Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings.

“Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings.” is a core task performed by Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers. Among the occupation's 22 rated tasks, workers place it 12th by importance (#11 most important). About 97% 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.

• Sew garments or materials. in Handling and Moving Objects

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

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 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

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
• 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
• Estimate how much a garment will cost to make, based on factors such as time and material requirements. · importance 4.0

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
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-task-12192,
  title  = {Repair or replace defective garment parts, such as pockets, zippers, snaps, buttons, and linings.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-12192}
}