Home / Guides

How to turn the gears in Dressmaker: mannequin sizing

Press on a gear and drag around it in a circle, like winding a little crank. Or rest the pointer on a gear and roll the mouse wheel, or hold A or D (or the left and right arrow keys). One way makes that part of the mannequin bigger, the other way smaller, until it won't go any further. Measured your client wrong? You can't measure her again until her next commission, so set the gears to her real numbers instead.

Measure your client first

The sizing screen checks the mannequin against the numbers you take when you accept a commission, so a careful measure pays off.

Tutorial

Drag the measuring tape onto the client's body to take measurements.

Move the tape to measure the bust, waist, and hips. Hold still for a moment to record each measurement.

Hold the tape still on the bust, waist or hips for 0.5 seconds, and that number goes on the paper. A marker shows which part the tape is on. To take a number again, move the tape a little and hold it still once more.
The tape reads the body at the exact height you hold it, so a little higher or lower gives another number. Hold it right on the marker line. The ghost lines on the mannequin sit at the same heights.

Size the mannequin, step by step

Tutorial

Now you need to adjust the mannequin to match your client's measurements.

1Put the tape on the mannequin

Tutorial

Drag the measuring tape onto the mannequin.

On the measuring and mannequin sizing screens, the view moves in by itself as soon as the tape touches the body. Drag the body up or down to see another part. Click the backdrop to step back out, and click the body to move in again.

2Line the tape up with a ghost line

Three ghost lines on the mannequin mark the bust, waist and hips, and the tape measures the mannequin wherever you hold it. When you turn a gear, that part's number on the paper only updates while the tape is on its ghost line. Turn a gear with the tape somewhere else and the mannequin still changes, but the paper keeps the old number.

3Turn the matching gear

Tutorial

Turn the gears to adjust the mannequin's proportions. Match the ghost outlines for the best fit.

There's one gear each for the bust, waist and hips, and 2 full circles take a gear from its smallest size to its biggest.
A gear follows the angle of your pointer around its middle. Close to the middle, a tiny move swings it a long way, so grab it near the rim and make wide circles for fine changes.
Each gear stops once its part of the mannequin is as small or as big as it gets, and the three gears never hold each other back. Every client fits inside those limits, and her body stays the same on every visit. So if a gear stops before the mannequin number reaches yours, it's your number that's off.

Dragging round a gear feels fiddly? Rest the pointer on it and roll the mouse wheel instead. Or hold A or D, or the left and right arrow keys, to turn it slowly for the last little bit.

4Check the paper

The paper has two columns: Body for the numbers you took on your client, and Mannequin for what the tape reads on the mannequin. A "!" next to a mannequin number means you haven't taken it yet, or it's more than 2 cm away from yours.
Once all three mannequin numbers are in, the paper shows your mannequin accuracy. Bring all three within 0.3 cm of yours and it reads 100%, with a little star.

5Press Confirm

Tutorial

Great fit! Click Confirm when you're satisfied with the mannequin sizing.

For a commission, Confirm works once all three mannequin numbers are in. It drafts your pattern at the size the gears are really set to, even if a number on the paper is out of date.

How fit counts in your quality

A commission's quality is 30% grain, 20% fit and 50% stitching, rounded. Grain is the average over all the pieces of the dress, and a piece you didn't cut counts as 0.

Fit compares the mannequin's three gear settings with your client's body. A perfect match scores 100, and it drops fast as they drift apart: 100 x (1 - 200 x the sum of the squared differences), never below 0.
With a fit of 0, a commission's quality can't go above 80, however well you cut and sew.

Want to try your own numbers? The Quality tool works out the quality for you. Grain and stitching, the other two parts, are in the quality guide.

Skipped the measuring or measured wrong?

There's no way to measure her again until her next commission, but you don't need to. Set the gears to your client's real numbers. Fit goes by her real body, so a slipped tape or a hasty Confirm is easy to fix.

You can't skip measuring: the game waits until you've taken the bust, waist and hips. What you measure is saved for that client, and the percentage and star on the mannequin sizing screen compare the mannequin with those numbers. The fit in your quality compares it with the client's real body instead. So if the tape slipped, the sizing screen can look perfect while your fit is low.
You only measure a client when you take on one of her commissions. Once you press Confirm, there's no going back to measuring for that one. Next time you measure the same client, the paper starts with your old numbers, so Confirm works straight away. Measure again if you think they were off.

Size to your client's real numbers

The clients page lists every client's measurements. Size the mannequin to those instead of your own. The accuracy on the paper will drop, and that's fine: it only compares the mannequin with your numbers.

Already drafted the dress?

A drafted dress keeps that size. To change it, press Restart Dress on the dress's sketchbook page, then Draft Pattern, and the sizing screen opens for a fresh try.
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.

The FAQ has more on a misclicked measurement.

Off-the-rack dresses

On off-the-rack dresses and the final commission, there's no accuracy to chase: Confirm works at any size. Load Measurement lists the clients you've made friends with and fills in the numbers you took for the one you pick.
Without a client, quality is 40% grain and 60% stitching. The game uses this quality for the sell price, for gifts and for the top-quality achievement.

Pins and sew buttons

Tutorial

Drag the cut out fabric pieces from your inventory onto the appropriate spot on the mannequin.

If you are happy with the layout of the pieces, you can sew them together by clicking the sew button.

Put two neighbouring pieces on the mannequin, and pins go into the seam between them, one by one. Then a sew button pops up on that seam: click it to sew. Lift either piece off and its pins come out again. A sewn piece stays put, so use the seam ripper if you need to move it.
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.