Description
Design, construct, alter, repair, and fit dresses and women's garments to client specifications, applying garment design, patternmaking, and sewing techniques.
- • Trim excess fabric with scissors.
- • Fit and assess dresses on clients to determine required alterations.
- • Sew garments by hand or with sewing machines.
- • Measure sleeves, bodices, and skirts, and mark or pin-fold alteration lines.
- • Take up or let down hems to shorten or lengthen skirts and sleeves.
- • Let out or take in seams in dresses and other women's garments to improve fit.
- • Assemble garment pieces and join parts with basting stitches.
- • Remove stitches from garments to be altered, using seam rippers or razors.
- • Record alteration requirements and instructions and tag garments.
- • Review work orders and fitting notes to determine needed alterations.
- • Fit, alter, repair, and make made-to-measure dresses and formalwear to client and manufacturer specifications.
- • Preserve drape, balance, and proportions during alterations.
- • Press garments with hand irons or pressing machines.
- • Develop, copy, or adapt dress designs and draft patterns to client measurements.
- • Make style changes, such as adjusting necklines, waistlines, and skirt shapes, or adding/removing padding or boning.
- • Measure clients with tape measures and record measurements.
- • Estimate material needs and labor time to price garments and alterations.
- • Repair or replace zippers, closures, pockets, snaps, buttons, and linings.
- • Confer with clients to select fabrics, trims, and garment styles.
- • Lay out pattern pieces on fabric and cut along outlines.
- • Sew buttonholes and attach buttons, hooks, and eyes.
- • Insert interfacing, boning, and other shaping materials.
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Related Pathways
Arts, Entertainment, & Design
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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Sources & Standards:
This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
