Before ordering or downloading a design, you need to know what type of files your machine can actually display and use.
Designs are created by a technique called digitising.There are particular file extension names that apply to the different brands of machine. For example, the design called elephant.pes would be for a Brother, because Brother uses the file extension .pes
When you download your design file, the information files you need will be included within the zipped file. Embroidery designs usually just have a color chart and design information such as stitch count and stitch out size, while projects will come with more comprehensive directions.
The color charts and any other included directions can come in different file types or formats. The file extension (the last three letters of the file name eg. .txt) indicate the file type and determine which program you will need to open and view the file.
Simple text instructions may come in a .txt file which you can click on to open on any computer. More comprehensive and detailed instructions that include pictures or patterns will come in .doc or .pdf format. You will need to view .doc files in Microsoft Word or an alternative open source software like Open Office or Kingsoft and .pdf files in Adobe Reader.
If you have opened your download file in your embroidery software program and you are not seeing the design information files, it may be because they are in a format your embroidery program can’t read or doesn’t recognise. Make sure you view the contents of your download file outside of your embroidery program initially, so you can see the full set of files included.
Always follow the color chart supplied by the digitizer, rather than the color sequence of your embroidery design file.
When you open a design file in an embroidery software that is different from the one used for the original digitizing, the colors in the design may look rather unusual, and not like the original image displayed on our website. This is because designs are created in many different embroidery programs and when designs are converted from one format to another, the thread colors are not always compatible. If an embroidery program doesn’t recognize a thread color, it will assign a default color that may be very different. For this reason the digitizer will include a color chart with the designs.
It is always recommended you follow the color chart included with the design, rather than the colors your embroidery program may display.
Sometimes color charts are brand specific and refer to the particular brand of embroidery thread the designer used. You may of course use a different brand of embroidery thread. If you want to convert the color exactly from one brand to another using the thread color codes, you can use a thread conversion chart, or a program like Easy Threads.
Many of the latest color charts include a description of the color, or color swatches you can use as a guideline instead of a specific color code relating to a particular thread brand. This makes it easier for you to choose a matching color from your own thread collection, without having to worry about converting codes from one thread brand to another.
All embroidery machines have limitations, so when you are shopping for designs, keep in mind your particular machine’s embroidery area and stitch count limit. Refer to your machine’s user manual or the company that manufactured the machine if you need to confirm the specifications.
If you order a design larger than your machine can read, your machine will not display the design, or it may generate an error message.
The number of stitches in a design will be included in the information file you download with your designs, or displayed on the site if the designer has supplied it. If you would like these details prior to ordering, just let us know the exact name of the design so we can check the details for you.
The hoop size is shown next to the Add to Cart button for each design set.
This is the minimum hoop size required to provide the sewing field necessary to accommodate the largest design in that set. The hoop size may not indicate actual stitch out size, as there could be a range of sizes within the set.
If no hoop size is shown, or you would like to know exact stitch out sizes, please contact us with name of the set so we can check the details for you.
Our Dollar Designs are all for the 4×4” hoop unless they are marked with an *. The asterix means they require a larger hoop size.
Our designs are only available as sets, unless they are displayed on the page as singles. Sorry but we are unable to split the sets.
All our Singles Designs are visible in the Categories menu. They can also be found by using a filter button on the display. This will only show if there are Single Designs available in that category.
Although this website can be used on all modern browsers, it works best in Firefox.
You will see a different version of our website if you are using a mobile phone. If you are using a phone, tablet or iPad, make sure your device is not set to PRIVATE browsing. You may not be able to see our menus and shopping cart if your browser is set to Private. To turn off Private Browsing on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, open Safari and tap the Pages icon at the bottom right of the screen. Tap Private to turn private browsing off.
If you are using Firefox, Private Browsing is turned on when you open a New Private Window from the menu or choose Never Remember History under Options/Privacy/History. Change this option to Remember History. Using Firefox in Private mode may prove difficult on our website.
We offer two online payment options – credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover) or PayPal account. Both types of payments are processed instantly using PayPal’s secure server, so once your order is completed you will be able to download your designs and be stitching within minutes.
From the checkout, choose your preferred payment method once you are ready to complete your order.
Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the processing on your order and finalise your payment. Payment is made on PayPal’s secure server.
You will have the opportunity to modify your order before payment is completed.
All prices are in USD. If you have any trouble completing your payment, LIKE the design by clicking the small heart on the item. This will put that item in your Liked area so you can find them again easily. Delete your cookies and cache, restart your computer and try ordering again.
Sometimes there can be a delay of a few seconds in the connection between PayPal and our website. Please be patient. If you click on the payment button more than once or refresh your browser, it can result in a duplicate payment. If you suspect this may have happened, just send us an email so we can check for you. We can process refunds for duplicate payments immediately.
PayPal eChecks: Sometimes a PayPal payment is processed as an eCheck. This happens when PayPal doesn’t have a record of a current credit card as a back-up to your account. eCheck payments remain uncleared until the funds have cleared from the sender’s account, which usually takes four business days. As soon as PayPal notify us your payment has been cleared, we will update your order and send your download link.
We do not want you to miss out on important updates, download links and other benefits. To help ensure proper delivery of our emails to your inbox, you can tell your email provider we are legitimate and an Approved Safe Sender, by “whitelisting” secretsof.com.
Just google how to whitelist an address on gmail, or whatever your email program is.
We only send promotional emails because you requested them. We do not send unsolicited emails and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
Secrets of Embroidery began in 2000 as an online resource for the home embroiderer. It quickly became very popular, and digitisers requested us to display and sell their designs.
Today, Secrets of Embroidery offers high quality designs and projects by over 60 designers. We are the preferred online marketplace for quality embroidery designs and inspiring projects for machine embroidery. Our blog has many informative and educational posts to help you with machine embroidery.
We are a family business based in New Zealand, and take pride in providing excellent service for our customers.
Since 2000 it has been our policy to never share your email address with anyone else. It will only ever be used to send you mailouts if you are subscribed.
Login to your Account to edit your personal details held by us.
You can unsubscribe at any time you wish.
If you write to the office with a query for a particular supplier or further product information, your email address may be sent to the supplier who will contact you directly.
By confirming your subscription to our mailouts or by not checking the checkbox at the checkout, you give Secrets of Embroidery your affirmative, prior, direct permission to email you advertisements of items offered for sale at the Secrets of Embroidery website.
By confirming your newsletter subscriptions, or not checking the box at the checkout notifying us that you don’t want to receive product updates, you agree that you waive any and all potential causes of action under any “anti-spam” legislation for your locality against Secrets of Embroidery and/or our digitisers/authors which may arise from our mailouts.
Privacy
It is our policy to never share your email address with anyone else. It will only ever be used to send you mailouts if you are subscribed. You can unsubscribe below at any time you wish.
General
Secrets of Embroidery sells products on behalf of digitisers, software companies, authors, artists and accessory suppliers. The information and software for sale at Secrets of Embroidery was provided to us by the person or company who made them, and has not been authenticated in any way by the Secrets of Embroidery website. While care is taken to ensure any items sold at Secrets of Embroidery are of the highest quality, Secrets of Embroidery cannot be held responsible for the content.
There are no warranties given by Secrets of Embroidery for any items sold on our site as they are sold on behalf of the supplier. All questions and problems arising from the items purchased must be directed to the suppliers. Secrets of Embroidery will happily help correspond with the suppliers on your behalf.
The design and layout of this entire website, including the text and all images are the property of the Secrets of Embroidery. You may not copy them without our written permission.
Secrets of Embroidery may have links to other sites of interest not belonging to Secrets of Embroidery. These sites are not endorsed by the Secrets website and we hold no responsibility for the content sold or displayed on them.
Copyright
All products sold at Secrets of Embroidery are owned and copyright protected by the individual designers/authors/artists etc. These items do not belong to the Secrets website .
It is the full responsibility of the embroidery digitizers to ensure their items use original artwork, or they comply with all the copyright and royalty rules for the artwork in use.
It is the full responsibility of any tutorial authors / clipart artists etc to ensure the information and items they sell as their original work, is indeed their original work.
Secrets of Embroidery retains the right, but not the obligation, to remove any item for sale if it determines the item may violate any intellectual property rights.
Copyright Claims
If you believe that any material on the Site infringes upon any copyright that you own or control, you may file a notification of such infringement with our Designated Agent as set forth below:
Michael Warmuth, DMCA Agent
PO BOX 2108
Anacortes, WA 98221
Fax: 425-286-6846
E-mail: michael@secretsof.com
Proper notification under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA must contain the following:
(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
We may give notice of a claim of copyright infringement by means of a general notice on the Site, electronic mail to a user’s e-mail address, or by written communication sent by first-class mail to a user’s address. We will terminate the account of anyone who we deem to be a repeat offender of our copyright policies.
Use of Tutorials
CDs, downloadable tutorials, ebooks and printed information which may be obtained from this site, are all the intellectual property of either the individual author or www.secretsof.com. It is illegal to copy them in any way without written permission
You have permission to print one copy of any ebook sold on our site for your own personal learning and use. It is illegal to print out additional copies of the ebooks for distribution in any way.
You cannot claim the lessons in any tutorials or ebooks as your own for teaching purposes.
Teachers can contact Secrets of Embroidery for permission to use lessons.
Use of Designs
All designs sold at Secrets of Embroidery are licensed for the original customer use only. You cannot sell, trade, copy, loan, transfer or in any way duplicate the design software (digitized design file) in any part or whole without violating copyright law.
You may use any designs on any items for yourself or that are distributed as gifts. You can also use the designs on items for resale, as long as you make them yourself as part of a home business and they are not made or sold on a commercial scale.
By downloading the embroidery files, you are agreeing to adhere to the guidelines listed here and any additional statements in the files themselves expressed by the digitizer.
Payment Terms
Payments can be made by credit card, PayPal or check and money orders.
Credit Card payments and most Paypal payments are cleared immediately. Designs and tutorial e-books will be available for immediate download. Software registration will be sent by email within the time specified by the company. Other items will be shipped and delivery times vary depending on where they are shipped from.
If you choose to pay by means of check, money order or an e-check through Paypal, your products will not be shipped or available for downloaded until the funds are cleared.
All payments made to the Secrets website are processed through a third party like Paypal who use encryption to the maximum strength supported by the shopper’s browser using 128 Bit SSL. No credit card details are kept by Secrets of Embroidery.
In some cases, a credit card transaction processed by Paypal may be subject to a currency conversion fee applied by the credit card issuer. Any additional fees applied are not within the jurisdiction of Secrets of Embroidery.
All Prices and Specials quoted at Secrets of Embroidery are in US Dollars and subject to change at any time. They do not include any taxes, duty or customs fees. You will be responsible for any taxes/duties applied by your local authority. Shipping and handling fees are often additional and applied at the checkout.
Secrets of Embroidery retains the right to sell or to decline to sell to any customer for any reason whatsoever.
If your payment is returned for insufficient funds, you will be required to pay all bank fees and any collection and/or legal fees required to collect the full amount. Payments returned for ‘charge-back’ will be considered fraud, and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Tax
Secrets of Embroidery acts as a venue on which individual entrepreneurs run their businesses, with Secrets of Embroidery suppliers responsible for paying appropriate sales taxes for those businesses.
Refunds and Credits
Due to the electronic nature of designs/ebooks, there are no refunds, credits or exchanges after your order is placed and downloaded.
Secrets of Embroidery will work with you to help download any items, install software and ensure your order is received. Assistance will be given for any problem.
If a downloaded product is ordered in duplicate, a credit in Customer Points can be arranged in the case of notification within 30 days. After this, we can offer a product exchange from the same designer for an item of equal or lesser value than the duplicate purchase.
Credits may also be given at the discretion of the digitiser/author for any products that that may not work for you. All endeavours must be made on your part first to work with the team at the Secrets website, and or the author/digitiser to help make the item work for you, before a credit will be considered. Proof that the item is faulty may be needed.
Software registrations for Embird, and any other software license purchased at Secrets of Embroidery are not refundable in any way. You must test the demo for the software item you plan to purchase it, to ensure it meets your standards before you purchase the registration.
Customer Reward Points
Any item ordered from Secrets of Embroidery automatically earns Customer Reward Points. These can be viewed by logging into your personal Account area and can be spent when your balance is sufficient. Visit our Customer Rewards page for more detailed information. Customer Reward Points or Credits expire after 10 years if they have not been spent during this time.
Mailing Lists
Secrets of Embroidery has a number of mailing lists, including but not limited to Embroidery Secrets and Top Secret. It is our policy to never share your email address with anyone else. It will only ever be used to send you mail-outs if you are subscribed. If you write to the office with a query for a particular supplier or further product information, your email address will be sent to the supplier who will contact you directly.
You can unsubscribe at any time you wish by logging into your personal Account area.
By confirming your subscription to our mail-outs, you give Secrets of Embroidery your affirmative, prior, direct permission to email you advertisements of items offered for sale at the Secrets of Embroidery website.
Further, by confirming your newsletter subscriptions you agree that you waive any and all potential causes of action under any “anti-spam” legislation for your locality against Secrets of Embroidery and/or our digitisers/authors which may arise from mailouts of the Embroidery Secrets or Top Secret mailouts.
Important Note
By purchasing designs from Secrets of Embroidery, you, the customer, agree to follow the above terms and conditions for using designs, images and tutorials. If it is found that items you have purchased from our site have been shared or copied in any way, you will be prohibited from ordering from Secrets of Embroidery in future.
If you cancel your payment after downloading and receiving designs from Secrets of Embroidery, you will also be prohibited from ordering in future.
Secrets of Embroidery can revise any of these policies at any time by updating any postings on this site.
Are you interested in joining Secrets of Embroidery, and selling your designs on our website?
Please use our Contact form to email us and tell us a little about yourself and your designs.
Try to include the following information:
Do you have your own website where we can take a look? Are you purchasing artwork, or using your own original work? What is unique about your designs? How often do you bring out new designs? What other designs would you like to make in future?
We look forward to hearing about your designs and will get back to you promptly.
If you cannot find the answer to your query in this Help area, send us an email using
our Contact form.
Include as many details as possible so we can help you, such as your order number or transaction receipt number.
We will reply to you within 24 hours of receiving your query. If you haven’t heard from us in this time, please check your spam or junk mail and make sure that secretsof.com is on your safe/white list if you use one.
If you are not hearing from us at all, it will be because of an email issue. Please supply an alternative email address such as gmail if possible.
After your payment has been made a download link will appear on your screen. Additionally, an order confirmation email will also be sent to you with your download information.
If you have not logged in to your My Secrets account before placing your order, your receipt and order confirmation email will be sent to the email address that you used to pay by Paypal or Credit Card.
For security purposes, download links are valid for one time use only. However, you can request a new download link at any time from your Secrets Account area. Links requests can be made from the Orders or Purchases pages in your Account.
An email will be sent to you with the links you requested.
After you click the link and get to the download button you can use a right click to get the save as menu. Choose Save Link As… to be able to save the file directly to the folder of your choice. Otherwise the download will come to your default Downloads folder.
If you don’t receive your order confirmation email with your download details, please check the following.
Alternative Email Address – We send your order confirmation email to the email address on your order. If you use a different email address for your PayPal account the order confirmation email may have been sent there. This can happen if you are not logged in to your Secrets account when you place your order. Check both your Secrets email account and your PayPal email account.
Spam Filters – Your order confirmation email may have been sent in error to your spam or junk mail folders. Make sure to check these folders, and that if you use a safe/white list, our email address office@secretsof.com has been added to it.
Corrupted Download File or Cannot Download:
Occasionally, if you are not able to download your design, it may be due to an internal error we need to correct from our end. Just send us an email and we will attend to any errors as soon as possible.
If you have a problem with the design file you download it may be that the file became corrupted during the download process. The first thing to try is to temporarily close any antivirus program working on the background of your computer and download again. Request a new download link from your Account login area.
If you still have trouble, just send us an email using Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
For security purposes, download links are valid for one time use only. However, you can request a new download link at any time from your Secrets Account area. Links requests can be made from the Orders or Purchases pages in your Account.
An email will be sent to you with the links you requested.
Always take note of the folder location you choose, so you can locate your files after downloading.
Reset your download link if:
1. Your first download failed.
2. Your computer crashes and you lose files previously downloaded.
3. You can’t find where you saved the downloaded files on your computer.
4. You have a new computer that you want to download to.
5. You want to download in a different design format.
Designs from Secrets of Embroidery can be immediately downloaded to your computer when you have completed the purchase.
Image files and embroidery designs are large and because of this are usually transferred in zipped files. You will need to unzip the file and extract your designs before you can use them.
The procedure is that you first download the ZIP file, locate it on your computer, open it, extract the files and save them to wherever you keep your embroidery designs. The ZIP file you originally downloaded can then be deleted. Then when you are ready, open the embroidery design file in your embroidery program, or send it to your machine for stitching out.
How to Unzip: Locate your downloaded zipped file and double click on it. When your files have been extracted, which only takes a moment, you can navigate to the the folder you extracted them to, and you will see the embroidery file and usually a PDF file inside as well.
There are many benefits to having a Secrets Account. You can access all your purchases at any time, and download again. It also allows us to recognise you when you login, and show your favorite designs on your Liked page.
Registration for our mailouts is easy when you have an Account, and this enables you to receive Customer Points.
Login to your Account by using the Login link at the bottom of the navigation menu on the left of our website. Your Account pages will show below the navigation menu after you have logged in.
On mobile view, touch the User icon to login. Your Account pages will appear below the menu items.
An account with your email address is first registered for you when you place an order with us. You will be asked to choose a password the first time you login.
Update your password in the Profile page of your Account at any time.
Items that were previously in your Wish List can now be found in your Liked page, which is always available in our navigation menu.
To LIKE a design, just mouseover the design image and click the small white heart that appears in the top right corner of the design image. When a design is liked, the heart turns pink.
To remove an item from your Liked page, just click the pink heart to de-select it.
If you have items in your shopping cart and want to move them to your Liked page rather than purchase them, here is what to do: On the cart page every item shows an image, followed by the format, the price, a heart symbol and an X. Click on the Heart symbol and the design will be moved to your Liked page.
Ensure you use the same email address for your newsletter registrations, orders and payments at Secrets of Embroidery. This way all your customer reward points and orders will always show in the one email account.
If you are not logged in to your Secrets Account, and you use a different email address to make your PayPal payment, a new email account will be created with us under the PayPal email address. So make sure to login to your Secrets Account before you place an order.
Combine email addresses – If you have ordered from our site using more than one email address, you may want to combine the accounts so that all your orders and points are together. Login with the email address you no longer want to use, then click through to Profile to combine the accounts.
If you want to change your email address, just log into your Account with your old email address and update your details by going to Profile.
Our passwords are case sensitive, so make sure to use either upper or lower case letters as appropriate.
When you enter your email address and password, be careful not to leave a space before either entry.
If you are having a problem with your login, the first thing to try is to clear your cache, then re-start your computer and try to login again.
Your computer security setting may also need adjusting.
You can earn Customer Rewards while shopping at Secrets of Embroidery. Membership is automatic and free if you are subscribed to our mailouts. Just remember to sign in every time you shop with us.
For every $20 you spend at Secrets, you receive 7 points. Treasure Hunt,Silver Sale, and Pop-up Store items are exempt from our Customer Rewards program as they are already so heavily discounted. You can check your balance at any time by checking on the Customer Rewards page in your Account.
When you have more than 70 points, a space will appear on the checkout page where you can spend your Customer Points.
Customer Points are valid for 10 years. This is our way of saying thank you for shopping with us.
Gift Certificates are available by request.
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