Brother PE535 Reviews with Pros and Cons

Genuine Brother PE535 Review

When I first got this PE5353 machine, understanding its functioning took a lot of time. But after finishing my first project, I forgot the trouble I was in. That’s why I decided to share my reviews with you so you can save time for creating projects rather than messing with its operation. It just works like other Brother machines, e.g., it draws the thread from the top and bottom, which we call bobbins, that you have to fill with thread before embroidering any piece. It creates stitches nicely if used in the right way. Let’s move ahead and explore the machine’s specifications and features.

Specification:

4×4 embroidery hoop size

3.2 inch large LCD screen

80 built-in designs

10 frame patterns

9 font style

14.9 pounds, unit weight

Voltage: 110

Accessories provided with PE535:

When you unbox this machine, you will get an accessory bag with the following supplies.

• A 4×4 embroidery hoop
• A standard needle set (75/11, 90/14)
• Pre-wound bobbin and bobbin cover
• A little seam ripper
• 2 types of Screwdrivers
• Spool Net (for handling slippery metallic thread)
• 3 different-sized thread caps (small, medium, and large)
• Dust cover
• Cleaning brushes
• Manual guide

But this list wouldn’t be complete without a stabilizer and embroidery thread. So, you have to purchase these crucial supplies to finish your project.

PE535 offered features

PE535 has everything a good embroidery machine is supposed to have except for a few drawbacks. Let’s talk about the positives first. It emerges as a valuable model for its top-of-the-line features that beginners look for in a machine they use for their first session.

Embroidery space

PE535 has a 4×4 stitching area, enough for getting a beginner’s hand at small designs and craft projects. If your design is 4×4 in size, this is a perfect machine to choose from, but what if your client’s design is larger? Then, you have to split the design first to produce a larger design.

Easy-to-use touchscreen

You can quickly understand the configuration of your design, watching and managing all the embroidery procedures. Moreover, you will find a straightforward key on a screen indicating procedures for winding the bobbin and thread.

Pre-loaded embroidery pattern and fonts

Let’s have fun with personalized crafts and upholstery with its 80 built-in designs and 9 fonts (English and Japanese). It ensures clients of various backgrounds enjoy versatility in their creation.

USB Port for importing digitized design

If you can’t find your desired font and design from the pre-loaded design library, you can import them to a machine with a USB port. But still, an effort comes. You need to digitize it and then import it. What I do for my quick projects, I use Emdigitizer’s digitized designs for free. You will find a lot of digitizing services provider companies that offer free embroidery designs. You can also take advantage of their services to get your personalized design at a fast turnaround time.

Convenient needle threading

With this Brother model, threading is just a few steps away. You don’t need to spend much time learning and stressing your eyes. The PE535 machine featured printed illustrations for threading your bobbin and needle. Just follow the number, and that’s it. You can also get help from the built-in tutorial guide.

How do I start embroidery with PE535?

There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to embroidery with PE535. Let’s go through the steps to create an embroidery masterpiece.

Step 01: Choose the material

Start by choosing your favorite material that you want to customize—a T-shirt, hoodie, hat, pillow, bag, etc. But I decided to create a unique item that is a baby onesie in the hope that It turned out as I expected.

Step 2: Hoop the stabilizer and material

Start by hooping your stabilizer. The choice of stabilizer depends on the nature of your garment—either water-soluble, no mesh, or a tearaway.

For this project, I take a thin piece of nono-stabilizer on top of the hoop and tear it away at the bottom. As my garment is on the thin side, after finishing my project, you cannot see the stabilizer with the finished material. 

After that, use 505 sprays on the stabilizer to allow the onesie to float on top of the hoop. Fold the garment in half to find the center but fortunately, the hoop itself shows the marking for aligning the garment in the central position. While doing this, make sure the onesie is placed inside out, and the part you are lying face down on the stabilizers is the front part of your material.

Step 3: Add hoop to the machine

As soon as our hoop is prepared, take it to the embroidery machine. You will see the knobs on the machine, click and take your hoop in. This is one of the easiest steps of embroidery.

Step 4: Thread the machine

Now it’s time to thread the machine with corresponding design colors. Other than the machine’s built-in tutorials, you can also visit my previous blog, where I explained how to thread the PE800 model for embroidery.

Step 5: Select or Upload the design

Choose what you want to create. You can either select a pre-loaded machine embroidery design or upload it via a USB port. Again, there are two options. You can create the design from scratch or a digitized image with any good embroidery digitizing software. Make sure your image is in SVG format, digitize it, save it in PES file format, which is accepted by Brother PE535, and then upload it to the machine.

I insert the USB into the machine that holds my design, align it in the center, and click on Start to begin embroidering it.

If you want to learn how to convert SVG to a PES file, visit our blog.

Step 6: Follow the path of your design

You can choose to trace your design with this PE535. Put it in the center and press the click button. After tracing it, proceed to embroider it. The machine smoothly creates an outline of stitches.

Step 7: Use heat and bond spray

Here I will add my fabric to embroider another letter of the design. I use a heat and bond adhesive spray to attach the material that is ironed to the back of the material. 

Once it melts down, peel off its shiny backing. Lay the material face down and bring that material back to the machine to embroider that design. Now the machine has completed adding the thread to the fabric. Take one of the curved scissors that came with the machine, follow the design path, and trim the excessive thread string.

Step 8: Embroider the design

Put the material back into the machine that is ready to create stitches. The machine creates a satin stitch to better hold the material down into the design I created. After completing the satin stitch, stitch the baby’s name on the material. For this purpose, I am going to switch to the second embroidery thread color, pink, to prominently display the name. Find your design and begin embroidering it.

Step 9: Remove the hoop from the machine

Take the hoop out of the machine, remove any jump stitches, and remove any excess stabilizer from the design.

Apply a tender touch to the stitches created by heat pressing. It aims to avoid irritation to the skin of the baby. If you want to create the same design as the baby hat, follow the same process as above. But you need to choose the water double stabilizer on top of the hat. When you are embroidering a hat, it helps prevent stitches from sinking into the hat or giving it a flat look. That is how you can embroider a masterpiece with Brother.

Pros

• Easy to use and setup
• Pre-loaded embroidery design and fonts
• A great choice for beginners for personalized crafts and accessories
• Large LCD for editing and previewing design color
• USB port for loading design files
• Hand wheel for bringing the needle up and down
• LED lighting for illuminating the workplace
• Auto thread cutter for fine timing of unnecessary thread
• Least expensive

Cons

• Limited area for large projects
• It is an embroidery-only machine
• Separate purchasing of embroidery supplies (Stabilizer, embroidery thread, adhesive, etc)

Conclusion

If you think of getting an embroidery machine at an affordable price, consider adding the PE535 to your workplace. It provides a user-friendly experience for all entry-level and skilled embroiderers alike. With its added features and accessories, you can take your embroidery to the next level, but for large projects, you need to switch to a machine with large embroidery areas. Hopefully, you will find this blog to be of great use.