Design, cut and sew dresses from scratch in Dressmaker

Cozy Lives, the gentler branch of studio Free Lives, has launched Dressmaker on PC, a hands-on dressmaking sim that lets players craft garments from raw fabric to finished frock. Mobile ports are confirmed, though no dates or platforms have been announced yet.

A surprise pivot from the Anger Foot studio

Free Lives is best known for Anger Foot, a shooter built entirely around kicking doors down, so a quiet sewing game is quite the change of pace. The team joked in its launch post that Dressmaker was so sincere and violence-free that it got banned from Free Lives' own social media channels.

That ban clearly didn't slow it down. The game launched with more than 400,000 wishlists and recouped its development costs in under 24 hours — a welcome bit of good news for an indie release.

How dressmaking works

Players oversee the entire process of creating a dress. First, you choose your material from cotton, linen, wool, silk or velvet, then sketch and colour your design before arranging and cutting the pattern pieces.

Anyone who has tried real dressmaking will recognise how placement matters here — pieces need to be aligned with the fabric grain or cut on the bias, and those choices show up on the finished garment. Once everything is laid out, you run it through the sewing machine to stitch it together, then add the finishing touches with buttons, bows, appliqué and lace trims wherever you like.

Winning over the town

A whole town of customers needs custom dresses for big occasions, and each one comes with their own preferences. Delivering a well-made dress earns you reputation and money. Keeping clients happy is the goal, though players with a grudge against a regular can always opt for a bit of sabotage instead.

You can also show off your own creations in the shop window and sell dresses directly off the rack.

Dressmaker is out now on PC via Steam, with mobile versions confirmed but not yet dated. In the meantime, players looking for more hands-on crafting can check out our roundup of the best simulation games on Android.

Source: the original publisher