How exactly does a home embroidery machine work?
For the most part, the general concept is very similar from machine to machine and from brand to brand. What most of us think of when hearing machine embroidery is a picture that the machine stitches out through the use of an embroidery hoop that is moved via an embroidery arm. The machine’s built-in brain (ie. computer) controls the movement of the embroidery arm so that a pattern can be stitched. These patterns are usually fed to the machine via a proprietary card, floppy disk or direct-link to a computer. One style of machine (Singer EU, Toyota POEM, Viking Huskygram..all made by same manufacturer) actually needs to be connected to a computer to operate at all, as these embroidery-only machines do not have a built-in computer on board. The embroidery arm holds a hoop which typically snaps onto the arm or attaches in some manner. The hoop is a two-piece frame with an inner and outer portion. The user “hoops” the item to be embroidered by putting it between the inner and outer portion
