This month, I thought I'd address one of the common questions I get from people. "OK, I bought a monogram frame and an alphabet. Now what?"
Many machines allow you to combine designs at the machine. You can either use fonts that came pre-installed on your machine, or fonts you purchase. It's a bit tedious since each letter is a separate design, but totally doable. A few machines don't allow this. The Brother PE770 is one of them and it is a popular machine.
There is a free option! Embrilliance Express is a free software program with a special format (.bx) that allows you to type the letters and move them around to get the layout you want. Then you simply save the composite design in your machine format and take that you your machine. It is awesome.
The only caveat is that the free version only reads bx format, so you can't open a border in pes and add the name unless both designs are in bx format.
All of my monograms, fonts and frames include bx format, so you can create your final design in the free version.
If you are thinking of investing in simple editing software, I highly recommend the paid version called Embrilliance Essentials. It is simple to use and with the paid version, you can add names or combine designs that you already own in your machine format.
Here is a link: www.embrilliance.com/express
Happy Sewing!
Jody