October may be known as the scariest gaming month of the year, as a whole host of horror games are set to release just in time for Halloween, but in my book it’s also the first cosy month. As daylight savings creeps ever closer and the weather cools down, my primordial instinct isn’t to hunker down for hibernation (although that does sound nice), it’s to find a good cup of tea and the next cosy game I can play.
I’ve been dabbling, trying to test out what I want this Autumn’s gaming theme to be like, and now after a few weeks of searching I think I’ve finally figured it out: I’m going to sip tea and make cute dresses for patrons in my quaint dress shop; not in real life, I don’t have the skills for that.
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Instead, I’ll be playing Dressmaker, a dress making simulation game that’s currently still just a prototype, but has still managed to become my new obsession, and one of my favourite games on itch.io.
In Dressmaker, you own a little shop in which you can greet customers looking for different kinds of outfits. Some may want a dress that’s a little more professional for the workplace, while others may be looking for something cuter for a garden party or fundraiser.
There’s a budget, so you have to carefully plan what you buy for each commission based on what the customer is willing to pay. You also have to match the vibe they want their new dress to be, meaning your job is to plan out the design, select the colour palette and material, cut it all up, and then stitch it together. It’s so much fun, and a little harder than what I first expected.
My first commission was from a local who was looking for a new dress to wear to work. She was searching for something smart but also relaxed as she works in a library. So I got to work selecting the different hemlines, necklines, and sleeve designs that I thought would work best.
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When it came to the material, I picked out Stone Beige wool and Gingham Green cotton, before anyone comes for me, I’m not a sewer so I have no idea whether I should mix textiles or not, but my customer didn’t seem to mind.
After cutting the sections of the dress out, I placed them on a tailor’s mannequin, pinning them all together so I could get a look at what Frankenstein’s monster I was about to sew together; I’m kidding, it wasn’t that bad.
But I will say the hardest part of this whole process wasn’t the brainstorming or picking out the colour palette, it was the sewing, which you need a pretty steady hand to get right. When sewing parts of the dress together, you’ll have a small dotted line that you need to follow by turning the garment around and pushing it through the machine. I may have gotten a bit too cocky when sewing my first sleeve up and managed to tank the quality score of the dress by accidentally pulling the sewing line askew, leaving a massive jagged line on the sleeve hem, whoops.
Thankfully, I did get better, or at least more cautious, after this incident, so the overall quality of the dress wasn’t affected too badly by my slip-up. But it was still a good reminder to take things slowly and settle into the rhythm before trying to dart onto the next stage.
The end product didn’t actually look too bad, but after looking at all the accessories and different fabrics, I now know that I could’ve done better. Which is a wonderful thing to realise as it means I’ll be able to enjoy Dressmaker for quite some time, improving my designs and sewing over the coming rainy months.
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