ohmisslizzie

I had a babylock ellure plus, I was just learning to sew and do embriodery- well long story short I got fustrated trying to download cute online designs to the machine, had my 5th child who has a heart condition and was just too busy to mess with it so I sold it.
I have a little more time on my hands and really want to get back into it. I want a good machine, within a reasonable budget. I found this Husky Designer one on Craigslist- it has recently been looked over at a shop and is in good working order. It does not have a usb- just works on floppys- I did see that they make floppy drives you can connect to a usb to download things from the computer.
Is this machine too dated? Would I be better off with a lower quality machine new like a Brother- can you suggest machines for someone who wants to stay at or under $1000- that sews and does a great job with embriodery- that will last- and has large hoops?
This machine was originally $1000 and I got him down to $700- it includes the case some floppys, and is in good shape.
I would appreciate any advice and reccomendations on machines in my budget!!

linda8450

I started with D1 and upgraded to Diamond a few years ago. My friend has D1 and we sew together often.

You can download designs right to your computer (I don't recommend it, but you can) or a usb stick or cd. Then using an external floppy drive (or built in to puter if you have it) you can transfer the design or designs onto a floppy to insert into the D1.

You can download multiple designs onto the floppy (as opposed to one at a time) if you have the right software (3d 4d 5d) and I am sure others will work. You would need some software to view the designs anyway.
I found it tedious to only be able to put 1 design at a time on floppy, so I researched until I developed a way to do up to 20 or so and that would keep me busy. That way you only need to save designs on a usb (for permanent storage) and then copy them to floppy when you want to use them. You only need 6 or so floppies then, because you aren't using them for storage and you can reload them anytime.

I think that is a good deal, make sure you have 4x4 5x7 and mega hoop if you can get more, even better, and a good selection of feet. I would say it is a great deal as the D1 was a top of the line machine when it was new. Parts are still available, so if it hasn't been mistreated, go for it!

DonnaR

I wouldn't recommend this machine as it is really hard to get the floppy disks. I had one and upgraded to the Designer SE with usb. Just my opinion.

linda8450

Floppy disks are availabe at Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, and usually a friend has squirreled away some and no longer uses them. You can rewrite them hundreds of time, so 1 or 2 could suffice, but I would go with 6 or more to be on the safe side. I help my friend 2 or 3 times a week to use her machine (she isn't real comfortable with it yet) and I can load designs and be ME'ing in minutes. No longer than my usb stick, and money counts! Better quality machine for less money or cheaper model for same money?? I would not pass it up, you can always sell it or trade to upgrade later. It does almost everythng my Diamond does for lots less $$.

Buzzy Bee

I had this machine and it is not user friendly....Best thing I ever did was sell it and go with Brother and Baby Locke for embroidery and all my sewing needs

ohmisslizzie

The person selling it - it was her mothers- here is a link to it- so I would need to get the floppy converter thing for my computer and floppys, and a software program- does anyone reccomend a software program and does any one know the floppy size is? Here is a link to the listing - he lowered to 850 but is willing to do 700..

What did you find not user friendly about the machine?

ohmisslizzie

opps here is the link
http://norfolk.craigslist.org/art/3649492509.html

Lucio

I bought this machine 9 years ago for $6000 and a husky serger was also included. I went to all the classes as the embroidery part is rather difficult to self teach from the manual. When they had a 30%sale I also bought the digitizing programs ( a total waste of money) and most of the hoops.The floppies are definately yesterday's technology and the kid at the computer store thought it was hysterical when we wanted this capability when we "built" our computer. At first I embroidered everything that stood still but that got old fast. While still under warranty a gear in the embrioidery unit came off and ruined my friend's new bouse on which I was embroidering. After I bought my Janome 6500 with the larger sewing bed I find that I only use this machine for embroidery. I bought the quilting embroiderery hoop and use it for quilting my children's charity quilts. I had to pay $35 to have my unit modified to accomodate this hoop. I definately underuse this machine. If I were you I would insist on proof that this machine had been checked out by a reputable serviceman and I would put it through it's paces before purchase. I think the $700 is a reasonable price.

Skratchie

My mother has this machine and L O V E S it. She says it does a better 1/4" stitch than her Brother and she thinks it's a great machine. I would jump on it for that price!

Little RoO

Hi, I had the designer 1 and sold it last year as it really is quite dated. That said it sewed and embroidered beautifully.

There are lots of designs on the Internet that can be downloaded either free or you pay for them. All designs will need to be either Hus files or I think you can now also use VIP (each machine reads its own special files and won't sew out any other. Brother machines will only read Pes)

So you have the machine, then you will need a reader/writer for the floppy discs and some special software to get the design to be read by your machine.This will be the 3D or 4D software. Without this you are unlikely to be able to get the machine to sewing machine to read the floppy disc.

I am not sure if you can by pass the last by using Embird software to write directly to the machine.
There is a yahoo Husqvarna D1 group that might be able to answer that question.

In my honest opinion think really hard what you want to do with the embroidery side of things. If you don't want to embroider bigger than 8 x 6 there are some good brother embroidery only machine around that are faster, like the 750e it uses USB s to transfer designs but you will still need software and that can be pricey.

Hope this helps.....