Dressmaker quality: grain, stitching and fit

How quality is counted

• 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.
• A quality line counts the client's fit too, so an "at most" quality line fails if your sewing is too good.

Quality stuck? Check the fit

Neat cuts, neat seams, and quality still stuck at the same number? Most of the time the fit is the reason.

• With a fit of 0, a commission's quality can't go above 80, however well you cut and sew.

Fit drops quickly when the mannequin's gears are even a little off (see the fit formula further down). Turn the gears until the tape on the mannequin reads your client's own bust, waist and hips. Every client's numbers are in the measurements table.

• 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.

Does fabric or lace change quality?

No. A cheap fabric and a pile of lace leave quality just where it was:

• Fabric and accessories never change quality. Quality only looks at the angle each piece was cut at, how close your stitches land and, on a commission, the fit. A cheap fabric scores just as well as a costly one.

Fabric and accessories matter for the tag lines instead. The accessories guide shows how they count.

Quality too high? One commission has a cap

Made a lovely, neat dress for Not Haughty and it failed? Read its quality line again.

• Only one commission has a quality line with a maximum: Not Haughty wants a quality of at most 70. A tag line with a maximum says (Max) on its score bar, but this bar just says Quality, so it looks like any other target.

So for this dress, aim low on purpose:

• Turn a piece or two off the grain before you cut.
• Let a few stitches wander from the seam line.

Cutting: the grain

• When you cut a piece, the game shows its grain quality. It's best when the piece's grain line runs along the length of the fabric. On the cross grain a normal piece gets at most 75, and a piece that's too far off gets 0. A bias-cut piece gets full marks either way.
• In the cutting room, roll the mouse wheel to turn the selected piece, 9 degrees at a time.

There's more in the grain quality guide, like the knob's readout and bias-cut pieces.

Sewing: the stitches

• SpaceSew
• ADRotate (at the sewing machine)
• WSChange Speed (at the sewing machine)
• RReset

• Each stitch scores by how close it lands to the seam line. If the needle slips too far, the machine stops, the fabric goes back to your last good stitch, and the seam loses 10 points. Press R to start the seam again and get those lost points back.
• The seam ripper opens up a piece's seams, and the Finish Dress card hides until every seam is sewn again.

Replacing the fabric of one piece

Picked the wrong fabric for a sleeve? You don't have to start the whole dress again. The game's own tips say so:

Sewing Assist

• You'll find Sewing Assist as a switch in the pause menu, on its Gameplay tab. Press Esc to open it.
• Sewing Assist only turns the fabric toward the seam for you. You still do the sewing yourself, with Space or by holding the right mouse button.

Fitting: the mannequin

The mannequin guide shows how to turn the gears, step by step.

Perfect quality

• For the top-quality achievement you need a quality of 99.5 or more, counted without a client.