Sew clothing or other articles
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 8 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 8 occupations that perform it.
- Prepare pointe shoes, by sewing or other means, for use in rehearsals and performance.
- Stitch or glue endpapers, bindings, backings, or signatures, using sewing machines, glue machines, or glue and brushes.
- Align and stitch or glue materials such as fabric, fleece, leather, or wood, to join parts.
- Sew, join, reinforce, or finish parts of articles, such as garments, books, mattresses, toys, and wigs, using needles and thread or other materials.
- Sew garments, using needles and thread or sewing machines.
- Sew ends of cloth together, by hand or using machines, to form endless lengths of cloth to facilitate processing.
- Sew rips or tears in material, or create tufting, using needles and thread.
- Secure finished packaged items by hand tying, sewing, gluing, stapling, or attaching fastener.
- Form book bodies by folding and sewing printed sheets to form signatures and assembling signatures in numerical order.
- Dye, soak, polish, paint, stamp, stitch, stain, buff, or engrave leather or other materials to obtain desired effects, decorations, or shapes.
- Use different sewing techniques such as felling, tacking, basting, embroidery, and fagoting.
- Take up or let down hems to shorten or lengthen garment parts, such as sleeves.
- Operate sewing machines or sew upholstery by hand to seam cushions and join various sections of covering material.
- Re-sew seams, and replace handles and linings of suitcases or handbags.
- Sew buttonholes, or add lace or other trimming.
- Let out or take in seams in suits and other garments to improve fit.
- Assemble garment parts and join parts with basting stitches, using needles and thread or sewing machines.
- 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.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
8 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Sew garments or materials”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Operate sewing equipment | 7 |
| Repair textiles or apparel | 5 |
| Sew materials | 1 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.