Dressmaker Money Guide: How to Make Money Fast

It's surprisingly easy to burn through all your coins during the first few commissions in Dressmaker. This is especially true if you buy expensive silk, cut on the bias, pick up a handful of accessories, and then realize you still don't have enough fabric. Fortunately, you usually don't need to restart the game. Most of your money comes from client commissions, and after the first few jobs you unlock another reliable source of income: off-the-rack dresses. Below, we'll explain how to use both systems, where we recommend cutting costs, and what to do if your purse is already almost empty.

How to Make Money from Commissions

Commissions are your main source of coins as you progress through the story. A client visits your workshop, gives you a set of requirements and a budget for the dress, and your job is to meet those requirements without turning every commission into a personal charity project. The most obvious mistake is treating the budget like a suggestion. If you start buying more expensive fabrics and decorations than the commission actually requires, the extra cost comes out of your own money.We recommend finishing the entire sketch first, checking every requirement, and only then shopping for materials. If the client needs a specific style, color, and fabric, there is no reason to buy the most expensive option just because it looks prettier. The draft also shows an estimated fabric requirement, and you should always check it before buying anything. A full skirt can use far more material than a simpler design.

When Do Off-the-Rack Dresses Unlock?

After the third story commission, you unlock the ability to create your own Off-the-Rack Dresses without following a specific client's requirements. Dressmaker's developer also confirmed this shortly after release. A separate tab with a plus icon appears in the sketchbook, letting you choose the style, size, fabric, and accessories yourself, finish the dress, and put it up for sale.This isn't just a creative mode. Off-the-Rack Dresses are one of the best ways to rebuild your coin supply between expensive commissions or turn leftover fabric into money. We recommend using the feature even when your budget is healthy. One or two simple dresses made from scraps can gradually build a reserve, so your next expensive commission won't leave you counting your last coins in front of the silk counter.

What Determines the Price of an Off-the-Rack Dress?

The sale price of an Off-the-Rack Dress depends on several factors. The game takes the cost of the materials, the amount of work, the final Quality, and your current Rank and Prestige into account. Expensive fabric does raise the base value, but that doesn't mean buying the priciest material in the store is the best way to make money. You have to pay for it first, so the actual profit may be far less impressive.It's usually much more profitable to use whatever is already sitting in your workshop. If you have two pieces of cotton left over from a commission, turn them into a simple dress and sell it. If you accidentally bought fabric in the wrong color, don't treat that money as lost. It can go straight into your next Off-the-Rack Dress. Quality matters too, so we recommend cutting pattern pieces on the grain and sewing carefully. Better workmanship increases the sale price without making the fabric itself any more expensive.

How to Make Money If You're Completely Broke

If you've genuinely spent everything and can't even afford fabric for your next project, the game leaves you an emergency option: Burlap. It's free. Burlap is not exactly the foundation of a fashion empire, but it's perfect for getting out of a financial dead end. Make the simplest Off-the-Rack Dress you can, sell it for a few coins, then buy proper fabric and repeat the process.Even better, use any scraps or leftover materials from previous commissions. Players have found that compact combinations such as a corset bodice and pencil skirt can fit on roughly one meter of fabric. These are exactly the kinds of small dresses we recommend making when you need to rebuild your budget. They use very little material, don't take long to finish, and can still be sold.

How to Avoid Wasting Money on Fabric

First, don't buy huge amounts of extra fabric. Choose the design, then check the estimated requirement under the draft. If the game says the dress needs around three meters, buying seven just in case usually isn't necessary. Second, arrange your patterns carefully. Place the largest pieces first, then use the remaining space for sleeves, collars, and smaller panels. This lets you get far more out of the same length of fabric.Third, be careful with bias cuts. Placing pattern pieces diagonally takes up more surface area, so you can burn through fabric much faster. Steam already has plenty of stories from players who chose a bias cut on their second commission, bought expensive accessories, and then discovered they no longer had enough money for the missing meter of fabric. If the design doesn't specifically benefit from diagonal placement, we recommend sticking to the grain. It preserves Quality and makes your fabric usage much more predictable.

Can You Sell Extra Fabric Back to the Store?

Not in the current version. There is no dedicated option to sell fabric or accessories back to the store, so accidentally buying ten meters instead of three is frustrating, but not disastrous. The most practical solution is to gradually use the excess material for Off-the-Rack Dresses and sell the finished garments instead.The same applies to fabric in the wrong color. We recommend saving it rather than forcing it into the current commission. Finish the client's dress with suitable material, then turn the mistaken purchase into a separate dress later. At least that way, you can recover some or even all of the money.

What to Do If You Cut Expensive Fabric Incorrectly

Don't rush to buy more. Dressmaker lets you Restart the dress, and players have confirmed that a full restart returns cut panels to uncut fabric. This means you can lay out the pattern again without paying for the material a second time.This is especially useful with expensive silk or velvet. If you notice that a large pattern piece is positioned incorrectly, or you physically don't have enough fabric because of a poor layout, try restarting the dress before opening your wallet again. Be more careful with manually discarding or trimming away useful sections at the cutting table, though. If you genuinely turn a good piece of fabric into waste, recovering it may be much harder.

Should You Use Expensive Fabric to Make Money?

Only if you already own it or know exactly why you're buying it. Material cost increases the value of the finished dress, but your actual profit depends on how much you spent in the first place. Early on, we recommend making money with cheap, compact dresses made from leftovers rather than luxurious designs.Later, once your Rank is higher and you have more coins to spare, you can experiment freely with silk, velvet, long trims, and expensive accessories. The game's economy becomes much more forgiving by that point. The developer has noted that money stops being a serious limitation fairly quickly after Off-the-Rack Dresses unlock, especially if you regularly sell your own creations between story commissions.

How We Recommend Making Money Early

The safest approach looks like this:

1. Take a story commission and read all the requirements first.
2. Finish the sketch and check the estimated fabric requirement.
3. Buy only as much material as you actually need, with a small margin for safety.
4. Don't use expensive fabrics or accessories unless the commission actually calls for them.
5. Never throw away leftovers. Turn them into simple Off-the-Rack Dresses instead.
6. Keep your cutting and sewing Quality high to increase the sale price.
7. If you run out of coins completely, use free Burlap and gradually rebuild your budget.

The key is not trying to squeeze the maximum possible price out of a single dress. Dressmaker is fairly generous once you stop buying everything pretty the moment you see it. Stay within commission budgets, keep your leftovers, and regularly turn them into Off-the-Rack Dresses. Before long, the question of where to get more money will be replaced by a much nicer one: which of the twenty kinds of silk should you spend it on today?