How The Burlap Challenge Works In Dressmaker

Published Oct 17, 2026, 9:44 AM EDT Cat Webling is a Kansas-based writer with six years of experience in the gaming industry in a range of roles from editor and journalist to narrative writer. She enjoys cozy gaming on PC and Nintendo Switch 2, especially if the game includes cute animals. Typically, when someone opens Dressmaker, their main goal is to make pretty dresses. It's kind of in the name of the game after all. Sure, there's a fun story and quirky characters, but most players really thrive in making unique and interesting dress designs out of all of the gorgeous fabrics in stunning colors available to them. So what happens if you ignore all of those beautiful fabrics and try to make the most humble and basic fabric into profits? You get the Burlap Challenge, a half-joke creativity contest that players are taking in stride (and sometimes taking to the extreme). What Is The Burlap Challenge? In the real world, burlap is a coarse, rough fabric that's used for its practicality, not its beauty. It's typically a medium brown color and made from jute fibers, a type of plant that's extremely cheap and relatively easy to grow in many places around the world. Historically, burlap has been produced to make bags that haul other consumables such as potatoes or flour; it was never really designed for clothing. Fun fact: some religious groups use burlap to make clothing that's intentionally uncomfortable, as a method of atoning for wrongdoing. Probably not the best thing to make a dress out of in the real world. In Dressmaker, burlap is a free material that the creators intended for players to use as a mockup — giving them something to cut the patterns out of and fit together before they decided on the material they actually wanted to use. Players, however, decided that a free fabric was a free fabric, and if all they had to sink into a dress was the accessory cost and the time to make it, they could make some serious profits. Thus, the Burlap Challenge was born. The goal is simple: make as much money as possible off of three off-the-rack dresses made entirely from burlap. Players have come up with some fascinating entries for this as well, constructing elaborate ballgowns and sultry togas from nothing but potato sacks and somehow still making them look amazing. How To Complete The Burlap Challenge So how do you complete the Burlap Challenge? Here are the basic rules: You must create three unique off-the-rack dresses. Each dress must only be constructed of burlap; no other fabric can be used. You can use any and all accessories you like. Earn as much money as possible from each dress. You'll need to have completed the first three commissions in the game to unlock off-the-rack dress construction. Start by choosing your pattern. The pattern you choose isn't particularly important; your earnings are based on the quality of your cuts and sewing as well as the accessories you choose. In this challenge, it's a good idea to choose a simple pattern with plenty of room to accessorize. I'd recommend using something like the Princess or Square Bodice paired with the Princess or Circle Skirts with longer sleeves of any kind for plenty of accessory real estate. Then it's on to the fun part: accessories! Add lace, piping, brooches, jewels, bows, or whatever you want and/or can afford to deck out the dress head-to-toe and bring the value up as much as possible. Some people choose to cover their entire dress in buttons, some choose repeating lace and bow patterns in fun colors, and others coat the dress in diamonds and hope for the best. Remember that the cost of your accessories factors into the cost of the dress itself, so balance what you need to buy with what you're hoping to get out of it. A ridiculous amount of cheap accessories might make you more money than adding a few of the more expensive brooches. When you've built your dresses, save pictures of them to share with the community. The Dressmaker Discord server is always excited to see fun or silly challenge dresses; post them there or tag the team on social media and you might even be featured on their social channels in their community highlights. This challenge really is just for fun, so make your dresses as wild and ridiculous as you want to; there are no rules when it comes to burlap.