Commission gone, and the bell does nothing

You had a commission open, or a dress half made, and now it is not in the sketchbook. The book opens on Off rack, ringing the desk bell brings no one, and the pigeon has nothing. Often the card is still in the book, just not on the page it opens to.

The Dressmaker sketchbook: a request card on the left with a Requirements list, a dress sketch and tag scores on the right, fabrics down the side. — Where an open commission should be: its card on the left page of the sketchbook. When it goes missing, the book opens on another page instead.

First: flip through every page

Turn pages with the folded page corner at the bottom left of the sketchbook. It is easy to miss. Use it rather than clicking the tabs.

Keep turning the sketchbook’s pages all the way through, past Off rack, rather than stopping at the page it opens on. The missing card is often at the far end of the book, and this has also cleared a soft lock on Fiona’s second dress. If it is not there, try the next fix.

If it vanished after you pressed Make a New Dress, the card usually sits on the page to the right: turn to it with the page corners, not the tabs. See commission vanishes after Make a New Dress.

If it is not there: sell a dress

When the waiting client never comes back, selling a dress can bring the commission back. An off-the-rack dress in burlap costs nothing in fabric, so this is cheap to try; how selling works is on off the rack, selling and gifts.

What the patches changed

Build 410 fixed one version of this: a softlock in the tutorial when you click the sketchbook before the bell. There is no patch for the later commissions yet. Both patches are on patch notes.

How to avoid it

Hand a commission dress in with Complete Commission, not Gift Dress. A gift does not fulfil the request, and afterwards the bell and the pigeon may bring nobody.
Finish the story commission before you accept a pigeon letter. Taking one partway through can hide the open card; if that happens, turn back from the dress planning page to find it.

If nothing works

Close the game and start it again. Restarting twice has also brought a lost commission back.
A few saves are not fixed by any of this yet. If yours is one, report it on the Steam discussion board with your save file.

Other problems and what helps with them, from a missing Finish Dress button to pieces that disappear, are on known bugs and fixes.