§ 00 · Construction, observed

Was this made
carefully?

Everyone has a view on how a garment was put together. Almost nobody can say what they are actually looking at. Photograph the seam, the inside, the pocket — and get back what is actually there, what each detail means in construction terms, and which of the things that look like faults are perfectly ordinary.

Start looking Read the checklists

No score. No grade. No verdict.
Not an inspection report.

The shoulder and collar of a plain grey shirt, lit from one side so the seams and the weave are visible.

01 · Collar point stitching

Follow the stitch line around the point. Compare its distance from the edge on both collar points.

Six places · no sign-in needed

What this does not do

No score
Nothing is added up. There is no number, letter or star anywhere in the output.
No brand assessed
Brand wording is masked. No maker is evaluated and none are compared.
No authentication
Genuine or not is not a question this answers, in either direction.
No valuation
What it is worth, and whether it was worth the price, stays yours to decide.

§ 01

Three passes, with the garment in your hands

The whole thing is designed for standing in a shop or sitting on the floor at home with one hand on the garment and the other on a phone. Nothing here needs two hands or a desk.

01
Photograph the detail
Close up, in the best light you have. The inside of a seam, the edge of a pocket, the back of a button. Several shots of the same garment, from the places the checklist names.
02
Read what's there
Each photograph comes back described, not judged: what is visible, what that step is for in construction terms, and which of the things you are looking at are entirely normal.
03
Work the checklist
The garment type comes with a fixed list of places worth looking at. What you have covered is marked off; what you have not is still listed. Print it and hold it while you work.

§ 02

What comes back

A sheet. Three columns of equal weight — what is there, what is normal, and what a photograph cannot settle — then what each observation means at the machine. This is a worked example, not a sample of a shorter thing.

Garment type Shirt / blousePhotographs 3Checkpoints covered 4 of 8

No score · no grade · no verdict

Observed

What's there

Description only — measurements, positions, shapes.

◦
Patch pocket, upper edge
The horizontal line of the check continues across the pocket edge within about one millimetre. The vertical line is offset by roughly three millimetres.
◦
Side seam, inside
The seam allowance is wrapped in looped thread along its whole length. The looping thread is white; the shirt is grey.
◦
Topstitching, front placket
Stitch spacing measures about eleven stitches over two centimetres at the top of the run and about ten over two centimetres near the hem.
◦
Second button from the top
There is no wrapped thread stem under the button. The stitching lies flat against the placket.
◦
Inside, seam intersections
Four cut thread ends between eight and fifteen millimetres long.

Normal

This is normal

Looks like a fault, is not. Always present, never folded away.

◦
The white looping thread on a grey shirt. Overlock machines run with a standing thread colour and are rethreaded between production runs, not between garments.
◦
The four cut thread ends inside. They are removed by hand at the trimming station after sewing, and a few are routinely missed on any line.
◦
The check not matching on the curved part of the armhole seam. Two curved edges of different lengths cannot both hold the pattern in register — no cutting method fixes it.
◦
Slight puckering along the seam on a shirt straight out of its packaging. The fold compresses the cloth; it relaxes after pressing.

Not knowable

Can't be told from a photograph

Stated every time, because the limits are part of the reading.

◦
Fibre content and yarn quality. A photograph cannot settle either.
◦
How the seams will behave after washing, which depends on the finish and the fibre.
◦
Whether the interlining in the collar is fused or sewn — it is behind the collar facing.
◦
Thread strength. Colour and thickness are visible; breaking strength is not.

What each of those means in construction terms

Horizontal check continues, vertical check is offset at the pocket.: Matching a check in one direction requires the pocket to be cut in register with the panel on that axis. Matching both axes needs the pocket cut from a specific position on the cloth, which uses more of it. This is a cutting-room decision taken before anything was sewn.
Seam allowance wrapped in looped thread.: That is an overlocked finish, made in one pass on a dedicated machine. It stops the cut edge fraying. An enclosed folded seam is a different route to the same aim and takes more operations.
Stitch spacing varies by about one stitch per two centimetres along the run.: Density is a machine setting; variation along a straight run comes from the feed and the operator's speed. On a placket the stitch line is visible from the outside, so any variation shows there rather than staying inside the garment.
No thread stem under the button.: A stem gives the buttonhole layer somewhere to sit under the button. In light shirting there is little thickness to accommodate, and flat attachment is standard for the weight.

Where else to look on this garment

→The other collar point — compare its stitch distance from the edge with the first one.
→The inside of the cuff, where the same overlock finish either continues or changes.
→The bottom of the placket, where the stitch line turns and the feed has to climb layers.
→The hem at the side seam, which is the hardest part of a rolled hem to keep even.

§ 03

Half of what looks wrong is not

A tool that only points at irregularities teaches you to read ordinary construction as failure. So every read names the things in your photographs that are commonly mistaken for faults, in the same type, at the same size, in the same column width as everything else.

A checked fabric where the pattern meets a pocket seam, photographed close up under raking light. — Checked cloth at a pocket join · brand wording masked

Observed

What's there

Descriptions only. Measurements, positions, shapes.

·
Pocket, top edge
The horizontal line of the check carries across the join within about a millimetre. The vertical line is offset by about three.
·
Pocket, lower corner
A dense block of stitching about four millimetres wide closes the corner.
·
Panel below the pocket
Stitch spacing along the visible run measures roughly ten to eleven stitches over two centimetres.

Normal

This is normal

Routinely mistaken for faults. Always listed, never collapsed.

·
The check on the curve
Where the seam curves, the pattern stops matching. Two curved edges of different lengths cannot both hold a pattern in register. No cutting method fixes this.
·
Different thread colour inside
The looping thread that finishes the inside edge is a standing colour on the machine, changed between production runs rather than between garments.
·
Thread ends at the corner
Cut ends are removed by hand after sewing. A few survive on every line, and they say nothing about how the seam was made.

§ 04

Sixteen details, described

Close-ups with the description that would come back for each. Any brand wording in a photograph is masked before it reaches this page. Half of these are marked normal, and that ratio is not a stylistic choice — it is roughly what a garment actually looks like.

The inside of a side seam finished with looped thread along the raw edge. — Observed
Side seam, inside
The cut edge is wrapped in looped thread along its whole length, in one pass on a dedicated machine.

A narrow folded seam on white cotton with the raw edge enclosed inside it. — Observed
Enclosed seam
The raw edge is folded inside the seam itself. Two operations rather than one, and nothing is left exposed.

Several short cut thread ends left at a seam intersection inside a garment. — Normal
Thread ends inside
Trimming happens by hand after sewing. A few survive on every production line and they are not a seam fault.

A button with thread wrapped underneath it forming a short stem. — Observed
Button attachment
Thread wrapped under the button forms a stem, leaving room for the buttonhole layer to sit beneath it.

Two parallel rows of stitching enclosing the edge of a denim seam. — Observed
Two-row seam
Both raw edges are enclosed between two rows of stitching. The traditional workwear seam, and two passes to make.

A lining attached at a hem with a deliberate horizontal fold of slack. — Normal
Fold in the lining
That slack is engineered. Without it the lining pulls against the shell every time the wearer moves.

A dense block of stitching reinforcing the corner of a pocket opening. — Observed
Pocket corner
A dense block of stitching across the corner. It exists because that corner takes the load every time a hand goes in.

A hem folded back to show a stitch catching only a few fibres of the outer cloth. — Normal
Hem
The stitch catches a few fibres of the face cloth only. On thin cloth it shows slightly from the outside; there is not enough depth to hide it.

A zip set into dark fabric with stitching running beside the teeth. — Observed
Zip insertion
The stitch line runs parallel to the teeth along the tape. The opening was stitched and pressed before the tape went in.

The seam where a shirt collar meets its band, magnified. — Observed
Collar band
The collar is built as its own unit and then attached. What is visible here is how that unit was positioned before it was sewn on.

A hem following a curve, the fold narrowing as the curve tightens. — Normal
Hem on a curve
The fold narrows through the curve. The outer edge is longer than the inner one and the surplus has to go somewhere.

The point of a sewn dart running out to nothing on pale wool. — Normal
Dart point
A very slight pucker where a dart runs out. There is almost no cloth left there for the thread to secure into.

An armhole seam with the sleeve head eased slightly against the body panel. — Normal
Sleeve head
The sleeve head is cut longer than the armhole and eased in. Slight gathering there is the method, not a slip.

The inside of a trouser waistband showing an inner facing layer. — Observed
Waistband, inside
An inner layer runs the length of the band. It is what stops the waistband collapsing when the trousers are worn.

Two rows of stitching running down the folded front placket of a shirt. — Observed
Front placket
Two stitch lines run the length of the folded edge. This run is visible from the outside, so anything in it shows.

A seam allowance pressed open flat with stitching on both sides. — Observed
Pressed open
The allowance is pressed flat to both sides. It distributes thickness rather than stacking it on one side of the seam.

§ 05

The checklists, in full, before you sign in

The list of places worth looking at is fixed for each garment type and written from finished-goods inspection practice. The model finds features in your photograph; it does not invent the questions. Read the whole thing here, free, forever.

Garment type

Woven, collared, set-in sleeves. Most of the construction is visible from the inside.

01
Side seam, inside
Turn the shirt inside out and follow the seam from armhole to hem. Note whether the edge is enclosed in a narrow folded seam, wrapped in looped thread, or left raw.
A folded, enclosed seam takes more operations than an overlocked one. Both are standard shirt construction; they belong to different production methods rather than different levels of it.
02
Stitch spacing on a straight run
Pick a straight section of topstitching and count the stitches across two centimetres. Do it again 20 cm further along.
Stitch density is set at the machine. It stays constant along a straight run unless the operator changed speed or the fabric fed unevenly.
03
Collar band join
Look where the collar meets the band, at both points. Compare the two sides for length and for the distance from the fold to the stitch line.
The collar is assembled as a separate unit and then attached. Symmetry here reflects how the unit was pressed and positioned before it was sewn on.
04
Buttonholes
Look along the edge of one buttonhole. Note how tightly the stitches sit against each other and whether the ends are closed off with a denser bar.
Buttonholes are cut and stitched by a dedicated machine. Stitch density and the end bar are machine settings, applied identically to every hole on the garment.
05
Button attachment
Lift a button. Look for thread wrapped around the stitches underneath, forming a short stem.
A wrapped shank leaves room for the buttonhole layer to sit under the button. Shirts in light cloth are frequently sewn flat, which is normal for the weight.
06
Pattern across a seam
On a stripe or check, hold the front closed and follow one line across the placket, then across a pocket and the side seam.
Matching a pattern requires the pieces to be cut in register, which consumes more cloth. It is a cutting-room decision made before anything is sewn.
07
Hem
Follow the bottom edge, including the curve at the side. Note the width of the fold and whether it stays even through the curve.
A narrow hem is rolled and stitched in one continuous pass. Curves are the hardest part of that pass because the fabric has to compress into the fold.
08
Thread ends inside
Look at seam intersections and the ends of buttonhole stitching for cut thread tails.
Thread tails are removed at the trimming station after sewing. Trimming is a separate operation from sewing, so what you find here says nothing about how the seam itself was made.

Normal on this garment

Things people routinely read as faults on a shirt / blouse, which are ordinary construction.

◦Short thread tails on the inside. They are trimmed by hand at the end of the line and a few are routinely missed. They are not a seam fault.
◦Overlock thread in a different colour from the shirt. Overlock machines are threaded with a standing colour and only rethreaded between production runs.
◦A check or stripe that stops matching on a curved seam. Two curved edges of different lengths cannot both keep the pattern in register — the geometry forbids it.
◦Slight puckering along a seam that has just been unpacked. Fabric compresses in the fold during shipping and normally relaxes after pressing.

§ 06

Three plans

The free plan gives five checkpoints a month, one photograph at a time. That is enough to see one place clearly — but a single seam settles nothing. A reading only means something once you have looked at five or six places on the same garment, which is what the paid plans are for.

Prices in USD · IVA 23% included

Free

No card required

Enough to look at one place on one garment and see what the answer looks like.

50 credits a month

+Five checkpoints a month
+One photograph at a time
+Full list of things that look like faults but are not
+The complete checklist for the garment type, read-only

·One photograph per read
·Marked-up images carry a watermark
·No printable checklist

Start with Free

Most used

Close

$8/month

Billed monthly · renews monthly

For looking at one garment properly. Several places at once, which is the only way the reading means anything.

400 credits a month

+Unlimited checkpoints
+Several photographs of the same garment in one read
+Marked-up images without a watermark
+The complete checklist, with what you have covered marked off
+Printable checklist for use with the garment in hand

·Allowance does not carry over between months

Choose Close

Lot

$25/month

Billed monthly · renews monthly

For keeping records across many garments and comparing what you saw on each.

1500 credits a month

+Everything in Close
+Archives for multiple garments
+Side-by-side comparison across garments you have read
+Priority queue
+Export a read as a printable sheet

·Allowance does not carry over between months

Choose Lot

What a credit is spent on

One question in a read1
Close-up photograph recognised2
Marked-up image and checklist card5

Before you subscribe

Subscriptions renew automatically at the interval shown above until you cancel. Cancelling takes the same number of steps as subscribing and is available from your account at any time; access continues to the end of the period already paid for.

The monthly allowance is a service usage limit. It is not money, not a stored balance and not a currency; it is neither refundable nor transferable, and it does not carry over to the next month. There are no credit packs and no top-ups.

Prices are shown in USD and include IVA at 23%. See the Condições de Serviço, refunds and cancellation and the 14-day right of withdrawal.

§ 07

Questions, answered plainly

Including the two nobody wants to answer directly.

So is this one good or bad?

Stitchgrade does not answer that, and it is not a limitation we intend to remove.

What you get is a list: which places on this garment type are worth looking at, what can be seen in the photographs you took, what each of those things means in construction terms, and which of them are normal rather than faults. Nothing is added up. There is no score, no grade, no letter, no stars and no verdict, because the moment a single number exists it stops being a record of what you observed and starts being a claim about someone's work.

What it is worth to you depends on what you paid, what you expected and how you will wear it. Those are yours to weigh.

Can I use this to return something?

No. A read from Stitchgrade is not an inspection report, and it has no standing in a return, a complaint, a chargeback, a dispute with a seller or any legal proceeding.

It is not produced under any inspection standard, it is not certified, and it is based only on photographs you took. Our terms of use prohibit presenting it as evidence in a return or complaint, as a quality claim about any product or maker, or as a public statement of fact.

If you have a problem with something you bought, the seller's own returns process and your national consumer authority are the routes that exist for it.

What happens to the photographs I upload?

They are stored so that you can open the read again, and you can delete them at any time from your account. Deleting a read removes the images from storage.

Your photographs are not used to train any model. Not ours, not a third party's. This is stated in the privacy policy and it is not subject to a setting you have to find and switch off.

If a garment carries a visible brand name or logo in your photograph, it is masked before the image is shown anywhere outside your own account, and it is never part of a shared image or a preview card.

How accurate is it?

It reads a photograph. That constrains it in ways worth being explicit about: it cannot feel the cloth, cannot judge fibre content, cannot see anything behind a lining, and cannot tell you how the garment will behave after ten washes.

Every read includes a list of what could not be determined from the images provided, and that list is not an afterthought — it is part of the output contract. Descriptions can also be wrong: light, focus and angle all change what a stitch line looks like.

Treat it as a prompt to look, not as a finding. The checklist is the durable part; you are the one holding the garment.

Why does the result spend so much space on things that are normal?

Because that is where the real harm sits. A tool that only points at irregularities teaches you to read ordinary construction as failure — loose thread ends inside a seam, overlock thread in a different colour, a check that stops matching on a curve, a jacket vent tacked shut for shipping.

Every read lists at least one thing in your photographs that commonly gets mistaken for a fault and is not. Those items are shown at the same size, in the same position and with the same weight as everything else. They are never collapsed, never a footnote, and on the free tier the watermark is placed so it cannot cover them.

Can I cancel, and what happens to my allowance?

You can cancel at any time from your account, in the same number of steps it took to subscribe. The subscription then runs to the end of the period you have already paid for and does not renew.

Each plan includes a monthly allowance of reads. It does not carry over to the next month. There are no credit packs, no top-ups and no stored balance — the allowance is a service usage limit, not money, not a store of value, and it is neither refundable nor transferable. If you run out before the month ends, the only route is a higher tier.

Prices are in USD and include IVA at 23%. Renewals are charged automatically at the interval shown at checkout until you cancel.

Can I change my mind after subscribing?

Yes. Under Portuguese law you have 14 days to withdraw from the contract without giving a reason, and the withdrawal form is on the dedicated page.

At checkout you are asked to tick two separate boxes if you want the service to start immediately, inside those 14 days: one to request immediate performance, and one to acknowledge that once the service has been fully supplied at your request you lose the right of withdrawal. Neither box is ticked for you, and if you leave them alone your access simply begins after the 14 days.

Both statements are repeated in your order confirmation email, which is the legally required record of them.

Does it tell me whether something is genuine, or what it is worth?

No, in both directions and by design. Stitchgrade performs no authentication, identifies no counterfeits, gives no valuation and never infers a country of origin or a manufacturer from how something was made. It also makes no assessment of any brand and no comparison between brands.

It describes visible construction features in the photographs you upload. That is the whole of it.

Is there an age limit?

The service is for people aged 18 or over. Accounts are not offered to minors, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If an account is found to belong to someone under 18 it is closed and the associated data deleted.

§ 08

Nobody ever told you where to look.

That is the whole gap this fills. Not a verdict on your clothes — a list of the places worth looking at, and what you are seeing when you get there.

Start looking See the plans

We describe what's there. What it's worth is your call.

Was this madecarefully?

No score

No brand assessed

No authentication

No valuation

Three passes, with the garment in your hands

Photograph the detail

Read what's there

Work the checklist

What comes back

What's there

This is normal

Can't be told from a photograph

What each of those means in construction terms

Where else to look on this garment

Half of what looks wrong is not

What's there

This is normal

Sixteen details, described

The checklists, in full, before you sign in

Side seam, inside

Stitch spacing on a straight run

Collar band join

Buttonholes

Button attachment

Pattern across a seam

Hem

Thread ends inside

Three plans

Plans

Free

Close

Lot

What a credit is spent on

Before you subscribe

Questions, answered plainly

So is this one good or bad?

Can I use this to return something?

What happens to the photographs I upload?

How accurate is it?

Why does the result spend so much space on things that are normal?

Can I cancel, and what happens to my allowance?

Can I change my mind after subscribing?

Does it tell me whether something is genuine, or what it is worth?

Is there an age limit?

Nobody ever told you where to look.

Was this made
carefully?