Special attention should be made in recognizing the size of the image you are using prior to creating your rhinestone design. Because garments that have been printed will normally go through a curing process, the printed shirt may shrink up to 2 percent depending on the time of curing and the temperature and process used during the cure process. Also, the amount of moisture trapped in the garment at time of curing will need to be taken into consideration prior to creating the rhinestone embellishment.

Embellishing embroidered garments requires contention with the pulling and pushing effect of the stitches. Using a screen capture of the image printed or embroidered from their respective design studios will not work to your advantage. Instead, sew out or print a sample on similar material should be done, and then scanned into your computer and saved as a 150 DPI jpeg image. When importing the image into your rhinestone design software, use your grid or guidelines to properly size the image before creating your design. Or, if the rhinestone design software allows you to import the design using DPI controls, ensure to import at the same DPI to which you saved your scanned image. Your mix media will match up with each other much easier.

—Allen Gripton, ColDesi, Inc.