The fastest way to make money in Dressmaker is to sew cheap dresses and sell them off the rack, and the developers say so themselves: asked about low pay, the game’s community manager replied, “Burlap and off the rack are your friends here.” Commissions pay too, but a cheap dress made well and sold from your shop window costs almost nothing to make.
Below we cover how each source of gold works, what raises a dress’s sale price, and the spending habits that drain your budget. Dressmaker is a short game to learn but a slow one to get rich in, so these add up.
Where Money Comes From
The developers list two income sources on the store page:
- Commissions. Handing in a client’s dress earns “both reputation and coin.”
- Off the rack. You can “display your own designs in your shop window and sell pre-made dresses off of the rack.” The developers describe it as a way to take a break from commissions or “save up for an extra elaborate dress.”
There is also the Sell dress button on the Dress Complete screen, which shows a dress’s price before you commit. Our guide to finishing a dress explains each option on that screen.
The Developers’ Tip: Burlap and Off the Rack
The community manager’s advice came in a forum thread about pay on September 30, 2026. Players on the same forum report that burlap costs nothing, which is why it works: a burlap dress has no fabric cost, so whatever it sells for is profit.
Players report fabric prices in the shop ranging from about 10 gold a metre for cotton to around 80 for velvet, and the official shop screenshot shows a silk at 100 gold for 2 metres. Every metre you skip on a cheap dress is money kept.
What Raises a Dress’s Sale Price
The game does not publish its pricing, but players who have compared many sales describe a consistent pattern: the price is built from the materials and labour in the dress, then raised by its quality and by your dressmaker rank, which grows as you sell. The exact multipliers vary between reports, so treat this as a guide rather than a formula.
What that means in practice:
- Make it well. Quality pushes the price up, so careful cutting and sewing pay twice. Our guide to getting 100% quality explains what counts.
- Keep selling. Your rank rises with sales, and players report that higher ranks sell for more.
- Check before you sell. The Sell dress button shows the price, and players say you can back out if it is too low.
Some players have found that covering a cheap dress in large numbers of brooches or diamonds sells for thousands of gold. Treat that as an exploit the developers may patch.
Commissions: What Players Report
Commissions are the story’s backbone, and since Build 403 a commission the client accepts pays even if it falls short. A few things players report:
- Clients pay differently. Players say some clients are generous and others pay less for similar work, so check the budget in each request.
- Payment can look smaller than listed. Several players report receiving about half the listed fee on delivery, while others say they were paid in full. The game has not explained this, so do not plan around one rule.
- Selling instead of completing is possible from the Dress Complete screen, but it leaves the client’s request unfinished.
Habits That Waste Gold
- Buying fabric you do not need. There is no way to sell fabric back, so buy close to what the sketchbook says the pattern needs. Our beginner tips explain the sketchbook’s fabric estimate.
- Luxury fabric for practice. Learn a pattern in burlap or cheap cotton first.
- Overspending on one dress. One achievement is literally “Spend more than 5 000 gold on a successful dress,” so the game expects big spending later, not early.
Every guide is on our Dressmaker hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fastest way to make money in Dressmaker? Sell cheap dresses off the rack. The developers’ own tip is “Burlap and off the rack are your friends here,” and players report burlap costs nothing.
Does quality affect how much a dress sells for? Yes, according to players who have compared sales: higher quality and a higher dressmaker rank both raise the price.
Can you sell fabric in Dressmaker? Not directly. Players work around it by sewing leftover fabric into a dress and selling that.
Do failed commissions pay? Since patch Build 403, a commission the client accepts pays even if it falls short of the brief.
What currency does Dressmaker use? Gold, as the game’s achievements and shop prices show.