Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATED after 12 million stitches with the PE770: After a couple years of use out of my first PE770, the timing or something was off and it would not stay threaded no matter what we did to it. I was in a time crunch, so I just had to have a new PE770 overnighted. I don't seem to have near the frustrations with the newer one as a I did the older one. For reference I got approximately 8,000,000 stitches out of that machine before it quit working. Past review: I want to love this machine. I debated about whether or not to write a review right now because I am so angry with this machine at the moment. I decided I would go ahead and write it now because I think most of my positive thoughts on the machine come from the enjoyment of just having a machine in the first place. This currect anger is not an isolated incident, in fact it's pretty common. I have sewn many, many projects on this in the couple of months that I've had it. I suggest a new user read the owners' manual cover to cover, then use a machine a lot, THEN read the manual again. First of all, let me say that the 5 x 7 hoop that comes with this machine is trash. Do yourself a favor and just throw it in the garbage when you open the box. I orderd a 4x4 eclipse brand hoop that is far superior. The included hoop is finnicky at best. It is very difficult to stretch the fabric in it properly and once the fabric is on the hoop to your liking it is darn near impossible to seat the thing in the machine. There's really no trick to getting it in the right spot... sometimes you get it on the first try and sometimes, well, you'll be ready to throw the machine out the window when it takes you 20 tries to seat the thing properly on the embroidery carriage. The eclipse brand, rare is it that I don't just instantly seat it correctly. Nor does the thing pop apart when I'm trying to stretch the fabric. The only drawback to the 4x4 eclipse hoop is that the machine doesn't quite recognize the outter limits of the area... I just don't try to embroider too close to the edge. Now let's talk about threading this machine. Better get it perfect, or it will ruin.. no, destroy... what you're working on. There's no stopping it either. You can stand there and babysit the thing to stop it if it starts to go awry, but it won't help. I have threaded a lot of sewing machines in my day, but this one takes the cake. I've also never had a problem getting a bobbin to wind properly, but I've had some hot messes on this machine's bobbin winder to say the least. The machine does recognize when the upper thread has come undone... about 25% of the time, it's fixable. You have to back up and try again... assuming that the machine didn't literally eat your project as a result of whatever went awry. If you're considering buying this machine, don't forget to factor in additional software and hoops to make it worth your while. You can easily, easily necessitate $200-$300 in additional expenses to take full advantage of this machine. If you don't you're limited to the 6 fonts, which are nice, but are severely limited in size. You can't put additional fonts on the machine, so if you want to have more fonts, or be able to embroider larger letters, you'll need additional software. When my machine arrived the bobbin thread tension was so far off that it immediately broke the first needle. Which, wound up being really no big deal, I mean it's just a needle, so I replaced it, adjusted the tension and moved on. Just sort of surprised me that the manufacturer would send it so far off. When it works I do like this machine. The stitches are nice and clean and look great. I suppose for the price it can be worth it to have a fun toy like this. HOWEVER, if you're going to embroider anything that would be a huge loss if you had to throw it in the trash... FORGET THIS MACHINE COMPLETELY. I have a hard enough time throwing a $2 onesie in the garbage... a pillowcase from a $90 sheet set would be an absolute tragedy! Bottom line is that the fun is worth the price, but there are days when I can hardly justify the frustration this machine causes just being so darn finicky!!!