Features:

  • Sew, quilt, embroider. If you can imagine it, you can create it! Enjoy comprehensive sewing functions, plus 4-inch-by-4-inch embroidery capabilities
  • Easy-to-view back-lit touch screen LCD display accesses 67 unique sewing stitches and 70 built- in embroidery designs, with 5 lettering fonts
  • Computer connectivity for importing thousands of embroidery designs purchased from iBroidery and other sites, and for updating your machine in the future
  • One-touch automatic thread cutter cuts your top and bobbin thread with ease;Lighting : 1 LED
  • Bilingual user manual, 25-year limited warranty, and free phone support for the life of the product. We do not recommend using this machine in countries that do not support 120V AC even if a voltage adapter is in use.Maximum Sewing Speed (Stitches Per Minute):710
Great Versatility at an Awesome Price

I love this machine. I don't sew all the time, but I love to make things for my family and friends from time to time. I had outgrown my old, cheap, super simple machine and wanted to be able to do more. You can pull this machine out of the box and begin sewing well, immediately. There is a bit of a learning curve with the embroidery, but I had not done it prior to getting this machine. A few trial and error sessions later I was off and running. If you are somewhat tech savvy, you can get a third party program and design and import your own embroidery designs rather than staying limited to whats already on board or available for purchase online. (For Monograms: If you have Adobe Illustrator or other similar program, just make a 4x4 board and use any downloaded font of choice to design the monogram. For designs, you can do the same thing with a simple drawing or picture. Then run it through SewArt or other similar program, to create the embroidery file. Plug it in to the machine, import, and go!) The versatility this machine provides is astounding for the price. I highly recommend this for the creative hobbyist in your life.

Brother SE400

I love this machine. I bought this machine to use for my etsy shop and it works amazing. The needle does break a lot more than i think is normal. I love this machine and i recommend this to any beginner buyer.

A very easy to use and a nice, solid sewing machine--better than any sewing machine I have ever had

I love love love this sewing machine. It is by far better than any I have owned in my life, even better than the Pfaff I purchased many years ago, which needed constant servicing. This Brother sews so easily, and is always ready for action. The hand controls for speed of sewing are wonderful, as I am in a wheelchair. I couldn't be happier! Now just to learn how to use all the cool parts and abilities of the machine! Before this Brother, I had one I purchased for Christmas 2009--it was not as fancy a model of Brother, and was not as heavy a machine; it would slide around the table while I was trying to sew. That made it pretty difficult for me to use. This one, however, is very solid in comparison, and is a keeper. All of the fancy bells and whistles (threading needle, winding the bobbin, cutting thread) work and are easy to use!

Great value, great product! A must have for hobbyist! :)

I absolutely love this sewing/embroidery machine! I have used it to embroider some aprons for work as presents to my coworkers, as well as fix buttons and hems on a few pairs of pants. While I am new to sewing, I am well versed in embroidery and embroidery programs on the computer. This model was SO easy to set up and learn how to use. You can plug it into your computer and use ANY embroidery program as well and export your design to the machine. If embroidery and sewing are your hobbies, you absolutely need this in your life/crafts room! I cant wait to start doing more sewing projects on this, AND being able to embroider them as well! Brother has made another fine product :)

There are so many good reviews of this machine

There are so many good reviews of this machine, but I was reluctant for awhile even at this price, although I have been fascinated with these lower priced Brothers for awhile now. Of course this machine did not start life at the 200 price point at all - it was a few hundred more. I have other machines that do every sewing task I need, but the embroidery part was totally new to me. I just retired and I wanted something to amuse myself that was a new fun toy. I finally got this machine with some gift cards from the last year that my family so nicely gave me, and I have to say, this machine is so much more than I could have expected. First, it is solidly built. Second - it has the best needle threader in the industry (Babylock does have the same one!). That's the truth - so far it has not missed once. I have been sewing and embroidering small projects now since I got it about two months ago, and it is terrific. The sewing part is excellent and the straight stitch is equal to any out there! I have machines that were much much more expensive and the stitches on this Brother are just as good. As to the embroidery, for me it is terrific. The 4x4 field is no problem, as I don't expect to do much embroidery that would need more space than that. I don't usually care for embellishments of practically any sort, but I like to do kitchen towels and the occasional gift item. It's just a lot of fun to watch this machine do a stitch out and so far it is flawless. It also seems tolerant of any thread I toss in there as a top thread, and likes pre-filled bobbins just fine. I buy Class 15 pre-filled bobbins from Superior Threads and it loves them. I have not had to touch the tensions at all so far and I have both sewn and embroidered with threads from thin to a thicker thread - Superior Threads King Tut down to Metrosene. For some fun and as a main machine for those who do not do large quilts, I would recommend this machine unreservedly. The harp is not large enough for doing large quilts in my opinion. I have a larger machine for that.

Happy Happy, love this machine, the best....

I am so happy, didn't want to go to bed. This is the most beautiful machine I have seen in a long time. Why it even arrived with a "needle" installed!!! And to wind a bobbin! You just touch a button, how great can that be!? We have really come a long way, remembering my first sewing machine purchased in 1965, this so 21st Century... I started looking for something to sew or mend, and it is so quiet and stitch so smooth, of course it is new, but am I excited, here I am up at 6am could not sleep! I am so happy I bought this, it is a gift from me to me. Hurricane Hermine is destroying the coast, steady rain for the past three days, but I am happy! Oh, yes registering with Brother online was easy and simple, why they even had my information stored from another Brother purchased from the past. Gotta go, happy sewing.

Solid little workhorse

Initially, I was shopping for a sewing machine, wasn't looking for embroidering capabilities. But I kept reading good things about this machine and thought it would be fun to play around with embroidery. So I paid a bit more for this machine with embroidery capability, and I'm sure glad I did. At first, it was a little intimidating to use, but I READ the instructions (!) and was able to understand how to work the machine. They include an instructional DVD, but I haven't needed to use it. There are basic instructions on the machine itself, both in sticker form and in one of the function keys. They include 64 or so patterns, but you can obtain more. There is a seller on Ebay that has produced a CD with thousands (literally) of patterns for about 17 dollars. The machine has a USB cable that you can hook right up to your computer and upload the images. This process I needed my husband for :). Works great. I have been using the machine to embroider handkerchiefs for my daughter's wedding, so the poor machine has had more of a commercial workflow, but have had no major issues, only a learning curve for me. I have only had this machine for about 2 months but have been working the heck out of it. So far, so good.

I have never sewn in my life and though well this one seems easy. I made my first quilt within a week ...

I purchased this sewing machine because I wanting to learn to make quilts. I have never sewn in my life and though well this one seems easy. I made my first quilt within a week after having this machine. It is also an embroidery machine and I was overwhelmed at all the stuff I could do with it. I have since bought another brother sewing machine the new Disney one and passed this one on to my daughter. Since buying this machine I have made many quilts for family and eveyday learn something new. Awesome machine and my daughter learned to use it as soon as I sent it to her. I would recommend this machine to someone who has never sewn or did machine embroidery before because it is so easy to get use to you would be making things in a week.

Love my new machine

Bought this machine after weeks of research and travel to different sewing shops in my area. Keep in mind, this is a hobby for me and not used as a machine in which I earn a living, therefore I was not willing to pay $1000.00 to $3000.00 for a sewing machine, but I wanted a machine that could do embroidery and sew small quilts. I have a 20+ year old brother machine that my mother bought for me and I will never part with it, but it was time for an upgrade. My mother passed in July of 2012 and I need to craft to keep my mind of of it, so this is the perfect machine for me. I have embroidered several projects already, including a sweatshirt to observe colon cancer awareness day. This machine is simple to set up, easy to use and is Mac friendly. Plus, there are tons of free downloadable PES files at Brother.com to use with this machine. I love the variety of stitches available and plan to use this machine for years to come. If you want a machine that isn't an arm and a leg, want to be able to embroider and want a variety of stitch options, this machine is for you. The machine comes with a user friendly dvd/cd that explains a great deal of the machines features and the user manual (paper book) is easy to understand as well. The one thing I wish is that it have a larger embroidery area, but I was not willing to pay $899.00 for a machine that would do that. This machine suits my needs just fine! 3/24/13 Update on my machine: I still really love this machine and feel that I made a great decision in purchasing it. I am working on a baby quilt that incorporates quilting with embroidery and this machine is great. Yesterday, I set the embroidery I needed to do, started it and vacuumed the floor while the machine embroidered my project! I couldn't be happier!

Great for a newbie...

I bought this at a local big box store because I was worried I wouldn't use it, wouldn't like it, or wouldn't be able to figure it out. Let me tell you about me, so you understand why those were my concerns... I'm about as crafty as a sock, my only sewing experience was sewing little bags with yarn closures as a kid, and I have NO PATIENCE. I don't like manuals too much, which doesn't help. For whatever reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to try this. Not sure why... but anyway, I'm a gadget junkie, so maybe that was part of it. I bought it, the little sample pack of thread at the same store, and stiched out one of the included patterns. It was AWFUL, but recognizable for what it was... Santa with some trailing letters. But the bobbin thread came up so much, most of the pattern was white... it was pretty bad. I thought "other people can do this... let me google it". So I googled it, re-looked at my machine, and I had my bobbin threaded wrong (I missed the little lip it has to go under). Tried again, did a free "mouse in a stocking" pattern I found at emblibrary, and it was AWESOME! Super, duper cute... an inch away from perfect! The challenge there was I relied on the machine to tell me what color to put in, rather than the color change chart from the designer (FYI: apparently a common rookie move). So my mouse had pink feet and ear edges, instead of grey, but besides that... PERFECT! So I did the next thing, and it was GREAT. Here's my lessons learned: 1) Polyester (what comes in that sample pack) stretches a lot... so if you have a dense design, it will cause pucker. There's probably ways to avoid it, but I avoid it by using rayon :). 2) If it's acting funny, it's because it's threaded wrong... most commonly for me, it's the "lip" thing in the bobbin case. Then you get too much white. If it dies after a color change and about 8 stitches, says "recheck upper thread", really, just rethread it, even if it looks fine. 3) REALLY try to not stretch the fabric when you're hooping it. Causes some scary puckering. 4) There is a difference between different vendors of designs. Some are super good, some not so much. So try a sample or two from a site before you go hog-wild there. They may look cute on the screen, but when you try to stitch it out, they have 5 layers superimposed, which causes some issues, the margins are too thin, or the color changes are really poorly defined. 5) You're likely going to want some software. Many people apparently use Embird, so I wanted to like it, but I don't like their business model... I may be missing something, but my understanding is that it's a chunk of change for the base model, that much again if you want to make your own, that much again if you want to use letters, etc. It's not nickel-and-diming, but hundred-and-hundred-and-fifty-dollaring. Same concept, different scale. They let you try it out, but it's truly crippleware... you can't save images you've built (like what that's supposed to tell you, I don't know... how can I know if this is ok if I can't stitch it???). But I suggest you try it out... for whatever reason, it's very popular. I found Stitch Era Universal, which is freeware that requires a constant internet connection, has ads, and is really free and useful. There are some things that are less useful than Embird (harder to see where your edges should be is my only concern right now), but I can take a design, add some text, save it to the file format I need, etc. I even got fancy and made part of a P-51 red so that I could do a pattern for the Tuskegee Airmen. Took me a while (~1.5 hours) to figure out how to do it, because I had to split objects, insert color changes, etc, but I did it. You can also digitize, but I'm guessing that's hard. :) Both of these have active yahoo groups. There are other software products, but I don't know them, so can't comment effectively. 6) Don't pay full price for any design unless you LOVE it and HAVE to have it now. There's going to be a sale, you're going to get a coupon, or something. That may just be at the sites I'm at, but so far, the sales make it super tempting to get those really neat designs. Put it in your wishlist, wait for a sale or coupon. YMMV. 7) Get the free stuff! Sign up for the club, see what they offer free. Emblibrary has a great Christmas club, and a super nice selection of low cost designs that changes weekly. Bunnycup has a REALLY great selection of free retired sets (the ghosts are super cute!), great designs from a technical perspective, and frequent additions to the "new sets" page. It tends to be "cutsier" than I would love, but if you're looking for cutesy, that's a great start (lot of applique, too, and good instructional stuff). 8) Get most of your non-thread stuff on amazon... it's just cheaper and convenient. The things that I wouldn't trade for the world are my pre-cut stabilizer sheets (Tearaway Embroidery Stabilizer, 8x8, 200 Precut Sheets for Embroidery Machines, pre-wound bobbins (144 Prewound Bobbins for Brother Embroidery Machine Size A (156), aweseome weird looking scissors (Havel's Ulti-Mates Angled Machine Embroidery Scissors, and any curved forceps for finishing the threading process (unless your fingers are more agile than mine). I got mine at a local craft store in the jewelery making section for $3. Yes, I'm lazy, and I trade money for time... you can probably get roll stabilizer way cheaper, wind your own bobbins, use any old pointy scissors, and finish the threading with fingers. But for me, being able to grab a sheet, have a really full bobbin with exactly the right tension without having to learn how to use my bobbin winder-thingie, and cut stray threads without contortion are so worth it. (Note: I'm likely going to have to learn bobbin-winder-thingie at some point, since sometimes you want bobbin and upper threads to match, like for applique, but I'm not beating feet to it :) ) 9) Shop around. The prices for the exact same thread varies from $2.85 to $5.99, with everything in between, with similar variation in other stuff I've seen. brothermall2 and allthreads are relatively good sites, although the user interface is clunky at the first, and it has a limited selection, but prices are great (especially for the easy glow-in-the-dark thread, and fast shipping. 10) If you can afford it, you like madeira thread, and you think you're going to do this a while, get the set. It's expensive, but you get the drawers that go with it, pre-filled and with little stickers for where the spools go back to, and a cross-reference by number (it's sorted by color sheet order). For about 10x what I spend on 30 threads, I got 356 threads, nice wooden drawers with spool-hugging plastic inserts (to avoid rolling) I'll use forever, and not having to worry about getting a particular color for a special pattern. It solved two of my biggest concerns: storage and inventory. How do I know what I have, find what I have, and store what I have? Now I can easily see what has a hole, find anything, and not be flipping through boxes of spools to find stuff. This set was SOOOO worth it for me. I bought several spools of that brand at a cheap thread site, tried it on a pattern or two, and took the plunge early. 11) This is shockingly fun so far. I can make a neat pattern in a short time... I put Mario's gold flower on my son's pajamas, a glow-in-the-dark ghost on my daughter's blanket, and am working on a state quilt. So for non-crafty, non-creative me, this is something that I look forward to doing... it's almost funny. My kids like watching it stitch out, I like the "set and forget" and good results (with a few setbacks for learning issues), and I am so impressed with what I can make. 12) Research stuff before you buy it. I almost got the "hard" glow in the dark thread, which apparently glows longer, but requires special handling, instead of the "easy" glow in the dark, which you use, launder, etc, just like regular thread. And I almost spent $6 for thread, and I avoided spending $600 on modular software. I bought metallics, which are beyond my skill set, because I violated this guidance... 13) Keep the manual close... my first several times threading, I had the book open next to me. As someone who had literally never threaded before, it took me a couple of times (probably 5) to figure it out. It's clearly labeled on the machine, and you'll be doing it in your sleep pretty quickly, but you have to hit all the marks or it just doesn't work. I also watched the first video, and looked in the manual for repeating a color or stitch (they call it "re-sewing", if you want to look it up in the manual) when I had threading issues. So I flipped through it, and refer to it (despite my anti-manual leanings). I also read other people saying you have to read the manual cover to cover, and I won't say they're wrong. I may have had fewer threading issues if I would have complied :) So, this a long review, I know, but if someone else is thinking they may be interested, that's the path I took, and my results!

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