Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric.

“Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric.” is a core task performed by Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers. Among the occupation's 22 rated tasks, workers place it 3rd by importance (#20 most important). About 70% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Design materials or devices. in Thinking Creatively

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.083% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 48% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: task iteration
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.5 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 90% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Measure parts, such as sleeves or pant legs, and mark or pin-fold alteration lines. · importance 4.3
• Remove stitches from garments to be altered, using rippers or razor blades. · importance 4.3
• Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines. · importance 4.3
• Let out or take in seams in suits and other garments to improve fit. · importance 4.3
• Fit and study garments on customers to determine required alterations. · importance 4.3
• Measure customers, using tape measures, and record measurements. · importance 4.3
• Trim excess material, using scissors. · importance 4.2
• Assemble garment parts and join parts with basting stitches, using needles and thread or sewing machines. · importance 4.2
• Maintain garment drape and proportions as alterations are performed. · importance 4.1
• Make garment style changes, such as tapering pant legs, narrowing lapels, and adding or removing padding. · importance 4.1
• Take up or let down hems to shorten or lengthen garment parts, such as sleeves. · importance 4.1
• Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings. · importance 4.1
• 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. · importance 4.1
• Press garments, using hand irons or pressing machines. · importance 4.1

See all tasks on the Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-12188,
  title  = {Develop, copy, or adapt designs for garments, and design patterns to fit measurements, applying knowledge of garment design, construction, styling, and fabric.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-12188}
}