Dressmaker Lace Trim & Trims

Last updated: 2026-09-28 · 8 min read

Lace trim is the one decoration in Dressmaker that behaves like fabric rather than like an accessory. It is bought by the metre, placed in lengths along a hem or cuff, and in several commissions it is the difference between passing and failing — a dress that hits every style tag but no trim is still short of its requirement. It is also the item players most often discover too late, because the natural reading of "trim" is decorative extra rather than scored component.

What Counts As Trim

The accessory shop stocks 330 items across 11 types, and they split into two pricing behaviours that change how a requirement is scored.

Trim, lace and ribbon are metered goods: you buy a length and place a length, and the game tracks how much of it ended up on the dress. Everything else — bows, buttons, flowers, brooches, feathers, jewels, tassels and bells — is a discrete item, counted in pieces. A requirement reading "Use 10cm of Trim" is asking for length; one reading "Bell: at least 3" is asking for a count. Treating those as interchangeable is the fastest way to fail an otherwise correct dress.

The distinction also affects cost. Metered trim is priced per metre, so an ambitious decoration plan can consume a budget faster than expected. Item accessories are priced individually, which makes a large count cheap and a rare single piece expensive.

FIG. 01 — Accessories are placed after the sewing is complete. The panel distinguishes metered ribbon and lace from counted decorative pieces.

Trim And Lace Items

Every metered trim, lace and ribbon item in the released build, with its cost and style weights. Item-priced accessories are on the fabric and accessory reference, filterable by "sold by the item".

FIG. 02 — Decoration finishes the dress and nothing after it can change the quality score. The trim budget comes out of the same commission fee, so plan it before the cloth.

Placing Trim

Trim is placed on the assembled dress in the decoration step, after the panels are sewn. Placement follows the garment edges — hems, cuffs, necklines, waistlines and open backs are where it reads as intentional, and where commissions that name trims are usually asking for them.

Because the sewing step is already finished at this point, nothing here can lower the quality score — decoration adds style contribution, not quality. That means the decoration step is safe to experiment with in terms of the pass/fail outcome, but expensive to experiment with in terms of budget: the cloth is already bought, and trim is paid for by the metre on top of it.

Two habits make it manageable. Place the trim you have been asked for first, along the edges the commission is most likely checking, and only then add anything optional. And check the accessory panel's remaining quantity before committing to a long run of trim, because a piece of trim placed in the wrong place cannot be refunded.

Trim In Commissions

Trim shows up in commissions in three different shapes, and they are worth telling apart before you shop.

Some commissions name a length, reading like "Use 10cm of Trim" or "Use 100cm of Lace Trim" — these are length checks, satisfied by placing enough metered trim in one placement or several. Others name a count of a specific decorative type, reading like "Bell: at least 3" or "Jewel: at least 10" — these are item checks and need that many separate pieces. A third group asks for a share of the garment's colour or material rather than any particular decoration, and can be satisfied with fabric only, with trim playing no part.

The commission table labels all three as separate requirement lines, so the fastest way to plan is to filter it by client and read the lines before you commit to a dress design. Trim is cheap individually and expensive in aggregate, which makes it the easiest requirement to overspend on while trying to satisfy it.

Related Guides