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Dressmaker sketchbook: why a collar or sleeve won't show

An unlocked collar or sleeve only shows in the sketchbook when it fits the bodice on your page. Pick a bodice that takes it, and check that no tag filter is still on.

Why a collar or sleeve won't show

The sketchbook only offers patterns you've unlocked, and only the ones that fit the bodice on the page. Switch bodices and the collar and sleeve choices change with it. A collar or sleeve that doesn't fit the new bodice drops back to No Collar or No Sleeves.
Collars come in three kinds: round, V-neck and detached. Each bodice takes one kind, or none. A collar only shows with a bodice of its own kind, and No Collar goes with any of them. On a bodice that takes none, the collar choice is greyed out.
A bodice with sleeves of its own offers every sleeve you've unlocked. A bodice without them only offers the detached sleeves, like Angel Sleeve, and No Sleeves.

This one catches a lot of players out. The Notched Shirt Collar, Open Shirt Collar and Oversized Wing Collar you start with are all V-neck collars, and the only bodice you start with that takes one is the Princess V Bodice. Pick that bodice, and all three show up.

10 bodices also skip a few sleeves or collars by name. Each pattern page on this wiki lists what fits it under Works with.

If it still doesn't show

Click a part's name to see every option that fits in one list, and hover one to see its tags. The filter in that list shows only parts that carry one of the tags you pick. It stays on for every part until you reset it, but the arrows beside the name ignore it.
New patterns from a friendship star are yours the moment the star fills. The pop-up's Add to Sketchbook button just closes it: the patterns are already in your sketchbook.
Each save slot is its own file and keeps its own unlocks. A new game starts with only the starting unlocks.

Design a dress, step by step

Every dress starts in the sketchbook. Here's what its tabs hold:

Friendships
Current dress
New dress

Three tabs sit at the top left of the sketchbook: a head for friendships, a dress for your current dress, and a plus for a new dress. The dress tab takes you to your current dress, and the plus tab appears once off-the-rack dresses unlock.

1Pick each part

Tutorial

Change your design by clicking the arrows next to each component.

You can also click the component name to see available options.

Some parts come in variants: switch between them with the little dots. A variant changes the drawing and the pieces you cut, but never the part's tag points.

Once you've unlocked lots of patterns, the list behind each part's name is quicker than the arrows.

Stuck for ideas? Press the dice before you draft, and the game picks the parts for you at random. Press it again for another mix.

2Try fabrics with swatches

Tutorial

Drag fabric onto the page to test how your design and fabric fit the client's needs.

You can also save fabric and haberdashery samples in the sketchbook.

Drag a fabric or an accessory from the sidebar onto the left page to make a swatch, and drag a swatch off the book to remove it. Each fabric gets one swatch per page. Swatches are only for planning: every piece is made of the fabric you cut it from.

3Read the tag bars

Tutorial

These tags are just an estimate! The real fabric used affects the final result.

In each tag bar, the darker green part is what your pattern parts give, and the lighter part is what your fabric swatches could add, up to the best of them. A bar turns from red to green once it could reach the client's number. So green only means your best swatch could get there, and on a line with a maximum it means you might go over. Accessory swatches don't move the bars. Hover a bar to see its numbers.

The requirements page explains what each line on the client's list asks for.

4Draft the pattern

Tutorial

When you are happy with your design, click Draft Pattern.

Next comes the mannequin, then the cutting table, where each piece gets its real fabric. Changed your mind after drafting? The commission guide explains Restart Dress.

You can also try designs without the game open in our Sketchbook tool.

Find your past dresses

Every dress you finish keeps a page in your sketchbook. Turn back from your current dress to find them, with the corners at the bottom or with A and D.

Turning forward, the pages go: friendships, your finished dresses from the oldest, then your open dresses in the order you started them. Once off-the-rack dresses unlock, the new dress page comes last. The page corner at the bottom right turns forward, and the one at the bottom left turns back.
Your sketchbook's finished dress pages have a little mannequin too. Turn it with the mouse wheel or a drag, and press Photo Mode to take that dress to the photo screen. In the sketchbook, A and D (or the arrow keys) turn the pages.

Work on several dresses at once

You can have more than one dress on the go, and each one keeps its own page. An off-the-rack page you don't want any more has a little bin. The off-the-rack guide explains it.

Opened the sketchbook from the sidebar? Going back takes you to the room you were in.

When you accept a commission, it gets a new page after your other open dresses and becomes your current dress. The dress you had open stays safe on its own page.
Create New Dress on the new dress page starts an off-the-rack dress on a fresh page after your other open dresses, and that dress becomes your current dress. Your commission keeps its own page and dress. Each press adds one more page.
Each open commission keeps its own dress, and the one you finish is whichever page is open in the sketchbook. So turn to that commission's page first.

See the back of the dress

Each part has a single drawing in the sketchbook, seen from the front. The sketch can't turn around, so it never shows the back of the dress.

To check the back, draft the pattern and turn the mannequin. On a finished dress's page, turn the little mannequin instead.

Add swatches before the dress is done

On the page of a finished dress, the swatches stay just where you left them. You can look, but you can't move, turn or remove them any more. On your open dresses' pages, they're still free to move.

If you like your swatches as a record, drag your fabrics and trims onto the page before you hand the dress over.

Save and Export on the photo screen

On the photo screen, Take Photo snaps the picture and opens a preview. Press Save to keep it as a picture file wherever you like: a square photo, 1920 by 1920 pixels, with the game's logo in the bottom right corner. Retake Photo closes the preview so you can try again.
Export saves the dress itself as a .dress file: its patterns, the fabric of every piece, its seams, accessories and measurements. Import puts a .dress file on the mannequin, so you can admire it and take its photo.
On a finished dress's page, Photo Mode takes that dress back to the photo screen for a new photo or an export. You won't see the sell or delivery card there.

Saving and exporting are just for you. To hand a dress over, see the finishing guide. For sharing dresses with friends, see the developers' note on .dress files.

Common mistakes

Hunting for a V-neck collar while a round-neck bodice is on the page.
Leaving a tag filter on in the part list, then thinking parts have gone missing.
Reading a green bar as a promise. It only means your best swatch could get there.
Expecting a swatch to set a piece's fabric. The cutting table does that.
Waiting to add swatches until the dress is delivered. By then you can't change them.
Thinking a dress is lost because the book opened on another page. Turn the pages with the corners at the bottom, or with A and D.