Every Mystery, She Sewed case arrives with a small stack of file formats: PES, DST, EXP, XXX and JEF. If those letters mean nothing to you, this is the case file that clears it all up. Embroidery file formats are one of the most common things I get asked about in my day job, and the good news is they are far less mysterious than they look.
What an embroidery file actually is
An embroidery file is not a picture. It is a set of instructions for your machine: where the needle goes, in what order, with which colour, and when to trim. That is why you cannot just rename a JPG and hope for the best, and it is also why a well digitised file matters so much. The instructions are the design.
The big five formats
PES is the Brother family format, also used by Baby Lock. If you own a Brother machine, this is your one.
DST is the old commercial standard from Tajima. Nearly everything can read it, which makes it a great fallback, though it carries little colour information, so your machine may show the design in whatever colours it fancies. Stitch order stays correct, so follow your colour chart.
EXP comes from the Melco world and is the format Bernina embroiderers usually want.
XXX belongs to Singer machines.
JEF is Janome’s format, for the Janome and Elna family.
Which one does your machine want?
Your manual will tell you, usually in the specifications page, and most machines accept more than one. If your machine wants something not listed here, like VP3 for Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff, just ask, other formats are available on request for every case. And if you are genuinely stuck on what your machine can and cannot read, machine questions are literally my day job at EmbroideryMachines.co.nz, so you are welcome to ask there too. I would much rather help you load the right file than watch you fight the wrong one.
Two quick warnings from the evidence locker
First, resizing: because a stitch file is instructions rather than a picture, resizing it more than a little can throw the stitch density out badly. Small tweaks are usually fine, big changes are a crime scene. Second, if you ever need a design created properly for your machine from scratch, that is hand digitising, which happens over at Veronica and Me.
Case closed
So when your first clue email arrives with five files attached, there is no mystery to it: pick the format your machine speaks, load it, and start stitching the evidence. Every design in every case fits a 4 x 4 inch hoop, and the current mysteries are open on the Case Board. New to the whole idea? Your first stitch along covers everything worth having ready, and the FAQ answers the rest.