Dressmaker accessories: place, rotate and remove

Place an accessory

• Accessories only go on while the Accessories tab is open, and only onto pieces that are already on the mannequin. Anywhere else, an accessory just follows your pointer.
• With an accessory in your hand, hold Q or E to turn it, then click the dress to put it down. Hold Shift as you click and a copy stays in your hand, in the same size and turn, while you still have some in stock. Right-click to put it back unused.

While an accessory is in your hand, the game shows these keys:

• Place
• QERotate
• SHIFTPlace Multiple
• Finish Placement

The Pearl Shank Button and Gunmetal Shank Button you start with are good for a first try. Hold Shift as you click, and you can set them down in a neat matching row.

Move, copy or remove an accessory

• Click an accessory on the dress to select it. Drag it, or click it again, to pick it up and move it. Shift-click it for a copy in the same size and turn. That needs at least one more in your stock.
• Right-click an accessory on the dress to take it off. It goes straight back into your stock, ready for another try.

• Select
• Remove Item

Rotate and resize

• Put an accessory down without Shift, or click one on the dress, and a little panel of buttons appears. Hover one to see its name. Rotate up, Rotate down, Rotate left, Rotate right, Rotate clockwise and Rotate counter-clockwise turn it. Increase size and Decrease size resize it, from 0.1 to 3 times its normal size. Raise and Lower lift it away from the fabric or bring it back in. Reset position undoes the turning and the lifting but keeps the size, and Duplicate hands you a copy to place.

Accessory Rotation Gizmo

• The Accessory Rotation Gizmo starts switched off. Turn it on in the pause menu, or press left Ctrl and R while the Accessories tab is open. Then a selected accessory gets three rings and four little arrows. Drag a ring to spin the accessory around it, and hold Shift as you drag to turn it in 15-degree steps. Hold left Ctrl and the rings line up with the accessory itself instead of the dress. Click an arrow to nudge the accessory a tiny step along the dress, or hold it down to keep it sliding. Lace and trim don't get the gizmo.

The controls page has the switch and the other helper settings.

Bought accessories not showing up?

• Bought something and can't find it? The sidebar keeps your accessory filter on until you change it, and the filter hides every accessory that doesn't match, new ones too. A red dot on the filter button means a filter is on: open it, press Reset, then Apply.

Placing lace, trim and pins

• Lace and trim go on as a line of pins. Click the dress for the first pin, then click (or press Space) to add pins along the way, and right-click to finish. A drag turns the mannequin and drops no pin. With Fast Trim Placement on in the settings, pins drop by themselves as you move the pointer along, and moving back lifts the last of them again. A line needs at least two pins, and it uses as much of your stock as it is long.
• Each new pin can sit at most 12.5 cm from the one before, so a long edge takes plenty of pins.
• Between two pins, the game lays the line over the fabric. If it can't find a way to your pointer, the line stops following it, and a click puts the new pin where the line ends instead.
• While you draw, a label shows how long the line is and how many metres of that trim you own. If the next pin would need more than you have, the number turns red and the pin won't go down.

• Add Point
• Finish

You can press Space instead of clicking to drop a pin, and drag the dress to turn it while you draw. For fewer clicks, turn on Fast Trim Placement in the settings. Pins then drop by themselves as you move the pointer along the dress, and moving back picks the last one up again.

Many players zoom in and lay lace in short runs, and roll the mouse wheel to turn the dress as they go. A short line of Black Piping or White Zig Zag Lace is a nice way to practise.

Remove or change a line of lace or trim

How do you get a line of lace off again? Click the line, then press the cross on its panel.

To lay a second line just like it, press Duplicate on the panel. A new line of the same trim starts in your hand, with the same height, width and tilt, and you lay its pins as usual. You need some of that trim left in stock.

• To take a whole line off, click it and press Remove item, the cross on its panel. A right-click works only on the first or last pin, and it takes away just that pin. Once a line is down to one pin, it goes back into your stock.
• Click a line to select it. Drag one of its pins to move it. Click the first or last pin of a selected line to carry on drawing from that end. The pins show only while the Accessories tab is open, and while one item is selected, only its own pins show.
• A line you've just finished stays selected, so its panel shows straight away. The panel holds Raise trim and Lower trim, Tilt up and Tilt down, Increase size and Decrease size, Duplicate and Remove item.
• Duplicate on a line's panel starts a new line of the same trim, with the same height, width and tilt. You lay its pins yourself, and you need some of that trim left in stock. Shift-click still copies only single accessories.

Hoping for a mirror option to match both sides? Here are the settings the game doesn't have.

Lace upside down, or trim won't sit flat?

Lace pointing the wrong way, or trim that won't sit flat? Neither one is a bug. The way you draw the line sets which way it faces, and the tilt and height buttons settle it on the dress.

• Lace on upside down? Draw the line the other way. The direction you draw in decides which edge sits on top.
• Lace and trim sit just above the fabric. Lower trim can take a line down until it lies on the fabric, or a hair below it, and Raise trim lifts it well clear.
• Tilt up and Tilt down roll the lace around its line, anywhere from flat on the dress to standing straight out. Most lines start a little tilted. When lace won't sit nicely, tilt it rather than lower it.
• Raise trim and Lower trim stop at their limits, and holding a button past a limit stores nothing up: the other button moves the line straight away.

A sleeve in the way of a cuff or an armhole? Many players lay that trim first and put the sleeve on afterwards.

Tag stopped rising? How accessories count

This is what players mean by accessories that stop counting. Each new bow still adds something, just less than the one before, so a big pile soon stalls.

• A tag score adds up your patterns, the fabric of each piece on the mannequin, and your accessories. Every accessory you place also adds 1 Elaborate.
• Accessories that share a tag add less and less. The strongest counts in full, the next 85%, the one after 72%, and so on. Even a big pile of them adds up to less than 6.7 times the strongest one.
• Lace and trim add their tags once for every metre of the line, and part of a metre adds part. A single accessory adds its tags once.
• Size doesn't change the points. A big bow and a tiny one add exactly the same tags.

Fabric adds to tags too, and where it sits matters:

• Fabric adds to a tag score part by part. The skirt's fabric gives 40% of its tag points, the bodice's 35%, the sleeves' 15% and the collar's 10%. Inside a part, each piece counts by its size, and only pieces on the mannequin count. No collar or no sleeves? Then the other parts share out what that part would have given.

So when a tag is short, put a fabric with that tag on the skirt or the bodice before you add more accessories. Each fabric's page lists its tags.

What (Max) on a line means

A bar marked (Max) is a ceiling. Stay at its number or under it: go past it and the line fails.

• An "at most" tag line passes when the dress has that many points or fewer. No points of that tag at all? That passes too.

"At Most" did not fit into that textbox unfortunately 🤔A developer, Discord, 2026-09-22

Is the (Max) on Elaborate? Then go easy on accessories, because every one you place adds to Elaborate.

Colour or fabric line not filling up?

Lines that ask for a share of a colour or a fabric, like a lace line, count the dress part by part. Each part has a fixed share, and inside a part each piece counts by its size. Accessories never count for them.

• A colour percent line counts the dress part by part, not the metres you bought. The skirt makes up 40% of the line, the bodice 35%, the sleeves 15% and the collar 10%. No collar or no sleeves? The other parts share out that bit. Inside a part, each cut piece of that colour counts by its size, out of the whole part, cut or not. A fabric with more than one colour splits its share evenly between its colours.
• A fabric percent line, like a lace one, counts the dress part by part: the skirt makes up 40% of the line, the bodice 35%, the sleeves 15% and the collar 10%. No collar or no sleeves? The other parts share out that bit. Inside a part, each cut piece of that fabric type counts by its size, out of the whole part, cut or not. The metres you bought don't count, and a collar cut all in lace gives its 10% however small it is.

The skirt counts most, then the bodice. The sleeves and the collar count much less, so a lace collar helps, but it won't fill a big line on its own. Put the fabric on the skirt or the bodice, and the bar fills faster.

Lace trim not counting?

• Lace comes in two kinds of line. "Use 100cm of Lace Trim" adds up the length of the Lace Trim lines you draw on the dress, and 100 cm is just 1 m. Lace fabric and other trims don't count for it. "Lace: at least 40%" wants lace fabric over that share of the whole dress, by area, and lace trim doesn't count there.

Studious Motivation asks for the first kind and Parental Guidance for the second. Each accessory's page shows its type, and the requirements page explains how Lace Trim lines are checked.

Flowers or Flower?

• Two lines can look alike. "Flowers: 60" is a tag score, and fabric, patterns and accessories all add to it. "Flower: at least 3" counts flower accessories one by one, and fabric never adds to it.

Floral Romance asks for both, so it needs flower accessories on a dress that also scores high on the Flowers tag.

Other accessory lines

• An accessory count line counts each accessory of its type once, and a whole line of trim counts as one. On a beaded trim, every bead of that type counts too.
• A "Different accessories" line counts how many different accessories are on the dress. Two of the same bow count as one.

Each accessory's page lists the lines it counts for, beads included. The Gold Jingle Bell Trim is a good one to look at.

How to undo a step

• There's no undo button or key in the game. Each step has its own way back instead.

Accessories are the easy part: a right-click takes one off and puts it back in your stock. For everything else:

• Click a sewn piece with the seam ripper and its seams come undone. If no accessory sits on it, the piece comes off the mannequin in the same click. If one does, the piece stays put and its accessories flash, and they flash the same way when you try to pick the piece up. Take those accessories off first.
• Changed your mind about a piece? Drag it to the bin before you cut off the used slice. The cut is undone and that fabric is yours to use again.
• Restart Dress asks you first. Then the dress on this page is cleared away: every accessory on it goes back to your stock, and the fabric under its cut pieces is yours to use again, unless you already cut that part off the roll. The commission stays open, ready for a new draft.
• Once you press Finish Dress, the accessories are set. Changed your mind? Choose Keep working on the photo card to take the dress back to the mannequin and change them.

Common mistakes

• Decorating a piece you might still change. The seam ripper can't take it off while accessories sit on it.
• Leaving the Accessories tab while you're placing: the pins hide, and nothing goes on until you're back.
• Right-clicking a pin in the middle of a line. Only the end pins come off that way.
• Making an accessory bigger to score more. Size never changes the points.
• Piling on the same bow. Each extra one with the same tag adds a little less.
• Filling a (Max) bar to the top. That line passes only at or under its number.
• Closing a big tag gap with accessories alone. Try a fabric with that tag on the skirt as well.
• Buying just one and then trying to copy it. A copy comes out of your stock, so you need another.