A Closer Look at the Brother Stellaire XJ1 | Echidna Sewing

hi everyone it's gary here from echidna sewing and today i'd like to introduce you to some absolutely incredible technology the brother stella air range of sewing and embroidery machines and if you're in the market for a new machine these are just sensational there's an embroidery only version which is the stellair xe1 and uh it's you know it's a really popular model if you're right into embroidery big hoops all that sort of stuff check out the videos and all the information on our website for the stellair xe1 if you're looking for a combination machine then the stellair xj1 is a sewing and embroidery machine all the same embroidery features as this guy but it has incredible sewing capabilities as well so that's the stellair xj1 embroidery and sewing and the xe1 is embroidery only check out our website check out the deals you're going to love them [Music] okay so here we are with the brother xj1 sewing and embroidery machine combo and i've got this set up as without the embroidery unit at the moment so what i'd like to do first is just give you a run through on what actually comes standard with the machine now obviously it comes with an embroidery unit which i've got sitting at the back just here and i can have that on or off the machine so if i've had it running as an embroidery machine i can simply turn it go to sewing mode the embroidery unit can stay in place and you can sew just like a normal sewing machine in this case it's not on i've taken it off and that's probably better for the for the demonstration here now i will quickly run through um the contents that come in the box obviously the embroidery unit but the xj one does come with four embroidery hoops so you've got your standard hundred by hundred hoop which is you know really popular left chest logos and that sort of thing we'll just pop that over the back there we don't need that we've got the standard 5x7 or which is the 130x180 hoop so again very popular hoop size and the hoops of course slide on they're not the really easy ones to get on that they're fantastic to use and of course they have the stellar markings which you'll see all about that on the embroidery only version video so you've also got the 240 by 240 hoop which is nine and a half inches by nine and a half inches that's a really handy size so that's standard and of course the big one which is the 360 by 240 all with the nice simple screw attachments there good quality hoops excellent hoops and they're standard with the machine so we don't need them at the moment because we are in sewing mode now it also obviously comes with a fantastic operation manual so a bit of light bedtime reading here guys so you know it's worth looking through and seeing what the machine's capable of doing plus the embroidery design guide so that's got all the built-in embroidery designs if you're going to be doing embroidery and all the color charts and everything there is also an accessories guide brother has a load of accessories and the great thing about brother accessories and the feet is they're very well priced i mean they're probably one of the most affordable options in the market it also comes with the embroidery placement stickers and grids for creating your own design your own stitches in sewing mode because that's another nice feature on pretty much all brother computerized machines so that's all included obviously in the box but the really fun thing is when you look at the the included accessories it's quite remarkable one of the cool things many cool things is it comes with the the brother exclusive move it dual fit dual feed foot and this guy is different to a walking foot in that it has a little tractor wheel that actually works as a pulling device and it's controllable this is very heavy actually has a motor built into it it plugs into the back of the machine it just really makes a walking foot quite redundant in many respects and all different types of presser feets uh presser feets presser feet available for this this device and when it screws onto the machine and plugs in it basically sits there of course and gives you total control over fabric slippage or movement and an absolutely remarkable product and that is included as standard with the xj1 so we'll pop that over there now the accessory case is fantastic so you open it up like that and there's a load of things built into the top there's a few spare slots there for feet that you might want to add but it does come very well equipped with the handy little brother screwdriver here which is positional so you've got three different positions on that and then there's a position up in the center there it's really good for um for getting to your needle screwdrivers your presser feet when you're changing over to embroidery it gets on there and it also and i'll show you this while i've got it out it's great for if you ever have to nip up the screw on the embroidery frame when it's in position three that just pops over there and it locks in and you can undo that tight and tighten that screw just a little tip never over tighten those hoops because it is easy to do when you're using a screwdriver now these little case uh trays here they come out but what's really cool is you can they don't fall out the feet don't tip out how cool is that so you want to have feet all over the floor they can be taken out and then it exposes a whole heap of extra bits and pieces in here including a straight stitch needle plate that is standard uh there's the led embroidery foot so that that casts the led pointers to give you your needle drop positions there's a spare bobbin case so that's the embroidery bobbin case i've currently got the sewing bobbin case in this machine uh there's loads of spare bobbins there's loads of oh i've just dropped them everywhere tools and the little thread lead-offs and screwdrivers and extra pins in fact there's also the stylus in there i should get that out because i may even end up using that now so that comes standard everything it's really well well packaged and well equipped and i'm just going to pop all that back in there standard feet with it of course is um this standard j foot the end foot for applique and that's uh that's there's also the g foot i think that's the overlocking foot there's rolled hem there's zippers there's a free motion foot there's button sewing there's uh oh there's an open toe free motion foot lots of stuff and all that's listed on our website you can check that out on the brochure actually it should be on there so great little accessory storage and when you put your machine away too guys this is kind of cool because it is designed to sit perfectly in the cavity of the machine there which is good so that's standard and it also comes with the knee lever so you can use this to lift the presser foot if you really do like that more mechanical operation but it has very advanced presser foot lifting functions on it as well particularly great for quilters and and so was alike uh also there is a foot control that comes standard with it of course and you can you can use the foot control or you can just use the start stop button that's a common thing these days lots of people are actually moving away from the foot control to using the start stop button with all the automation on machines now it's actually quite easy and quite achievable now so that's a bit of what comes with the machine it's quite well equipped let's have a look at the machine's dimensions you've got a huge over 11 inches from needle to um to throat there so that's a big accommodating space for even the biggest of quilts so if you're a quilter this is a great machine for you combining with all those fantastic feet that come with it machine of course is very handsome has a huge 10 point something inch screen it's massive it's currently in its screen saver mode so i'm not going to touch that just yet and if we lift that up you'll see that the thread goes sits nicely in the front of the machine here so it's easy to get to bob winder is on top very easy threading we'll quickly thread this in a minute looking across here loads of buttons but they're nice big buttons that's what i one of the really cool things about brother machines is everything's accessible the machine the buttons are big they're easy to get to and everything makes sense now if i touch the screen it will go back into the standard menu and you can see i've got sewing embroidery disney and my design center because yes the xj1 does also include my design center just like the xe one and you can see more about that on the the video for the xe one i am going to go straight into sewing mode so by clicking that button it goes into the standard sewing functionality on the machine but before we dig into that we might just have a look at threading the machine now traditionally we always reach for the back of the machine to lift the presser foot this has got a little presser foot lift button there so foot is now up i'm going to take that bit of fabric away we're going to have a look at the bobbin system it's a very simple bobbin system on this and as i said i already have the sewing bobbin case in here now why why do you have a sewing and an embroidery bobbin case because they both run different tensions so you can set it up for sewing and you know what's going to be right put your embroidery bobbin case in and you know you're going to have good tension for embroidery because that it is a different tension for those two applications and just to quickly show you how easy that is to do if i i'm going to just move that back there lovely big accessory tray here too by the way guys so i can slide that off i've got accessory storage at the back the front it's very deep and accommodating there but i'm going to quickly show you how easy it is to take a bobbin case out we just slide that little gray plate forward and we just remove the bobbin case next i'll do it with my other hand so you can actually see what i'm doing so we just grab that bobbin case take it out it's a bit easy when you're sitting directly in front of it whoops that's the bobbin case taken out and i know that's the sewing bobbin case because there's no dot on the center of the um the bobbin case holder there or the bobbin holder and there's also a little bit of like green uh paint if you like on the screw there that's to stop that from vibrating and coming loose and and you really very rarely need to adjust that on the sewing bobbin case now popping that back in we just put it in like that make sure it's sitting it's set correctly that's it that's all there is to it pop the plate back on push it forward and we're done so very easy to change bobbins winding a bobbin is super easy you just simply follow the dotted line on the top here it's all quite explanatory i don't need to show you the full details of that and you just simply engage the bobbin minder now when you engage the bobbin winder it automatically overrides the machine and you have on your screen an option to start or stop the bobbin or start the bobbin case winding and you can also control the speed of the bobbin winding and that's pretty pretty handy because if you if you wind a bobbin too quickly you can often stretch the thread and that gives you some grief on the actual wound bobbin so i generally run it halfway and we just click ok i don't need to start it because i don't need to wind a bobbin i have already done that now loading the bobbin in once you've wound it there is a little indicator on the front of the machine here a little um indication on how the direction of the bobbin when you're putting it in it comes off anti-clockwise and this is one of the great features on brother machines is they have this quick set bobbin system which is really cool you just simply slide the thread around bring it around cut it off and that's it you don't need to draw the bobbin thread and you virtually impossible to jam this machine because of that that feature now threading the machine and here's a little tip while i'm doing this if you have to unthread the machine never get into the habit of pulling a thread backwards through the machine so currently my machine's threaded and i'm going to take that off cut that and i'm going to pull the thread all the way through and show you just how cool this is to thread i've got resent thread on here that's one of my favorite sewing threads and we just follow the the line so one two comes down there three is down there you go up 4 is there 5 6 is on the needle bar 7 is just here so we just took that into 7 and then cut that off and all i need to do is hit that needle threader button and away it goes that's it nice and easy threaded how easy is that how cool is that needle thread is probably worth the price of admission all right now currently um i'm in sewing mode but before i run into any further i'm just going to show you something here there's when you go into this setting here which is your your settings page there's there's nine different pages if you if you want to look at the sewing functions specifically just hit the sewing machine up there and that gives you all your options on what you need what you may want to adjust including the light on the machine these have a very bright light i'm just going to quickly turn that up you can see it gets really bright but that's too bright for our camera so i'm just going to take that back down to two but if you're in a room that needs more brightness you've got it and you've also got your screen display can be changed as well you can use a mouse on this instead of using your finger or this um stylus go across to another screen here that's all just your screen savers and eco modes etc it tells you your stitch count this machine's only done 15 000 stitches it's really quite new and oh and now into embroidery i don't want to do that i want to do sewing some nice features here you can set the pivot height for the automatic pivoting functions you've got free motion settings again all brother machines whenever there's a black box behind a setting that is the factory default and if you're not sure about something there's a lovely little button here that if you click it it will allow you to set the machine back to normal factory settings and that's really cool if you do get lost in in the moment so i'm going to turn these functions back on again because i like them on ah there's great feature this guy's it has an automatic fabric sensor system so that means that the presser foot actually detects detects how thick the fabric is and that in in a very very quick way it actually adjusts the tension and the amount of pressure on the fabric on the presser foot to suit the fabric thickness that you're sewing so that's a cool feature and i generally like to leave that on yeah a few more pages of information there i don't need to get into that detail now but needless to say even though it's very automatic you can be in total control if you're a control freak like me you can do what you want to do um so let's get out of that and let's have a look at just a basic couple of basic sewing functions um again i'm not gonna this this video is not gonna be too long it's really just running through some of the key features because we will have loads of uh there are loads of videos available on all these machines but if you have a function that you'd like to dig into really deeply and know more about it just let us know and we will happily sit down and create a video on that specific function for you and and dig pretty deep with it so um it's just a matter of getting in touch with us and you can do that by phone email instant messenger all sorts of things there but please don't be scared to do that right now i've just got a simple bit of fabric here plain woven fabric i'm just going to pop that foot down and you can see selecting stitches is really really easy you've got this lovely huge big screen and what you see what stitch you select is going to show right here for you you can even change the color of that thread if you're wanting to see it in a different contrast if you choose a zigzag stitch it will show you there i've got the ability to change the width the length the thread tension right here there's so much information on this it would take me a whole day to show you all the incredible in-depth features on it so we don't want to get too deep at the moment but that's the standard utility menu there's menu number two which is more utility stitches and more again in three loads of buttonholes guys like there is um 15 or 16 odd buttonholes uh automatic button sewing automatic eyelet functions you've even got the ability to sew sideways but right now i'm just going to quickly do a stitch in the center of the the needle out of the presser foot and i'm going to turn on these three buttons which i love to pieces so we've got our auto reverse and lock off we've got our auto pivot function and we've got our scissors and watch what happens i'm just going to position that over there i'm not using my presser foot here i'm just using the start stop button and you'll see it it's green which means i can hit the go button and i've got my speed set about midway now if i start sewing at that point it's going to do a lock off stitch auto back tacks when it gets to the end of the seam and i'm only going quite slow here at the moment when it gets the end of the seam if i hit the reverse button it will now lock off or reverse back tack lock off the stitch trim the thread lift the foot how cool is that and so you've got that perfect little lock off auto back tacking at the start and finish now if you're a quilter you'll love this feature i've stopped i'm about to start again all i need to do is hit the go button i don't need to worry about the presser foot it will automatically go down as soon as i hit that go button and when we get to the end of the seam if we hit the stop button it will just stop with the needle down foot up ready to pivot how easy is that and i can adjust that foot height pivot so if you're working on quite a thick quilt or something you can have that much higher than i've currently got it here and then all you've got to do is hit the start button again or hit your foot control same deal it would just start stitching then it'll stop pivot and turn around and come back again we get to the end of the seam just hit the reverse button and it will lock off for you trim the thread lift the foot and you can take the work straight out how simple is that now of course the other huge thing on these machines is uh the number of stitches now i mentioned before you've also got this ability to sew sideways and you might think when you use that um if you had to just tack across half an inch and you've got this big item that you're working on instead of having to turn the whole item around you can do something like this so i'm just going to hit that button there and it's now going to stitch sideways for me and how cool is that now when i get to the point that i want i can just stop there i've now stitched a good inch sideways and i can come back on different angles here so if i wanted to sew down on an angle it will now come down at a 45 degree angle so you get the message there you've got all this sideways stitching and you can do that in zigzags as well you've also got a mountain of of dedicated quilting stitches and 30 different stitches there in fact um there's uh there's actually there's menus within menus you just keep digging and i have to say when you're playing with a machine like this or the xe1 or any of the fancy computerized machines please please don't be scared to push buttons they're just incredible and you'll find things that you didn't realize you could do i still find things on machines and i think wow i wish i hadn't known that two years ago because there is so much it can do you can program different stitches together all sorts of things there's also character decorative stitches so if we click that button it goes into a whole new manual menu and i can click through all these lovely built-in decorative stitches and some of the stitches get right out past 30 millimeters wide because this machine has the ability to sew sideways so let's just take that little one there now it shows you the stitch there but it also says to use the end foot and i love this because people do get confused with what foot to use so let me grab the end foot out of our little kit here which it should be floating around there it is that's the end foot now the end foot is probably your most the most are the most used other foot that you're going to have over the j foot let me just do a trim there and take that thread up needle up let that foot go and i'm just going to change over to my end foot and this is the foot you would use if you're doing applique and of course any of these decorative stitches but what's great about this is if we pop this in here we can see the stitch as it stands you could program different combinations of stitches together and these buttons here allow you to go off on different angles so if you if you're creating a lovely decorative front for a blouse or something and you want to come on different angles you can you can stitch down with one pattern then move across without actually having to reposition the fabric it's really cool once you set a stitch in place let's just take that little guy there it shows you that there and once we hit the go button it will now start stitching now if you if you get to the end of a of a pattern so i haven't completed a pattern but by hitting this reinforcement stitch it means that once it gets to the end of that individual pattern it will reinforce the stitch and stop i'm now going to do a trim and lift that up so it's very easy to stop that's a perfect little pattern there but i could have kept that going indefinitely and and hitting that button will mean that it will stop at the end of one of those patterns which is kind of cool so we've got pages and pages of beautiful built-in stitches i can't remember how many there are 700 something stitches in here i think might be more it's all in the brochure so there is a fabulous brochure you can read online as well and if you really want we can mail one of these to you so you just got to let us know but it's that all that information is online for you and if we go back into our decorative selections here so there's another menu of stitches there and we'll go back and there's another menu of really big maxi stitches these guys get really really wide and you can just have so much fun with these and a lot of these stitches i believe can be used in embroidery mode too so that's pretty cool so let's go back to our standard page oh and another thing let's go back to the home button here go back into sewing sorry i'm getting ahead of myself now back into this guy i also have the ability to create my own stitches so you can actually choose to set your own stitch type so i could hit the let me see set button there and i could go down here and go set across here and go set so i'm actually creating my own stitch i'm just randomly choosing points here and then we'll come down to there so there's my new stitch that i've created and if i want to test that it will actually show me exactly what stitch i've created and i can save that into the machine memory so if you're really creative and you like to create your own french knots or entredu stitches or hem stitches you can in this little this little device create anything you want unlimited options with stitch count stitch types let's get out of there i'm going to i'm going to run through a couple more quick things here one of the perhaps the greatest features will go back into sewing mode we'll just get a straight stitch is you also have the ability to project a laser guideline now have a look at this so if hopefully the camera will pick this up okay so i've got this red laser line now positioned in front of my presser foot and that will stay on while i'm sewing but the way this works is i can actually set that at any point in reference to my needle so if i wanted to use that red laser line as say a quarter inch seam guide i can i would just change that to quarter inch down here move it to where i want it to be go back to that position there i now have a perfect quarter inch between my laser and my needle my needle stitching or my stitching line how cool is that also use that if you're stitching in the ditch for instance you instead of having to watch the needle you just keep an eye on the laser and it will actually be guiding you to keep your fabric straight so if you've if you've had trouble sewing straight that will definitely help you so look that's just a quick run through on on the basic functionality of the machine we threaded the needle we've gone through the few buttons here we've talked about the the size of the machine it's a it's a beautifully accommodating machine it is actually the same size as the dream machine so many of you would have one of them or heard about the dream machine this is the machine that followed after the dream machine exactly the same proportions uh five-year warranty on a brother machine like this three-year mechanical warranty five-year computer warranty absolutely superb quality best stitch quality you're going to get super reliable and and most importantly really really easy to use and that comes with this lovely big screen again i could sit here for the next five hours and go through all the functions on this machine but please watch the videos that are on our website um and and all sorts of videos that are out there if you go digging you'll find them and if you have a special request for some information let us know if you'd like us to do a more in-depth one-on-one demonstration we can also do that remotely particularly using the modern technology like you know iphones and skype and zoom and all sorts of things there's all sorts of ways we can do a one-on-one demonstration for you if you're trying to make a decision on a new machine just contact us or visit one of our stores of course if you're lucky enough to be close to one of them but otherwise that's the xj1 check it out on our website check out the deals we have going and let us know if we can help you with any more information hope that's been informative and happy sewing cheers you

Channel: Echidna Sewing

Views: 15,819

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Id: udLL8kpVNGo

Length: 24min 48sec (1488 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020