Brother Persona PRS 100 Review

I happened to be at Laura’s Sewing and Vacuum Palm Beach Gardens store when they uncrated a brand new Brother Persona PR 100 single needle industrial embroidery machine in order to give a demonstration to a potential buyer, a business owner who was in the market for a new machine to be used to personalize caps, t-shirts and other items for her clients.

Since I was there to review new sewing machines, I decided to stop what I was doing in order to watch Dave, Laura’s husband and the store manager as he showed his client all of the machine’s features and taught her how to use it on her own.

At A Glance

Brother Persona PRS 100

Vertical bobbin case

The Brother Persona PR 100 looks very much like every other industrial embroidery machine that I have review so far.

It has a bobbin winding pin on the left side, a vertical bobbin case beneath the needle, a large opens space beneath the needle where the hoop is attached, an easy to follow threading guide and a large full color LCD touch screen.

The most significant difference, however between this machine and other industrial embroidery machines that I have had the honor of reviewing is the fact that the Brother Persona PR 100 has only one needle, making it necessary to rethread the machine every time there is a need for a color change.

Features

Advanced needle threading system

• 405 on board embroidery designs
  • 6 Monograming fonts
  • 20 Embroidery fonts
  • 140 Frame designs
  • 8 Quilt patterns
• Updatable software
• Advanced needle threading system
• Dual USB ports
• Drop light positioning marker
• Enhanced on screen editing
• Multiple line text input and editing
• Ability to combine designs
• Automatic tie off and cut jump stitches
• 1 Touch frame adjustment
• Switch designs from multi-color to monochromatic with one touch
• Vertical bobbin
• 7” LCD touch screen
• Ability to successfully embroider hard to reach areas on finished items [e.g. sleeves, pants legs, tags, etc.]

Working on the Brother Persona PRS 100

After watching the demonstration and subsequent sale of the Brother Persona PR 100, I decided to give it a try myself. When it was uncrated, Dave popped the pre-wound bobbin into place, so winding a brand new bobbin was not necessary.

Easy embroidery pattern selection

However, the on board bobbin winding guide is so clearly detailed, I doubt actually winding a bobbin would be any challenge at all. The on board threading guide is quite easy to follow as well.

Selecting an embroidery pattern was as easy as it is on smaller embroidery machines manufactured by Brother specifically for use in the home. Simply touch the menu icon and toggle through design options until you arrive at the one that you want.

To simplify the process, people who invest in the Brother Persona PRS 100 have the option of using the stitch reference guide to help streamline the stitch selection process, but I chose to take my time and look at the designs on the well-lit screen.

Normally, when reviewing embroidery machines, I select a design that does not require a thread change. For this particular review, however, I decided to use a two thread quilt block design.

The Brother Persona PR 100 is solidly built, runs smoothly and is very quiet when compared with other machines of its type.

When the first color was finished, the machine stopped and sounded a very pleasant chime. While loading the second thread color, I overlooked one small step in the threading process, which resulted in the machine stopping after just a couple of stiches.

Once my error was discovered and corrected, the machine picked up exactly where it stopped and my design was finished with perfection. I looked over the finished design very closely and could not detect where it had stopped and restarted.

Perfect design finish

The Brother Persona PR 100 is so solid that even while sitting atop the crate it was shipped in, there was very little vibration. I could just imagine that if it were operating while sitting atop an actual workstation or table designed specifically for a machine of this type, there would be no vibration whatsoever.

Fabrics

• Natural fibers/cotton-linen-wool
• Fine fabrics/silk-satin-taffeta/velvet
• Knits
• Synthetic fabrics/blends-rayon-polyester
• Denim
• Upholstery
• Leather/suede
• Fur
• Reptile skin
• Canvas/Twill
• Plastic/Rubber
• Extra thick fabrics or multiple layers

Accessories

Standard accessories:

• 4 Spool thread stand
• Cap frame and driver set
• Embroidery hoops:
  • 8” x 8”
  • 4” x 4”
  • 2” x 2”
  • 1.5” x 1.75”

Optional accessories:

• Wide table
• Machine stand
• Optional embroidery hoops:
  • 8” x 8” flat frame to handle thick fabrics [e.g. jackets, coats, leather, suede, fur]
  • 4” x 7” border frame
  • Round frame kit:
    • 4”
    • 5”
    • 6”
  • Center shoe clamp frame

Maintenance

Tying Off The Loose Ends

Since beginning to write reviews of sewing machines of all types, I have reviewed several table top single purpose embroidery machines.

Up until a visit to Laura’s Sewing and Vacuum, I have always observed these massive machines in operation because of the rather significant amount of training that is required before actually operating without running the risk of causing damage to the machine.

The Brother Persona, however, is quite different. This is the very first machine of its type that I have observed to be user friendly in every way… so much so that I was quite comfortable operating it after just observing a demonstration for a customer.

This is by far the most user friendly industrial embroidery machine that I have seen thus far. It is compact, easy to learn, easy to operate and easy to maintain. This is largely due to the actual design of the Brother Persona PR 100.

While on first glance, it appears to be identical in every way to those high tech, complicated industrial embroidery machines, the Brother Persona PR 100 has been designed to bring commercial grade embroidery to the home as well as to simplify the work of those individuals in the professional embroidery industry.

It is a wonderful piece of equipment for working on small private and commercial embroidery tasks, but with an embroidery field that is no larger than 8” x 8”, the options for larger commercial embroidery jobs are limited.

With this in mind, I do not believe the Brother Persona PR 100 is a good fit for any setting where large embroidery projects like banners and other very large projects are the norm.

However, if smaller embroidery jobs, like ball caps, shirts, jackets, cuffs and children’s clothes are the order of the day, this is an ideal addition to any private or commercial sewing room.

With an 18” footprint, the Brother Persona PR 100 takes much less table space than most other embroidery machines designed strictly for home use.

This single fact makes this machine a viable option for anyone who wants to add an embroidery machine to their home sewing room, but is concerned about space limitations.

In my opinion, the most endearing feature about this machine is the ease with which I was able to learn to operate it. There are no complicated measurements or scales to master.

I especially like the fact that the on screen editing process is practically identical to the same process on all of the other Brother embroidery or sewing and embroidery machines currently available… which is one of the most user friendly systems I have had the pleasure of working with.

Anyone who has any experience working on a Brother embroidery machine of any type would have absolutely no problem whatsoever transferring those skills to the high powered, faster Brother Persona PR 100 which offers many, many more design options as well as the advantage of computer connectivity and all that comes with it.

By having the ability to connect the Brother Persona PR 100 to a home computer, users have an almost infinite number of options and choices for embroidery designs that they can create.

In the final analysis, my feeling is that the Brother Persona PR 100 is possibly the most user friendly industrial embroidery machine available at this point in time.

It is not only user friendly, it produces spectacular designs with quiet speed and precision that I have thus far only seen on much larger, heavier machines.

If you are in the market for a single needle high speed industrial powered embroidery machine for your home sewing room or professional embroidery studio, take the time to visit an authorized Brother sewing machine dealer in your local area and ask for a demonstration of the Brother Persona PR 100.

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