SINGER Futura CE-250 Sewing and Embroidery Machine

by Singer

Product Features

• All-in-one sewing and embroidery machine with 100 built-in stitches including six fully automatic one-step buttonholes
• Automatic needle threader and easy top drop-in bobbin system for quick and easy set-up
• Programmable needle up/down and drop feed for free-motion sewing and creative topstitching
• 120 built-in embroidery designs and five built-in fonts perfect for monogramming
• Includes AutoPunch software to convert images to embroidery designs--design file capability automatically reads most embroidery design file formats

Product Details

View the Product Manual [PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 12 inches ; 39.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 41.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000UXT38W
• Item model number: Futura CE-250
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,177 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing (See Top 100 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing)
  • #14 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing > Sewing > Embroidery Machines

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The capabilities of a more expensive embroidery machine at a fraction of the cost.

The Singer Futura CE-250 is a fully electronic sewing machine and computer-linked embroidery unit. Ideal for both sewing and embroidery, this easy-to-use machine provides an array of convenient features, including six automatic buttonhole styles and software to convert images into embroidery designs.

The Futura sewing and embroidery machine is to first machine to connect directly to the computer, eliminating the need for conversion boxes and tools. The Futura sewing and embroidery machine automatically reads most embroidery design file formats. Download thousands of designs from the Internet or work from a collection on a CD. Also, select from built-in embroidery designs including animals, holidays, flowers and more. All designs are editable so you have complete customization over your projects. The included AutoPunch software allows you to digitize your own designs into embroidery. Digitize clip art, scanned images and other graphic files into stitches.

One-Touch Stitch Selection

With just the touch of a button you can select the stitch as well as the optimum settings for length, width, balance, pressure and tension.

Two Embroidery Hoops Included

A large 4-1/2-by-6-3/4-inch hoop and a smaller 3-1/8-by-4-3/4-inch hoop are included.

Easy Threading Top Drop-in Bobbin

Simply drop the bobbin, loop the guide, pick up the bobbin thread and you’re ready to sew.

3 StayBright LED Lights

With lights on each side of the needle area as well as one light over the large surface to the right of the needle, it is easier to see your work.

Embroidery Software

Editing software plus AutoPunch to convert clip art into embroidery designs included.

Warranty

25-year limited warranty including 25-years part, five-year electronic and one-year labor.

Connects Directly to the Computer via USB Cable

This innovation gives you the capabilities of more expensive machines at a fraction of the cost.

Vertical & Horizontal Spool Holders

A second vertical spool holder specifically designed for many of today’s threads is provided at the back of the machine.

Additional Features & Benefits

Built-In Lettering Program with Five Fonts

Select from five different fonts: Arial Large, Block Large, Script 2, Courier and Times Large. Letters can be easily sized, rotated and shaped with 30 lettering frames such as arc, banner, wave and more. Outline lettering is also included with a running stitch or satin stitch outline.

Move Forwards or Backward Through a Design

Never lose your place when sewing or embroidery. You can easily move forwards or backwards using the Needle Stop position button or Reverse Stitch.

Drop Feed for Free Motion Sewing

The drop feed feature allows for creative top stitching. Drop feed is handy when sewing quilts, monograms and adding creative touches to your sewing projects.

Transmit Design Four Ways

Embroidery designs can be transmitted to the Futura embroidery machine in four ways. The design can be sent one color block at a time, the whole design can be sent at one time, the design can be sent in one color, or the color sequence can be chosen during data submission.

Warning Signals

The machine produces audible warning messages to alert the sewer, ensuring trouble‐free sewing.

Stitch-Locking Function and Automatic Back-Tack Function

Tie off decorative and straight stitches with just the touch a button. Reinforcing the end of the seams ensures quality stitches, avoids unraveling and provides stronger stitching.

Heavy-Duty Metal Frame

This rigid support holds all the mechanisms in perfect alignment for skip‐free sewing.

Automatic Tension

This system ensures stable stitch quality, regardless of fabric type. Feel free to override the preset tension for special project settings.

Extra-High Presser Foot Lifter

The extra-high presser foot lifter offers more clearance when placing multiple layers of bulky fabric under the presser foot.

Four-Segment Feed Dogs with Box Feed

This specially designed feed dog ensures the fabric is picked up and supported from the front of the presser foot to the rear. The box feed motion moves the feed dogs in a box motion, rather than the historic arc motion. The feed dogs are always in perfect and equal contact with the fabric and presser foot.

7mm Stitch Width

Select stitches can be set for a maximum width of 7mm. When sewing decorative stitches or satin stitches the wide stitches are bolder and more pronounced.

Automatic Presser-Foot Pressure

The amount of pressure exerted on the fabric by the presser foot against the feed dogs is automatic. Sew from the lightest weight tricots to the heaviest denim without making pressure adjustments.

Automatic Bobbin Winding Clutch

The needle bar automatically disengages when winding the bobbin, making bobbin winding safer.

Electronic Stitch Formation

All stepper motors are electronically controlled. Digital control of the stepper motors allows for perfectly formed patterns every time.

Optimum Power Control

The optimum power control aids in sewing multiple layers of dense fabric. The power remains constant regardless of sewing speed.

Thirteen Needle Positions

Needle positions can be changed for individual projects including inserting zippers, cording and topstitching.

Automatic Software and Firmware Updates

The latest embroidery software and machine firmware enhancements can be downloaded automatically or manually from within the Futura software.

Futura Sewing and Embroidery Machines Comparison

Features	Futura CE-150	Futura CE-250
Built-In Stitches	24	100
Styles of Buttonholes	2	6
Software Included	Standard	Standard + AutoPunch

Unlock Your Creativity With 100 Built-In Stitches

The Future CE-250 offers a large variety of stitches for construction, embroidery, fashion sewing, quilting, heirloom, crafts, home decorating and decorative sewing.

Accessories Included

• Needles
• Bobbins
• Spool caps
• Spool nets
• Seam ripper/brush
• Screwdrivers
• General/all-purpose foot
• Zipper foot
• Button-sewing foot
• Blind hem foot
• Buttonhole foot
• Satin stitch foot
• Thread guide
• Foot pedal
• Power cord
• Instruction manual
• Scissors
• Embroidery foot
• Embroidery software CD

Consumer's Choice

More people own SINGER machines than all other brands combined.

Bobbin Class: 15J

Light Bulb: 3 StayBright LED Lights

Needles: 2000 & 2020

Presser Foot Class: A

Computer Requirements

• PC with 1GHz Intel or AMD Processor
• Windows OS: Windows XP/Vista/7 (probably 2000 or higher)
• 1 GB of RAM (or more recommended)
• CD-ROM drive
• 500 MB (or more recommended) of available hard-disk space for installation
• Color standard (1024 x 768 pixel; 65,000 colors recommended) VGA adapter connected with a color monitor VGA monitor
• Microsoft compatible mouse
• USB 1.1/2.0

About SINGER

SINGER is sewing made easy.

Founded in 1851, Singer is one of the world’s leading sellers of consumer and artisan sewing machines, and one of the world’s most trusted and recognizable brands. The company has a long history of innovation, having produced, among other breakthroughs, the world’s first portable machine, the first zigzag machine and the first computer-controlled machine.

By making simple, easy-to-use machines, Singer has provided the gateway to sewing for people around the world. From home décor and clothing construction to embroidery and quilting, Singer is dedicated to helping people express themselves through sewing.

Product Description

Includes (1) General Purpose Pressure Foot, (1) Buttonhole Foot, (1) Button Sewing Foot, (1) Zipper Foot, (1) Satin Stitch, (1) Blind Hem Foot, (1) Embroidery Foot, Needles, (7) Bobbins, (3) Sewing Bobbins, (3) Embroidery Bobbins and (1) Bobbin In The Machine, Scissors, (3) Screwdrivers - Small, Large And Special, (2) Embroidery Hoops - Large (4 1/2-In x 6 3/4-In) And Small (3 1/8-In x 4 3/4-In), Lint Brush-Seam Ripper, (2) Spool Caps - Small And Large, Thread Guide, Vinyl Bag, USB Cable, Autopunch Software, Windows-Compatible Basic Editing Software For Your Computer, Operational Tutorial DVD, Instruction Manual

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New to Machine Embroidery, September 8, 2008

By 

Joleen W. Black "Craft Lover" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SINGER Futura CE-250 Sewing and Embroidery Machine (Kitchen)

I purchased this machine because I wanted to learn to do machine embroidery and didn't want to spend a fortune. I think it is an excellent value. It seems very solid and sewed beautifully with no adjustments straight out of the box. There are sensors in the thread path that are very sensitive and incorrectly report broken thread quite often. As soon as I got the hang of flossing the thread into the sensors this became less of a problem. There are several yahoo groups dedicated to machine embroidery and the nice people there were of great assistance to me as I got started.

Folks like me who are new to machine embroidery should understand that the sewing machine must be physically attached to a computer while you are embroidering. The soft ware running the computer sends the information to the sewing machine one color at a time so don't think that you can download the design and then sew it out later. You are going to need a computer to run the embroidery feature of this machine. I'm using an old computer that was discarded at my office because it was too slow to run large office programs over a network. I took all the other software off and it runs the Future software just fine. If you are going to need to acquire a computer to run your embroidery machine you should consider that cost along with the price of the Futura.

Thread is the paint of embroidery and since it is different than regular thread you are also going to have to make an investment in thread to get started. The price of a spool can vary greatly but if you buy a bunch at one time it can be pricy so think about this to when deciding to make the plunge into machine embroidery.

The difference between the Futura 250 and the Futura 350 is the software. If you plan to create your own embroidery designs you should know that only the basic software comes with the 250 but you can purchase the full software separately. Making clip art into machine embroidery is much more difficult than I first thought and to run the Futura software the sewing machine must be connected to the computer even if you are just working on the design and not doing the actual sewing. There are other software packages that do not have this requirement. You could use them to make the art into embroidery files but you will still need to be connected to your Futura to stitch them out.

I am extremely happy with this product and would recommend it to other people like me who just want to have some fun and spice up their craft and sewing projects. If you are looking to do embroidery professionally then purchase a higher priced and faster machine.

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fooled by the reviews, August 6, 2009

By 

A. Buffalo "Olaf the Grey" (Warrenton, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SINGER Futura CE-250 Sewing and Embroidery Machine (Kitchen)

My wife and I needed an embroidery machine to create some work for one of our clients. Not wanting to spend a whole lot of money as the embroidery part of the machine would not be used on a regular basis I read the reviews here for the CE-250 and we decided to purchase one.

Considering the 5-1 favorable review report here I must say I was completely fooled. The original 1 star report is right on the money with regards to this machine. The CE-250 requires an immense amount of patience and time. The machine constantly breaks its thread, not only in embroidery mode, but in standard sewing mode as well. I am beginning to hear the "beep beep" of the E-1 warning in my sleep (we do a lot of personal sewing as well). We followed the instructions to a T on set up and threading the machine but still phoned Singer tech support to check on the user error possibility when the E-1 Warning kept continually popping up. The young lady who answered our call was quite nice and assured us we had correctly set up the machine but she did add the following: "slide the thread back and forth through the machine as you are threading it to make sure the sensors read the thread." We followed her advice and are still wasting as much thread as we are sewing.

The trump card for me comes when you attempt a embroidery stitch that has more density than the default pattern, the default pattern being rather loose and requiring a lot of hand stitching to fill holes. When you drop the density below the default "4" setting the machine gets caught on the bobbin thread density and will cause the fabric to get caught in the foot thus tearing the fabric. (yes the foot is in the down setting for embroidery). Because of the work we need to do we have had to plod through this but the amount of fabric that has been ruined, along with the time and effort, has far eclipsed any money we my have saved buying this rudimentary machine.

If you want some nice embroidery spend the money and get a better machine. If you want a really expensive sewing machine that has some cool attachments for show, buy this one.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first time ever on a sewing machine......so wonderful and simple, February 28, 2009

By 

Dana Sacco "dana" (san francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SINGER Futura CE-250 Sewing and Embroidery Machine (Kitchen)

when i bought this machine i had never used a sewing machine before in my life. I had never even sewn by hand. i really had no clue what i was doing. i just followed the directions on how to thread it and within a few days i had it figured out. the embroidery and sewing was a breeze. i have gotten the annoying "broken thread" error plenty myself but i have found that if you just change the way you thread it you can find a way it works flawlessly. when i get the error i move the spool onto the vertical spool holder and try guiding it through the thread guide and that will work. so yeah sometimes it takes a second to get it running perfectly but once the thread it fine the machine works great. i realize i have no basis of comparison but for someone who has never sewn before to figure it all out this fast i feel i can let you all know that it isnt complicated or difficult to use at all. the software is great, my embroideries come out beautifully and i am so happy i bought it.