Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
Design, make, alter, repair, or fit garments.
13,920 people do this job in the US. $41,640 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 10%
- 2%
- 88%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 4%. Today's estimate: 5%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fit, alter, repair, and make made-to-measure clothing, according to customers' and clothing manufacturers' specifications and fit, and applying principles of garment design, construction, and styling.Done daily by most who do it. | 25% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 3.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 10% | 50 min13 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 9% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Make garment style changes, such as tapering pant legs, narrowing lapels, and adding or removing padding.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 9% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Assemble garment parts and join parts with basting stitches, using needles and thread or sewing machines.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Let out or take in seams in suits and other garments to improve fit.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Take up or let down hems to shorten or lengthen garment parts, such as sleeves.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Maintain garment drape and proportions as alterations are performed.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Fit and study garments on customers to determine required alterations.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 21 min13 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Position patterns of garment parts on fabric, and cut fabric along outlines, using scissors.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Press garments, using hand irons or pressing machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).