Brother Stellaire Innovis XJ1 Computerized Sewing and Embroidery Machine

I love Brother embroidery machines, and the Stellaire has not disappointed me! The extra-large hoop is wonderful. I love the on-screen display of designs in the memory, and the capability of transferring designs wirelessly. The features of "My Custom Design" are very helpful and I like the software that uses my phone camera to help me with design positioning.

I had a Bernina, but found it very difficult to work with and very picky, not to mention that parts, etc. are very expensive, can't use prefilled bobbins, etc. I love my Brother. It has so many great things. My favorite is the needle threader. When you are changing colors 14 times, it is a life saver. I also like the bobbin position on the top where it has easy access, and I don't have to stand on my head to change it! I have a Bernina long arm and have had Berninas for 50 years, but now I am changing my favorite to Brother.

This is an upgrade from the dream 5100 and I am loving it. This machine does it all what more can I say? I started out on a PC8200 in 2000 and I loved it so much. I had a 4000 D and a 4500 and loved them so much I moved up to a 6000 and our house caught fire and I lost it all. We were under insured 70,000 so I tried a few things until the 5100 which was a great machine. This machine is just a true dream come true.

Brother sewing and embroidery machines are so easy to use. I started with Brother 950D, then the PE700 ( using SD cards), the 2800D. I wanted a thread wiper so in 2013 I purchased the Dreamweaver. Now I purchased the Stellaire for the larger embroidery field. All the Brother machines worked great, for each purchase I made, I wanted more features not because the machine was not working . I wished that you included a dust cover for my machine, I keep my machine on a table. I rather spend my money on a sewing machine that on a sewing machine cabinet. I wished that Brother put some kind of notification that you can use Brother's free download Design Database Transfer. I love that you can use your window's based laptop to transfer embroidery designs to your sewing machine instead of using a USB stick. I found the website in the user manual of one of your newer models (NQ3700D).

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This machine embroiders well, easy to operate, able to use other patterns that are not pre-loaded. I would highly recommend this machine for embroidering.

When I first heard about "My Design Snap App" I was a little skeptical. The app was supposed to allow you to use the camera built into your phone (or other smart device) to send images wirelessly to the machine since this machine does not have a built-in camera. Turns out this feature works as promised! It is actually very simple to use and the quality of the images sent to the machine are very good. You really can take a picture of your hooped fabric and send it to the machine in an instant. The image will appear on the screen of the machine and you can use it to see where your designs should be placed on the fabric. It may seem intimidating to use an app with your sewing machine but it is not complicated and is a very reliable feature. Brother has compensated me for leaving this review, but I have provided my honest opinion about this machine and its features.

So many new things to explore. I love my new machine. It seem to be a bit more "fussy" than my old Brother machine. But by turning it off and waiting it seems to heal its self. I get a some "nesting" with the bobbin which tends to mess up my whole design. I have learned how to successfully remove them. When finishing a thread color a piece of metal fell out of the machine. It looked like it was sheared off. I took it into my dealership to see what it was. Waiting for results. I must like it because I have over 2 million stitches on it and have only had it for 2 months.

I loved my machine for the first 3 years but it doesn't seem to keep my tension consistent. I have had it in the shop 6 times. They finally replaced a part but its doing the same thing. Very disappointing after spending such a large amount of money on the stellaire XJ1.

Disappointed in quality of some of the presser feet ie: button attachment foot. Flimsy and won't hold onto button firmly. Also stitch appearance is very disappointing on straight stitch. Videos on sewing machine selection are not as helpful as I thought they would be. Cost was on the high side too.

I have a Dream Creator 5100, and this is a nice upgrade. Love most of the features on the Stellaire and the quality on the stitches. I was excited to about the My Snap feature to do quilt fills on quilt patterns, but I found the accuracy of the fill space between the on-screen image and the stitching area to be too far off to be useful. Also, when trying to draw a design on the screen, there is a jump in the digitizitation calibration running across the screen causing straight line running north to south to have a jump to the right.