Mid-seam: R resets the current piece

If the seam you are sewing goes wrong, R resets the piece currently on the machine — the author's own annotation reads “Resets the piece if you mess up”. It touches nothing already attached to the dress, so it is the cheap first response to a bad seam.

Sewing machine screen showing the needle gauge and the bottom control strip with Space sew, A D rotate, W S speed, mouse wheel stitching and R reset
The sewing screen controls: Space sews, A/D rotate, W/S change speed, the wheel stitches step by step — and R resets the piece on the machine. The 100% gauge beside the needle is the quality feedback to watch. View full screenshot.

Installed piece: unpick and return

For a piece already attached to the mannequin, the documented chain is longer: take the seam ripper to the piece on the mannequin, drag the freed piece back to the pattern inventory, and it is ready to recut or recycle. The dress otherwise stays assembled — you are replacing a part, not restarting the garment.

Recycle: two fabric branches

At the cutting table, drag a piece to the recycle basket in the corner. What you get back depends on the state of the roll it came from:

Cutting table with the guide author's annotation drag to recycle pointing at the recycle basket icon in the corner
The cutting table with the author's “drag to recycle” arrow pointing at the basket icon. Dropping a piece here is the recycling step. View full screenshot.
  • Excess not cut off: the author's note on this screen reads “Fabric is returned if excess isn't cut off” — recycling a piece returns its fabric to the roll.
  • Excess already cut off: once you have trimmed the excess away, recycling no longer refunds that material. Cutting excess while pieces still lie on the table moves those pieces to your inventory instead of destroying them.
Cutting table with the author's note that fabric is returned if excess is not cut off, and the piece back in the patterns panel
The uncut-excess branch: fabric returned to the roll, and the pattern piece back in the panel for recutting. View full screenshot.
Cutting table showing dotted cutting lines and the author's note that cutting excess with pieces on the table moves them to the inventory
The other branch: dotted cutting lines trim the excess, and pieces still on the table move to your inventory. After this trim, recycling stops refunding fabric. View full screenshot.

Recut and resew

With the empty pattern piece back in the panel, lay it on fresh or returned fabric, mind the grain, and sew the replacement back on. Two cautions from the documented material: recycling is not the same as the pattern page's restart, and no state is guaranteed lossless — a trimmed roll stays spent. If a style row is short by a small amount, the documented trick is changing a small hidden piece rather than the whole dress, but whether a small piece closes your gap depends on your card's live rows, not on any fixed percentage.

Further reading:Expanding On The Tutorial (Steam guide) · Dressmaker 100% Achievements Guide (Steam) · Controls, tips, advice & more (Steam guide)