dressmaker
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.
dressmaker 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. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include buttonholing, properties of textile materials, marker making, e-tailoring, fabric spreading in the fashion industry.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £25,212 a year for Tailors and dressmakers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 5413). ONS publishes this estimate without a precision measure. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Craft and related trades workers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only dressmaker, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 7. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Production and Processing
- Administration and Management
- Economics and Accounting
- Design
- Mathematics
- Sales and Marketing
What you'd actually do
- Measure parts, such as sleeves or pant legs, and mark or pin-fold alteration lines.
- Remove stitches from garments to be altered, using rippers or razor blades.
- Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines.
- Let out or take in seams in suits and other garments to improve fit.
- Measure customers, using tape measures, and record measurements.
- Fit and study garments on customers to determine required alterations.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does dressmaker do?
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 skills does dressmaker need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include buttonholing, properties of textile materials, marker making, e-tailoring, fabric spreading in the fashion industry, apparel manufacturing technology. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace dressmaker?
Our AI-durability model gives dressmaker a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.