I've done very little sewing over the past few months but did make a couple of cushions for a friend who vintage Alvis Car has a Standing Hare Mascot.   [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
Couldn't find one standing but found this lovely design of a head.

The stitch count is fairly low. And the 12 X 5 hoop is the repositional hoop for doing split designs.

It is very cosy had to take it off as I was cooking in if.

If you want a cheaper alternative to hugos magic tape get some bondage tape from eBay it's the same but coloured.

As the others have said make sure you get a machine that will take a usb and at least a 5 X 7 in design area. If you have any dealers local to you it would be worth paying them a visit and ask for a demo and advice on their machines.   They should also offer surport and lesson on how to use it to get you started.  My local dealer has demo day on the last Sunday of the month that anyone who has bought an embroidery machine from them can go to where they show you different features on the machines to get you using them. 

That's lovely a good idea to use the net for a bit of extra support.

Cardboard side bobbins are for multineedle  machines.  The 80 weight cutaway is one you would use for very dense designs. Just try them out and see which you like the best and find works best for you. 20 micron is topping and the 30 you can hoop but if you want to do freestanding lace you would need either the fabric type solvy or 76 micron /ultra solvy.  It's size A bobbins you want.  I must admit that I tend to use florani no show mesh, polymesh  or soft and stronge most of the time as I like it.  My daughter who has my old machine likes filmoplast sticky stabaliser.

That's a lovely dragon it's stitched out really well.