Know her taste first

Each customer has a preference card — two styles, a fabric or pattern, a colour and an accessory — visible on her journal page once your relationship has grown. The character reference collects all ten documented cards. A gift that matches her lines is the documented direction; there is no visible final score bar for a gift dress, so preferences are the target you design toward.

Sketchbook yellow tab showing the ten-customer friendship list and the selected customer's preference card with her Dress History
The yellow tab: relationship stars for all ten customers on the left, and the selected customer's preference lines — here Marie's Eclectic, Elegant, Silk, Orange and Trim — on the right. View full screenshot.

Make a separate dress

  1. Start a design of its own from the sketchbook — the plus sign / Create New Dress route — not the page of the commission you still owe.
  2. Draft, cut and sew it toward her preferences with what you have unlocked.
  3. Finish the dress and take the photo. The completion screen is where the paths split.

Gift Dress is not Complete Commission

The photographed completion screen offers four distinct actions: Complete Commission, Keep working, Sell and Gift Dress. Choosing Gift Dress takes you to a recipient choice; the dress then leaves your stock as a present.

Photo preview screen with the Dress Complete dialog showing Complete Commission, Keep working, Sell and Gift Dress buttons
The completion screen after the photo: Complete Commission hands in the active order, Sell lists the dress, Gift Dress gives it away. The recipient picker after Gift Dress is not pictured in the documented set — read the names on your own screen before confirming. View full screenshot.

The documented mistake: a player sent the customer's commission dress as a gift. The customer accepted the present, the commission stayed unfinished, and a second dress had to be made. If the order is still open, use Complete Commission; gift a different dress.

What gifts actually do

Documented outcomes: dresses matched to a customer's preferences raise the relationship, and higher relationships gradually open up more — the character cards and pattern progress track it. What is not documented: a fixed star gain per gift, a full list of which pattern unlocks from whom, or that every customer rewards gifts equally. One player reports two disliked gifts simply not landing — treat failed gifts as a reason to re-read her card, not as proof gifts are consequence-free either way. If you are short on cash, note that gifting is a relationship spend, not income — for recovering money, see off-rack cash recovery.

Further reading:Friendship Hints and Measurements (Steam guide) · Expanding On The Tutorial (Steam guide) · Steam player discussions