Dressmaker
Also called tailor, seamster, seamstress
Dressmakers design, make or fit, alter, repair tailored, bespoke or hand-made garments from textile fabrics, light leather, fur and other material for women and children. They produce made-to-measure wearing apparel according to customer's or garment manufacturer's specifications. They are able to read and understand size charts, details surrounding finished measurements, etc.
What you'd do
Tailors, dressmakers, furriers and hatters · ILO- Making overcoats, suits, skirts, shirts, blouses, lingerie, corsetry, hats, wigs and similar garments, often to clients' individual requirements
- Selecting textile fabrics, leather or fur pelts matching the desired size, colour, texture, and quality of the garment; cutting to shape them to garment pattern and arranging them on pattern according to the design of the garment
- Making garment style changes, such as tapering trouser legs, narrowing lapels, and adding or removing padding
- Selecting and modifying commercial patterns to customers' and clothing manufacturers' specifications and fit
- Fitting, altering and repairing tailored clothing, dresses, coats and other made-to-measure garments according to customers' requests
- Making and caring for costumes used in theatrical, television and motion picture productions
- Folding, twisting and draping material, such as satin or silk, or sewing ribbon or cloth in the form of artificial flowers or bows around crown and brim to shape and decorate hats
- Sewing, and fastening together materials and hair strands to make wigs
- Blending shades of hair to give natural appearance to wigs and arranging woven hair in specified position and sewing hair together to form hairpiece
- Making, altering, restyling and repairing fur garments and other fur articles
- Reclaiming furs or skins from old coats, gluing fabric to interior of fur coats and trimming fur garments
- Indoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Lots of contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Often more than 40 hours a week
- Deadlines every day
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Below averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,000 a month (Bulgaria) to €4,800 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among craft and related trades workers in the EU, women earn 26% less per hour than men. Craft and related trades workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in textiles (clothes, footwear and leather) is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.15 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 11 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for tailors, dressmakers, furriers and hatters. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).