimes called “extracting”). The file you need for your embroidery machine should be first saveed outside of the “zip” file to your computer.  Think of a zip file like a big plastic bag into which other  files have been placed. The air is then squeezed out of the bag (compressing the individual files) to make the overall zip file  smaller and easier to transfer over the internet. The “plastic bag” or zip file also helps protect the files inside during transfer over the internet.  After downloading a zip file, you open the bag (unzip the file), and extract (take out) the files you need, and the files go back to their original shape and size!  Each zip program works a bit differently so follow the instructions for your program. Winzip ( www.winzip.com) is a good zip program and I have also had success with PKZip. I am sure there are many other zip programs available to do the job as well. It doesn’t matter which zip program you use to get the design files out of the zip file.  Along with the sewing machine formatted files in the zip file, you will also find a  picture of what the design looks like (usually a .jpg file), and a text file (.txt), that gives you the color stop info and what color thread to use at each stop. 

Notes on the Appearance of Colors for the Embroidery Design after Download:  When you open or display the free design after download you may see it colorized with some pretty odd colors!  When the files are reformatted for each of the 18 different machine formats, the thread color selection information often does not translate at all and the design may appear in your format with very odd colors displayed at each of the color stops when you view it in your embroidery software.   It simply takes too much time for me to reassign all the color choices for each of the 18 file formats, so I leave that task for you to do if you wish. The free designs from Embroider This! come with a text document that  lists the color stops and suggested thread colors to use at each of these stops.   You can use your embroidery software program to reassign the colors displayed at each stop to see a better visual of the design.  The Buzz Tools (http://www.buzztools.com/default1.asp) company offers excellent affordable design editing sofware as does the Amazing Designs company ( http://www.amazingdesigns.com/)  .  The Amazing Designs company also offers free software called Edit Express Lite that allows you to view and change the colors for a design as well as perform other simple editing functions. This free software is available at this link: http://amazingdesigns.com/edit-express-lite

Remember, you can thread your machine with any color you wish at each color stop regardless of what the picture of the design looks like on your computer or embroidery machine display screen!

Transfer the Design File from your computer to Your Sewing Machine.

Now that you have extracted and saved the design file you need for your embroidery machine to a folder on your computer , the next step is to transfer the design file from your computer to your embroidery machine.  The free design files cannot be downloaded and transferred directly from our website to your sewing machine. The zip file must be downloaded and saved to you computer first, then the zip file  can be opened and the design file in the format used for your machine extracted (taken out of the zip file and saved to your computer). Once you have saved the design file in the format you need for your embroidery machine, you are now ready to transfer design files from your computer to your embroidery machine.

This transfer process can be accomplished in many different ways. Some embroidery machines have a floppy drive, some a cd drive, and some can use a USB memory stick. others connect to the computer with a cable. Some folks use an external converting box that allows you to write the file from your computer to a blank memory card inserted into the box that is then removed from the box and placed in your embroidery machine. Check with your embroidery machine dealer and owners manual to see what options are available for your embroidery machine system.

Once the design has been transferred to you embroidery machine using the standard method for your system, you are ready to stitch!

I hope this information helps you get those free designs downloaded and stitching soon!