Cotton
Named on Steam as a buyable family and the everyday workhorse for grain-stable panels.
Pattern cutting and garment panels.
Named fabric families
wide range of fabrics
Dressmaker's Steam page names a wide range of fabrics including cotton, linen, wool, silk and velvet. Launch notes claim 450+ fabrics; this page sticks to families the store lists. You buy a family, then assign it per panel, which is why a cotton bodice can sit on a silk skirt without the game forcing one roll across the dress.
April Tea is the first-party note on look: custom shaders distinguish silk, velvet, and sequins, so those two named families are not reskins of cotton. The International Emporium still shows rolls on shelves, which is the shop you visit before the sketchbook and the cutting table. Buy a family with the next panel in mind: cotton for recuts, wool for structure, silk and velvet when the shader shine is the point of the commission.
The five families the store names
Cotton, linen, wool, silk and velvet are the only family names on the English Steam page. Filter the five cards if you are jumping to one family; the full set still fits on one screen. Each card is a family, not an SKU. The 450 figure from Scalding September Tea is a catalogue size, not a public spreadsheet of names.
Assigning per panel is the mechanical hook. You can grain-cut wool for a coat body and bias-cut silk for a lining-like drape on the same commission. The cutting page is where that mix becomes visible on the dress.
Buy before you sketch if the client already named a hand. The sketchbook wants samples pinned to the drawing, and those samples come from stock you actually own.
Linen
Named on Steam beside cotton; use it when you want a cooler, crisper panel than wool.
Pattern cutting and garment panels.
Wool
Named on Steam as a buyable family that holds shape on structured commissions.
Pattern cutting and garment panels.
Silk
Listed on the Steam store. April Tea says custom shaders give silks a distinct shininess.
Pattern cutting and garment panels.
Velvet
Listed on the Steam store. April Tea says custom shaders give velvets a distinct shininess.
Pattern cutting and garment panels.
No fabric family matches that filter.
Silk, velvet, and the custom shaders
April Tea says custom shaders give silks and velvets a distinct shininess, and sequins share that treatment. That is why those two families are called out twice: once on the store list, once in the development note. Cotton, linen, and wool are still listed as buyable; they simply are not the examples used for the shine talk.
Shine does not replace grain. A shiny silk cut on bias still stretches; a shiny velvet on grain still holds. If you chase Opulence and Excess by spending more than 5 000 gold on a successful dress, silk and velvet are the expensive way to get there, not a required path.
Transparent fabrics are on the post-launch list, not in the current Steam platform description. Do not play as if sheer cloth already ships.
Stock, cost, and the workroom loop
Fabric is the first step in the official loop: choose fabric, sketch, cut, sew, decorate, deliver or sell. Running out of a family mid-commission means a trip back to the emporium before you can recut a ruined panel. There is no infinite cloth equivalent to the infinite bobbin.
Story commissions are about 35 hours excluding off-rack. That estimate assumes you will keep buying cloth as clients change size and taste. A wool that fitted Dorothy's major set may be the wrong hand for Priya even if both dresses are 'formal'.
When a roll is on the table, the next verbs are sketch and cut, not decorate. Trims come after the sewing machine has joined the panels.
Names Steam has not published
No first-party roster of all 450 fabrics exists on Steam, itch.io, or the Free Lives press kit. If Cozy Lives later publishes a full list, that list can replace this family filter.
Colourways, prints, and seasonal restocks are not documented in the store extras. You will see them in the emporium UI; they are not named here as invented rows.
Linux prototype zips on itch.io also are not a fabric database. They are a separate Prototype 0.5.5 build. Steam's live cloth list is the Windows and macOS shop.
Fabric next to cut, sew, and trim
A family choice is wasted if the cut ignores it. Wool wants grain when you need a coat that holds; silk wants bias when you want drape plus the shader shine. The vintage machine will stitch either, and the infinite bobbin will not save a panel assigned to the wrong family. Mix families on one dress only when the seam can carry two hands.
Decorations sit on top of the cloth you bought. Fifty metres of lace on cotton is a different object from fifty metres of lace on bias velvet. Buy the family first, sketch the sample, cut, sew, then open the trim drawers. Sequins share the shine shader with silk and velvet, so they read brightest on those two families.
Restock between major commissions. Ten clients means ten measurement sets; a leftover wool that fitted Marie may be the wrong hand for Vivian even if both dresses are dark. Keep a cotton roll for recuts so an expensive silk mistake does not end the session.