The latest piece of tech in the war on grandmas has gotta be Brother's Quattro 6000D sewing machine, a beastly machine with specs that will help even the most diligent granny patch up those quilts or ripped teddies more efficiently. Once you get past the huge 50 square inch workspace, you'll notice the 4.5 x 7-inch Sharp HD LCD display and embedded runway lighting. Brother's "InnovEye" and "Up-Close Viewer" technology places a camera right next to the needle to give the user a birds-eye view on the LCD to allow perfect placement before stitching. Advanced embroidery features and built-in tutorials should certainly mitigate any mishaps, and should you get the urge to plug every flash drive you own into it, there are 3 USB ports. From our perspective, it looks like the hardest part will be getting this monster home from the store and finding a place to store it -- and what to attack with embroidered flowers first. No word on price or release date yet, but there are a few more glamor shots after the break.
posted December 30th 2008 10:10PM
I hope this takes my grandma into the 21st century.
Now if you could just put in the image and have it sew for you I'd buy it.
that's pretty much exactly what this seems to do...
I don't know how many engadget users are sewers, but I am. Man its amazing how far these machines cost. Makes life so much easier!
Only thing, is all these new automatic embroiders take the art and skill out of it all.
Non the less, its still awesome!
I disagree. You'll use CAD software (like MasterWorks or Designer's Gallery) to create and edit designs. You can have them import a picture and then decide on the stitches. But you'll probably want to use the tools to build up the embroidery with different textures, stitch patterns, colors, etc. Once you have your design, you export a PES file and bring it over to the machine on a flash drive.
This machine will only do one color at a time, so a complex embroidery will require several thread switches. If you want something more automatic or more production, you should get a multi-head machine. Baby Lock has a 6 head machine so you can do 6 color embroideries without interference.
For regular stitching, these machines have vast libraries of stitch patterns. That's where this thing really shines. And the camera should help you get things lined up perfectly and see if the feeds are wrinkling material or otherwise causing you grief.
Who cares about art and skill.
Oh man that's badass. Made even more badass for being a badass version of something you wouldn't expect to ever be badass.
So true.
Badass comment.
Easily the manliest sewing machine ever...but only as long as you stick to embroidering manly things like daggers and skulls...
It's fancy, but not manly. My Juki walking foot machine and my bartacker are so much burlier.
It costs 13000$
It's still cheaper to just hire an illegal immigrant to do the same job. Or outsource the sewing job to a 3rd world country. :P
Except illegal immigrants dont understand "sew one big daisy with about ten more surrounding it and a big smiley sun in the background"
Wow...just wow. It's shocking to read, but it's so true.
At any rate this is a pretty cool machine. I'm not even remotely interested in sewing...but my love for gadgets has me at a crossroads, and I'm now questioning my sexuality...?!?!
If I did have the bucks though, my mother would get one of these and so would my wife who both love to sew. Very cool thing indeed.
Glad to see products, that you wouldn't figure taking big steps with technology, taking them. gg brother.
My two loves, sewing and electronic gadgets. Good thing I can't afford one, lest my chihuahua and boyfriend get embroidered...
You've seen it here first! Little old lady sewing porn.
These things are crazy. Its possible for someone with only a basic operating knowledge of sewing machines to create fully automatic custom crazy embroidery. Its almost fire and forget. I'll warn you that the last time I used their design creation software, it was horrible. But we did manage to custom embroider a Quakecon logo and our clan tag onto a fabric flag. This is a gadget, and pretty kick ass one at that. Buy one for your wife or girlfriend and you might find out its more fun than you think.
Anyone else notice how these "FIRST!!!11!?" comments started getting rampant again after Engadget pointed out that a good number of the comments were useless. We weren't really seeing them for a while before that but its like pointing out the stupidity of people draws more idiots to gawk at it. So please for the love of whatever deity(s) you do or do not worship just say something relevant or shut the hell up.
But will it blend?
That is the question.
Tony Stark wants his sewing machine back
You both spelt W00T wrong
And you all spelled "spelled" wrong, unless you were somehow referring to the wheat.
Don't show this article to my wife...I REPEAT...Don't show this article to my wife!!!
I am keeping her off of Engadget for at least 30 days because if she sees this, there will be $9,000 missing from our bank account, I can guarantee you!
(on the other hand, perhaps if I let her get this, she will get me that Alienware laptop I have been eyeballing...and with the difference in price, maybe something else ;-))
I've never put a needle and thread to a thing in my lifetime...and just to use one of these, I may just do it. Very sad, but true.
Diss it all you want, but if I was ever going to sew, this would be the machine I would do it on. Anybody who has a grandma that would sew on this beast... has a rockin cool garandma!
Wow... this is a heck of an impressive machine - these things use to take an entire room, now they are only take 50 inches which is nothing!
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
I thought it was a graphics card when i first read the title :( epic fail
this is better than reading another story about a damn netbook or another write up on yet another dell gaming rig.
By the way, what the hell is a netbook? Oh, a computer with no optical drive, priced at $400.00 and usually ships with linux only or a low end version of MS' os, unless you upgrade. OOOOOOOOOOOH.
@Nathan: It really works either way. And you should check, say, dictionary.com, before you say something like that!
@max654000 Right you are sir! I did do a quick search from the iPhone for 'spelt' and got a bunch of results on wheat, as I expected. Never thought to check dictionary.com, as I should have. Good lesson to never post to engadget from the crapper while drinking!
Sorry about my comment about how you all spelt your version of spelled :)
Cant wait to see the Laptop Version by Ben Heck.
Yes but can it run crysis?
They're beautiful.Quiet perfect for a futuristic old woman hah.
This thing kicks bobbin!
I just read it's $13,000
Bah! This takes all the fun out of sewing. Oh, wait...
Wow, that thing looks straight out Modena, Italy! Enzo would be proud to badge it!
"No, but it WILL embroider ANY image you want on ANY fabric you want. I'll leave it to your imagination where that could lead..."
PERVERT!
I remember years ago, I think late 70's and my Mom got got a sewing machine. It had different cartridges you would plug into it for different pattern. Back then it did all kinds of what I thought back then cool stitching tricks. Times have changed and this new one is 100 generations better. I've heard there's a big market for these things out there. I'm not surprised the Technology has advanced so much in such a short time. You think Sewing machine, what can you really do to improve one. Like so many other things, they've greatly improved over the years.
Can it play Crysis?
PERFECT for those times when you just can't get to the hospital.
bernina and husquvarna have been making touch screen embroidery machines for years. The only "unique" feature is the camera mounted on the needle which would help with eyestrain and getting the right steps if you had a thread break. Yes it is a CNC machine and works on a code very similar to G-code.