Furthermore, Ham has stated that she created The Dressmaker "accidentally": it is the result of her participation in an RMIT creative writing course that she had not meant to attend. She simply appeared and began spouting fire, inspired by her mother's profession as a tailor in a little provincial town. Before long, she was describing the entire outfit that Mary Allen had designed for her daughter. When Rosalie was invited by her classmates to continue writing her story down, she decided that it would be better if someone else took over so that she could go out and buy some clothes. Thus was born The Dressmaker, which later became a full-length novel. It is interesting to note that, even though The Dressmaker is considered a feminist work, there are no female characters who can be identified as such. Rosalie Ham may have been influenced by other women's success, but she was also conscious of the need to create a story that people would want to read. In conclusion, we can say that Rosalie Ham wrote to express herself and show what kind of stories women could tell.