Test sheets

Designs drawn in code for the machine checkpoints, each for one hoop of the reference machine. Write one with stitch testsheet <id> -o <id>.pes. The command checks it against the profile of that hoop, or the one --profile names, and prints what to check after sewing it, as listed here. The pictures are previews: they show what the machine will sew, including jump threads it leaves for you to cut. In VectorCraft, the Test Sheet filter draws a sheet drawn as a design into a document (how).

TS-01 — Orientation and scale

120.0 × 120.0 mm · 274 stitches, 7 jumps, 7 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

TS-01 as it will sew, in black: a cross with arms 100 mm long and a tick every 10 mm, an upright F in the top-left quarter, and a 10 mm square in each corner.

Threads: Black.

After sewing, check:

The F reads normally: not mirrored, not upside down, not turned.
Each arm of the cross measures 100.0 ± 0.5 mm end to end, horizontally and vertically.
The corner squares measure 10.0 mm on every side.
Ticks are 10 mm apart; the long ticks mark the ends and the centre.

TS-02 — Colour changes, a stop, jumps and trims

120.0 × 70.0 mm · 93 stitches, 17 jumps, 8 trims, 2 colour changes, 1 stop

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

TS-02 as it will sew if the machine leaves plain jumps uncut: four red rows of two dashes with nothing between them, four blue rows whose dashes and rows are joined by loose threads, and a green line underneath.

TS-02 in the simple style. A red cross marks the trim after the first dash of each red row, and a blue square marks the stop in the middle of the green line. Grey dashes show moves after a cut, and blue dashes show jump threads left in place.

Threads: Red, Blue, Emerald Green, Emerald Green (stop).

After sewing, check:

The machine stops for red → blue and blue → green, and once more in the middle of the green line (the stop).
Left half (red, a trim before every jump): for each row (gaps of 2, 5, 15, 30 mm, top to bottom), was the thread between the two dashes cut?
Right half (blue, jumps without trims, which a PES file flags as trims too): did every dash sew? For each row, and between rows, was the thread cut?
Any loose loops, knots or bird’s nests on the back, and where.

TS-02B — TS-02 drawn as a design: trims elements ask for

120.0 × 70.0 mm · 230 stitches, 17 jumps, 8 trims, 2 colour changes, 1 stop

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-02B as it will sew if the machine leaves plain jumps uncut: four red rows of two dashes with nothing between them, four blue rows whose top row is one line and whose other dashes and rows are joined by loose threads, and a green line underneath.

TS-02B in the simple style: a red cross marks the trim after every red dash but the last, grey dashes show moves after a cut, blue dashes show jump threads left in place, and a blue square marks the stop in the middle of the green line.

Threads: Red, Blue, Emerald Green, Emerald Green (stop).

After sewing, check:

The machine stops for red → blue and blue → green, and once more in the middle of the green line (the stop), and cuts the thread at each.
Left half (red; every dash but the last asks for a trim after it): the machine cuts no jump, so its rows (gaps of 2, 5, 15, 30 mm, top to bottom) are joined by threads. Did every dash stay sewn while the machine went on to the next?
Right half (blue; no trims): the 2 mm gap is sewn across, and threads join the other dashes and the rows. Did every dash stay sewn?
Each dash starts and ends with a small lock. Snip the threads between the dashes, then pull each tail gently: does the dash hold?
Any loose loops, knots or bird’s nests on the back, and where.

TS-03 — Running stitch: lengths, bean stitch, curves, the shortest stitch

60.0 × 78.0 mm · 588 stitches, 15 jumps, 15 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-03 as it will sew, in blue: five long lines with stitches from 1.5 to 4 mm, two bolder bean-stitch lines, three small circles, the right-hand one visibly many-sided, and five short lines of tiny stitches growing longer towards the bottom.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

Running stitch lines (top five; 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 mm): the stitches of each line are even; ten stitches, counted inside the small lock at each end, measure 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 mm.
Bean stitch lines (next two; each stitch sewn three and five times): solid and raised, with no gaps.
Circles (6 mm across; tolerance 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 mm, left to right): round, with fewer and straighter stitches to the right.
Short stitches placed by hand (bottom five; 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 mm, each with a small back-and-forth lock at both ends): which lines sew cleanly, with no thread breaks, knots or bunching on the back? The shortest clean one is the machine’s shortest stitch; if the 0.3 mm line is clean, it is 0.3 mm or less: the sheet has no shorter line.

TS-04 — Lock stitches: do they hold, and do they show?

110.0 × 64.5 mm · 623 stitches, 27 jumps, 27 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-04 as it will sew, in red: nine rows of three lines, each line ending in a small lock at both ends, the locks’ shapes differing from row to row and growing from left to right.

Threads: Red.

After sewing, check:

Rows, top to bottom: half stitch, arrow, back and forth, bowtie, cross, star, simple, triangle, zigzag. Each line has its lock at both ends and was trimmed after, but the machine cuts no jump: snip the threads between the lines, then pull each tail gently. Does the lock hold, or does the line come undone?
Columns, left to right, are small, medium and large: the half stitch on first stitches of 1, 1.5 and 2.5 mm, back and forth at 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 mm, the others at 70, 100 and 150 %.
Rows 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are sewn left to right and the others right to left: a line’s start is the end it was sewn from.
Which locks show from the front, and how much (1 hidden to 5 obvious)?
Any thread breaks or knots at the locks, and where.

TS-05 — Satin width ladder: spacing, width and pull

91.0 × 76.0 mm · 3440 stitches, 30 jumps, 30 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-05 as it will sew, in blue: three rows of ten solid satin columns, each row’s columns growing from 1 to 10 mm wide left to right, the top row densest and the bottom row the most open.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

Rows, top to bottom, are at zigzag spacings of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mm, and the columns of each row are 1 to 10 mm wide, left to right.
Coverage: in which columns does the fabric show between the stitches? Rate each row 1 (bare) to 5 (solid).
Width: measure the 2, 6 and 10 mm columns of each row across, halfway down. How much narrower than drawn are they?
Edges: straight and crisp, or wavy? From which width on do the long stitches lie loose or catch?
Any puckering round the columns, thread breaks, or loops on the back, and where.

TS-06 — Satin underlays side by side

62.0 × 30.0 mm · 966 stitches, 5 jumps, 5 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-06 as it will sew, in red: five satin columns 6 mm wide side by side, which look alike from above because their underlays lie beneath the top stitches.

Threads: Red.

After sewing, check:

Columns, left to right: no underlay, a centre walk, a contour, a zigzag, and a contour with a zigzag, each 6 mm wide.
Edges: rate each column 1 (ragged) to 5 (crisp).
Loft: rate each column 1 (flat) to 5 (full and raised).
Does any underlay show past the top stitches, at the edges or at the ends?
Measure each column across, halfway down, and note any puckering round it.

TS-07 — Fill and outline registration at 3 pull compensations

126.2 × 126.0 mm · 13527 stitches, 6 jumps, 6 trims, 1 colour change, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-07 as it will sew: three red tatami circles, two side by side and one below them, each with a thin black outline along its edge.

Threads: Red, Black.

After sewing, check:

Circles: top left with no pull compensation, top right with 0.2 mm, bottom with 0.4 mm. Each red fill is 60 mm across, with a black running stitch along its edge.
At 12 points round each circle, as the hours of a clock: does fabric show between the fill and the outline, or does the fill reach past it? Measure the largest gap and the largest overlap of each circle.
Measure each fill across, left to right and top to bottom. How much less than 60 mm is it, and how much of that does the compensation make up?
Any puckering round the circles, and where.

TS-08 — Fill density and angle

100.0 × 170.0 mm · 16248 stitches, 15 jumps, 15 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-08 as it will sew, in blue: fifteen tatami squares in five rows of three, their rows level, slanting and upright from left to right, the top squares dense and the bottom ones open enough to show the underlay and travel beneath them.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

Rows, top to bottom, are at row spacings of 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 mm, and the columns at angles of 0°, 45° and 90°, left to right. Each square is 30 mm wide.
Coverage: in which squares does the fabric show between the rows? Rate each row of squares 1 (bare) to 5 (solid).
At 0.25 mm the rows lie nearer each other than the machine’s shortest stitch of 0.3 mm. In the 0° and 90° squares, whose edges meet the rows square on, each row’s first needle point is left out: does a sliver of fabric show at the rows’ starts, along those edges? The 45° square’s rows end 0.35 mm apart along its edges and keep their starts.
Stiffness: rate each row of squares 1 (soft) to 5 (stiff as card). Is there puckering round any square, or furrows where needle points line up?
Measure the 0° and the 90° square at 0.4 mm across, both ways. How much less than 30 mm are they?

TS-09 — Fill underlay, travel and gap-filling rows round holes

66.0 × 114.0 mm · 7780 stitches, 6 jumps, 3 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

Drawn as a design, which VectorCraft’s Test Sheet filter draws too.

TS-09 as it will sew, in green: the same shape three times, top to bottom, a rectangle with a square hole and a round hole and a bar to its right, which a jump thread along the bottom joins to it.

Threads: Emerald Green.

After sewing, check:

Top to bottom: without underlay, with Ink/Stitch’s default underlay, and with the underlay and 2 gap-filling rows. Each is a 50 × 30 mm rectangle with a square hole and a round hole, and a bar 6 mm to its right that belongs to the same fill.
Travel: does any running stitch between rows show on top of the fill? Where?
The bar: was the thread to it cut, or does a jump thread run to it? Does the fill hold at both ends of that jump?
Holes: are their edges clean, with no row across them and no fabric showing round them?
Where the rows round a hole meet again, does a gap open along a row? Does the bottom copy, with gap-filling rows, close it?
How the 3 copies differ in stiffness, and any puckering.

TS-10A — Hoop size: the 4 × 4 in hoop, a 100 × 100 mm frame

100.0 × 100.0 mm · 195 stitches, 4 jumps, 4 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 4 × 4 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-4x4.

TS-10A as it will sew: a blue square frame 100 mm on each side, the 4 × 4 in hoop’s field, with an F at the top left and a small cross in the centre.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

With the 4 × 4 in hoop on the machine: does the machine take the file and sew it, without asking for a larger hoop?
The frame measures 100.0 × 100.0 mm (± 0.5 mm), the F at the top left.

TS-10B — Hoop size: the 5 × 7 in hoop, a 130 × 180 mm frame

130.0 × 180.0 mm · 283 stitches, 4 jumps, 4 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop, profile brother-pe800-5x7.

TS-10B as it will sew: a blue frame 130 mm wide and 180 mm high, the 5 × 7 in hoop’s field, with an F at the top left and a small cross in the centre.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

With the 5 × 7 in hoop on the machine: does the machine take the file and sew it?
The frame measures 130.0 × 180.0 mm (± 0.5 mm), tall side top to bottom, the F at the top left.

TS-10C — Hoop size: the small hoop, a 20 × 60 mm frame

20.0 × 60.0 mm · 92 stitches, 4 jumps, 4 trims, 0 colour changes, 0 stops

Hoop: the Brother PE800 with its small hoop, profile brother-pe800-small.

TS-10C as it will sew: a blue frame 20 mm wide and 60 mm high, the small hoop’s field, with a small F at the top left and a small cross in the middle.

Threads: Blue.

After sewing, check:

With the small hoop on the machine: does the machine take the file and sew it, without asking for a larger hoop?
If it asks for a larger hoop, turn the design a quarter turn on the machine’s screen. Does it take it then?
The frame measures 20.0 × 60.0 mm (± 0.5 mm), tall side top to bottom, the F at the top left.

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