Test Sewing Guidelines

Many times, digitizers will ask if anyone is willing to test sew their designs.  It can be a win-win situation, as the digitizer can get free help from testers in several formats, and the testers can get some free designs.  We have come up with a form that has some general guidelines that will help testers be sure that they're helping the digitizer the best they can, and to help the digitizer know what factors could be responsible for different outcomes when several people test the same design.  It is generally expected that testers will email a scan of their stitch-out to the digitizer.  This helps the digitizer actually see the results, good or bad, that the tester experienced.  

Basic information about the tester:
Name of tester:
Mailing address:
Telephone number:
E-mail address:
Name of design tested:
Name of digitizer:
Digitizer's email:
Digitizer's website:

Basic information about the physical factors:
Make and model of embroidery machine used:
Design Format tested:
Hoop size used:
Needle size and type:
Fabric type used:
Did you hoop the fabric, or stick it onto the stabilizer?
Backing stabilizer type used:  Tearaway or cutaway?  Peel-and-stick, hydrostick, non-adhesive, or iron-on?  Others?
Did you hoop the stabilizer, slide it underneath the fabric, or use adhesive spray on it?
Did you use a topper like water soluble films or bridal netting?
Did you attach the topper?
Did you baste in the hoop?
Did you use water soluble thread to baste with, or regular thread?
Thread types used:
Did you make any adjustments to your machine settings?
Did you make any adjustments to the design?
Any other factors not mentioned?

Information about the way the design stitched out:
Please answer the following questions about the design you tested.   Please be honest, and don't spare anyone's feelings if you didn't like it.  

Did you like the picture that the digitizer chose to digitize? 


Did you like the thread colors the digitizer chose? 


Did the design distort or pucker the fabric, or did it lay flat? 


Were the outlines in place or were they off the edge of the design? 


Did the digitizer make good use of fill patterns and motif patterns? 


Did the digitizer make good use of stitch directions for different areas of the design? 


Did the digitizer make good use (or lack of use) of understitching? 


Were there any areas in the design that were too dense? 


Were there excessive color changes? 


Were there excessive jump stitches? 


Did you have any thread breaks and birds nests when you stitched this design? If so, what part(s) of the design did the breaks occur? 


Did you have any areas where the threads looped on top, and didn't catch the bobbin thread on the bottom? What part of the design was looped? 


What was your overall feeling for the digitizer's techniques on this design? 


What, in your opinion, could the digitizer do to improve this design? 


Do you want written credit for helping to test this design in a text file that would be included with the design set when it becomes available? 

Please fill out this form, and email it with a photo or scan of your stitch-out to the digitizer.  A jpg file is smaller and faster to send than a bmp, and retains good quality, so jpg images are preferred if possible.  

Thank you for your help!

Download this page in a printable Word document here.