Dressmaker Commissions: Every Request, Budget and Unlock

Dressmaker has 53 story commissions, 24 more that arrive by Messenger Pigeon, a gift request for each client and one final commission. The tables below give each commission’s budget and the requirements exactly as your sketchbook lists them, so you can plan fabric and buy what you need before you measure the client.

How Commissions Arrive

Story commissions come to the front desk one at a time and always in the same order. The next one arrives once you’ve handed in the current one.

The Messenger Pigeon starts working once you’ve finished Pigeon Adoption. Each pigeon commission opens up when you finish a particular story commission, with any result. The pigeon only offers a client who isn’t already waiting on a dress from you, so finish a client’s current commission to see their next pigeon request. Gifting unlocks at the same point, after Pigeon Adoption.

How Results Work

A commission succeeds when the dress meets every requirement in the sketchbook, and fails if it misses any. There’s no extra reward for beating a requirement by a wide margin. Quality requirements count how closely your mannequin matches the client’s bust, waist and hips, so size the mannequin to their measurements before you sew. The quality and style scores guide explains how every score line is worked out.

When a commission fails, the client still pays the full budget but you only get a quarter of the usual friendship and prestige. The money guide has the exact numbers.

Commissions You Can’t Fail

In these 18 commissions the client won’t take a dress that misses a requirement. They hand it back and the commission stays open until you alter the dress and submit one that passes. You get nothing for the rejected attempt, and the full reward once it’s right.

Flamboyant Funeral (Prudence), Sporting Chance (Adora), Exhibition Opening (Priya), Walking Billboard (Fiona), Hedge Camouflage (Dorothy), Spring Fete (Marie), Parental Guidance (Alice), Marie’s Wedding (Marie), Never the Bride (Prudence), Dressed Down (Dorothy), Midnight Warrior (Vivian), Raven Rising (Alice), Another Encore (Edith), Diplomatic Outreach (Marie), Crowning Glory (Adora), World Stage (Edith), Sewn in the Stars (Priya), Painted Dream (Prudence).

Story Commissions

Read each requirement line as the minimum your dress needs, unless it says at most. A style line such as Elegant: 50 means an Elegant score of 50 or more; Use only and Avoid lines limit which fabric types or colours you can put on the dress. To check a colour line before you buy, filter the Fabric Swatches tool by colour. It uses the same colour labels the game checks, and a fabric with two labels has to pass on both.

After the last story commission you receive a letter, then Peerless Dressmaker. It has no requirements and pays 50,000.

Messenger Pigeon Commissions

Each pigeon commission appears after the story commission in the Appears after column.

Poetic Muse Poem Choices

Marie’s Poetic Muse adds one requirement for each stanza of the poem you write with her. Pick the lines that match a dress you can make well.

Gift Requests

Gifts aren’t commissions. From the photo screen you can give any finished dress to a client you’ve already sewn for, as many times as you like. A gift that meets every line of that client’s gift list gets their best reaction, and any gift with quality above 80 still counts as a success. Either way it raises their friendship by a full level, which makes gifting the fastest route to the friendship pattern unlocks. A gift with quality 80 or lower raises it by a quarter. Gifts never pay.