Working document
Tester round call file and correction log template
A working template for the two documents every pattern tester round needs: the call you post and the log every correction lands in.
Free resources
Resources for independent sewing and knitting pattern designers
Working tools for the release side of pattern design: cost arithmetic, tester round planning, a fill in call file and honest comparisons with the other tools in this trade.
Everything on this page is built for a designer who grades her own patterns, runs her own tester rounds and answers her own customer email. The calculators use the cost stack this trade actually carries, including tech editing across a full size range and the hours that go into rebuilding four page formats after a correction. The template is a document you fill in and post, not a theory of testing.
The comparison pages name the tools designers genuinely weigh against StitchPattern and describe what each is built around, so you can tell which one fits how you work. Nothing here asks you to move your storefront. The whole point is to make the release itself, from the call for testers through to errata reaching past buyers, run on a record instead of on memory.
Free tools
Calculators for independent sewing and knitting pattern designers
Two working calculators for the two questions that decide a release: what this pattern has to sell to pay for itself, and how many weeks the tester round really takes.
Comparisons
StitchPattern compared with the tools pattern designers already run
Three honest comparisons for designers who already sell PDF sewing and knitting patterns and now need the release side of the work to hold together.
Main guide
How do I run a tester round for a new sewing pattern without losing three months?
It settles the whole tester round in one place: how long each stage takes, how many testers a graded size range really needs, and what has to be finished before the file goes on sale.
Magazine
The Grading Table
Reporting on the craft, economics and release mechanics of independent sewing and knitting pattern design in the United States.
About
Who writes all of this
The page behind the person writing here, including the grading and tech editing work that led to treating the release after a pattern goes on sale as the part worth building a tool for.
The material is free, the record is the product
A template and a calculator will carry one release through cleanly, and then you copy the file and start over for the next pattern. StitchPattern holds the tester rosters, the correction logs and the version history in one place across everything you have published. Ask for a walkthrough at the point where the copying starts to cost you a morning.