Your first two hours in the workshop.
Dressmaker looks cozy and plays honest: read the brief, draft pattern pieces, buy fabric, cut on the grain, sew steady. Four systems decide whether a client pays.
Already facing a specific brief? Open the commission solver and read its requirement sheet directly.
Understand attributes before you spend a coin
Every commission is a small equation: style attributes to reach (for example Professional ≥ 40), sometimes ceilings you must not cross (Cute ≤ 20), colour rules, fabric-type minimums, and a budget.
Pattern pieces set your baseline attributes while drafting. Fabrics and accessories then push the numbers the rest of the way. You can see the current reading on the mannequin before you commit.
If a requirement is a ceiling — Chilly Overtime is the classic trap — treat it as 'hit the minimum, then stop'. Extra points in a capped attribute fail the brief.
Mind the budget like a shopkeeper
The customer's budget is all the money you have for fabric and trimmings. Overspend and you lose coins on the delivery even when the dress passes.
Work with two or three fabrics per dress. It is easier to picture the final look and it is cheaper.
Expensive silk and velvet are for the pieces everyone sees. Cheap cotton can carry a skirt nobody inspects. Leftover cuts go back to your stash — sell or reuse them.
Cutting: the grain line is real
Pattern pieces are placed on the bolt before cutting. Their orientation against the fabric's grain or bias changes how the finished garment reads.
Place pieces close together to waste less cloth. When the quality bar is low, you can compromise slightly on grain quality to save fabric.
Use the colour pencil to plan how many bolts you actually need before cutting.
Sewing: slow is smooth, smooth is quality
The sewing mini-game sets the dress's quality score. Guide the fabric along the seam and do not rush curves — inaccurate sewing drags quality down.
Straight runs can be taken faster. Save your focus for the bends.
Quality requirements are real gates: most briefs ask for 70–80, showpieces ask for 95. And one brief — Not Haughty — fails if quality goes ABOVE 70.
Habits that save coins
- Draft first, buy second — the mannequin preview tells you how many points fabric still needs to supply.
- Two or three fabrics per dress. More bolts, more waste, more cost.
- Skip accessories when the brief doesn't count them — they add polish, not many points.
- About to fail an evaluation? Sell the dress back instead of completing it — you keep the material value.
- Leftover cuts are stock, not trash. Later briefs reuse them for free.
Next stops: the commission index, the attribute index, and the fabric database.