How to Catalog & Organize Embroidery Designs for FREE

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I finally hit the point where my embroidery design files were so haphazardly organized on my computer that I couldn’t find anything. Some files had been sitting for years in my downloads folder, while thousands of others were all in a big folder creatively titled “Embroidery Designs.”

To make matters worse, many files were still zipped, so I couldn’t even preview what they looked like.

Thus, I spent this last weekend organizing my machine embroidery designs and tidying up my folders–I rediscovered so many fun collections I’d forgotten about.

Are you also stuck with a disorganized mess of embroidery designs? Check out these ways to organize embroidery design files, plus options for useful FREE software to organize the designs for you!

Table of Contents

Supported Embroidery Formats

Opens & Saves

• Buzz Tools / BUZ
• Brother, Baby Lock, Bernina Deco 500 / PEC
• Brother, Baby Lock, Bernina Deco 500 / PES
• Compucon / XXX
• Elna Xpressive, Xquisite / EMD
• Janome New Home / JEF
• Janome New Home / SEW
• Melco Explanded /EXP
• Pfaff / PCS
• Pfaff / VIP
• Pfaff / VP3
• Poem / Singer EU, Viking Huskygram / CSD
• Singer PSW / XXX
• Singer / PEC
• Singer / PES
• Tajima / DST
• Viking Husqvarna / HUS
• Viking Husqvarna / VIP
• Viking Husqvarna / VP3
• White / PEC
• White / PES

Opens Only - You will have to save in one of the above formats

• Bernina Artista / ART versions 1-8
• Brother, Baby Lock, Bernina Deco 500 / PHC
• Janome New Home / JEF+ save as JEF format for these machines
• Pfaff / PCQ
• Great Notions Condensed / GNC
• Melco Condensed / CND
• OESD Condensed / OEF
• Viking Husqvarna / SHV

Setting Up a Backup or External Drive

If your computer has little space left to house all these designs or you’re a worrier like me, use an external hard drive or USB flash drive to keep your embroidery files (or duplicates) on. I have a USB stick that keeps the designs I think I’ll use soon and then an external hard drive that mirrors my computer, which means it has every design I’ve ever downloaded duplicated to it.

Of course, I also have a cloud backup, but there’s something more reassuring about having a physical hard drive backup.

And that’s all I’ve got for now–I hope once you start organizing all your embroidery files you’ll also rediscover some new gems and feel the relief of having decluttered your computer!

7 Best Embroidery Software of 2025, According to Testing

Embroidery is the process of decorating materials with thread, beads, pearls, etc. People used to do it manually using their sewing machines.

Nowadays, a large group of sewists depends on machine embroidery. It involves the use of digital technology.

At the same time, it boosts speed and accuracy. Users have to install design software on their devices. They can then customize designs by rescaling, erasing parts, editing, rotating, and so on.

Although some free applications are available, one can’t achieve the same performance they get from paid applications.

Again, not all paid services are efficient; they fail to meet the customer’s expectations. Luckily, we found the seven Best Embroidery Software after long-term research. Let’s take a look at their primary and extra features:

(See our quick top 5 picks and below you can read our detailed reviews about these products.)

• Premium Pick:Floriani Total Control U Embroidery Software
  

• Editors’ Choice:Embrilliance StitchArtist Level 1 Embroidery Design
  

• Upgrade Pick:Singer Editing Embroidery Software for Futura