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At the College of Business, we're inspired by everything around us. We support bold risks, big dreams and never giving up. We prepare you for a diverse world and teach you to become engaged citizens and business leaders.
There are more than 30,000 College of Business alums in the world. Each year, hundreds of you inspire and mentor current students, and support internship and job opportunities at your companies. Because of you, the Beaver family is strong.
Our centers and initiatives give you hands-on, experiential learning opportunities. Entrepreneur? Check. Interested in market research? Yep. Want to advance gender equity and inclusion? We've got that, too.
More than 3,000 students
30k Alumni worldwide
28 degrees and areas of focus
Degree programs and focus areas developed with industry advisory boards representative of more than 185 area and national businesses. We're graduating the workforce that you need.
At the College of Business, we're inspired by everything around us. We support bold risks, big dreams and never giving up. We prepare you for a diverse world and teach you to become engaged citizens and business leaders.
There are more than 30,000 College of Business alums in the world. Each year, hundreds of you inspire and mentor current students, and support internship and job opportunities at your companies. Because of you, the Beaver family is strong.
This page provides a tutorial for using the Janome MB-4S embroidery machine. Embroidery is a powerful tool for visually impressive designs on fabric, and is best used on hats, polos, or other thick material.
File Creation
Open Adobe Illustrator on the computer near the embroidery machine, and load an existing vector file. If you aren’t sure if your file is vector, or if you need to convert a bitmap image (.PNG, .JPG, .GIF, etc.) to vector, see the Vector and Bitmap Image Guide.
Once you have your vector design in Illustrator, begin to prepare it for the embroidery software. Check for common issues such as:
Other objects and designs in the same file. These will be included in the design, so remove them now (you can use File->Save As to save a separate copy to keep the other objects).
Overlapping objects. Check to make sure that none of the parts of your file overlap each other. While it looks fine on the screen, the embroidery machine will overlap stitches, leading to uneven embroidery and possible failure. If your design has overlap, see the fixing overlap in Illustrator tutorial.
Gradients or many-color images. Our embroidery machine only supports four thread colors per design and one color at a time. Make sure that all your objects are solid-color, and that you don’t have more than four colors overall in your design.
Once your design is finalized go to File->Export and select the .EMF file format. Save this file and close Illustrator.
In this section, we will turn the .EMF design from the previous section into files the embroidery machine itself will understand. Open Embird (64 Bit) on the desktop and click the Launch Studio Plugin button. Once the plugin has launched, go to Design->Import Vector File in the top bar and locate your .EMF file.
If any objects you don’t want to embroider made it into the .EMF, they can also be deleted at this stage. To do so, first left-click to select the element, then right-click on the element and select Delete.
To change the color of an element, simply select it by left clicking then right click and go to Color->Define Color then choose one of the basic colors. (Remember that the embroidery machine doesn’t actually know the color of the thread you load. Therefore, the color you choose now is only there to help you choose spools later, and won’t affect the color of thread actually used.) Sometimes, you’ll notice at this point that objects which look like the same color are actually slightly different tones. Make sure you assign them all the same color at this point, which will save you time later on.
Now that your design is colored properly, it is time to save the design in a way Embird understands. This will come in handy if your Illustrator file is fine, but you need to tweak the colors or other design features later. Go to File->Save As and select the .EOF format and save. This file can then be opened and edited later to make any changes.
Now you are ready to generate stitches. This is the step where Embird turns the shapes in your designs into the actual stitch patterns for the embroidery. Simply click the send to Generate Stitches button in the top left corner of Embird Studio.
Embird will ask what format the file should be saved in. For this embroidery machine, select the .JEF format, then click Okay. Save this file on the embroidery machine flash drive in the EMB->Embf directory.
Each of the embroidery hoops has its dimensions labeled on the sides, and many have the name of their standard size category, such as M2. Find and select the hoop on the list, often found in the Standard - 2 tab. Then press Okay.
Setting Up the Janome MB-4S
There are several steps to setting up the embroidery machine, but not all of them may be necessary every time you run a job. However, if you might not have been the last to use the machine, it's important that you check to make sure it is threaded correctly.
Threading the Machine
The most complicated and delicate step of the embroidery process is threading the machine. First, select your thread, and use the orange thread scissors to cut any frayed portion off the end. IMPORTANT: the thread scissors are expensive, and should NEVER be used for anything but cutting thread.
Pull the thread through the hole in the metal bar. Thread the loop of the spring, then take the thread up through the nearest other hole in the metal bar. Make sure the thread is outside both metal pegs.
Thread the needle. If you're having trouble getting the thread through, you may need to trim with thread scissors. You might also try wetting the tip of the thread to help it hold together.
Pull the tension lever forward again, and the machine is threaded!
Threading the Bobbin
Sewing machines use two strands of thread at a time: the thread you see, which we loaded above, and the bobbin thread, which is fed from the bottom of the sewing area. An incorrectly-loaded bobbin causes the worst failures during embroidery, so it's worth double-checking the bobbin.
Start by opening the bobbin compartment below the needles.
If the bobbin is already loaded, remove the spool of thread inside. Place the spool on the peg of the bobbin, and be sure that the thread turns clockwise, as shown.
The bobbin is threaded! Close up the compartment when you finish.
Preparing the Hoop
Find the hoop of the same size you set earlier for the file. The hoop has two components, the inner hoop and outer hoop. The inner hoop usually has text telling you its dimensions, and metal "wings" to connect to the rest of the embroiderer. The outer hoop is just a ring of plastic with a screw to make it looser or tighter.
Use the inner and outer hoop to clamp the garment and the backing together. Both the garment and the backing should be pinched between the two parts of the hoop, and the backing should stick out on all four sides. Be sure to only clamp a single layer of fabric from the garment itself.
Next, use the screw on the outer hoop to tighten the hoops, but not all the way. Tug on the outside of the garment to pull the fabric tighter inside the hoop. Keep doing this until the fabric feels tight like a drum head. When you're done, tighten the screw on the outer hoop as much as possible. To add stability, add straight pins along the edges of hoop, pinning the garment and the backing more firmly together.
Finally, check under the hoop. There should be no other fabric between the backing and the metal plate, or you will sew the garment together where you don't want to. Bunch any excess material underneath the bobbin compartment.
Loading the File
Eject the embroidery flash drive from the PC and plug it into the side of the display screen.
The Trace Outline button (four arrows in a square shape, near the bottom of the panel) will show you exactly where the design will be placed, and the screen shows the orientation.
In the layout screen, the arrows along the right of the panel wil move the design, while touching the circle by the rotate icon can adjust the orientation of the design. Press the OK button to finish your editing.
The software automatically assigns each color in your design to one of the machine's four needles. Check to make sure that the assignments match the color of thread actually on the needle. If they don't match up, select the color using the Thread +/- buttons on the right.
