Tailoring

Tailoring is one of the primary Professions. Tailors weave gathered cloth into armor, bags, shirts and other goods. Most of what they make is gear for cloth wearers such as the Mage, Warlock and Priest, but a few items, like cloaks and spellthreads, help other classes too.

• Cloth armor: single pieces and matching sets that share a look, some with set bonuses. Other casters can wear cloth, but it is usually a poor choice because of armor specialization bonuses.
• Bags: tailors are the main source of bags, including special bags with extra room for one kind of item, such as enchanting, herb and gem bags. Leatherworking and Engineering can also make some bags.
• Shirts and outfits: shirts in many styles and colors, plus dresses and tuxedos. They have no stats and are only for looks or roleplay.
• Other goods: consumables, cloth gear that needs high skill, and a few tailoring Mounts, Riding and Skyriding such as flying carpets.

Cloth comes from chests and defeated enemies (mostly humanoids and some undead) or can be bought, so tailors do not need a gathering profession. Tailoring is often paired with Enchanting. Most crafting can be done anywhere with no special tools or workstation.

You learn Tailoring from a trainer, which gives the Apprentice rank and some basic patterns. Skill rises as you craft. New patterns come from trainers, vendors, loot or the Auction House; every pattern has a minimum skill, and some also need a certain Reputation and Renown with a faction. Most recipes also use thread (and sometimes dye) bought from vendors, and some need materials from other professions such as leather, gems or potions.

• Red: your skill is too low to learn it.
• Orange: always gives a skill point.
• Yellow: will probably give a point.
• Green: will probably not give a point.
• Gray: never gives a point.

Since patch 8.0.1 each expansion has its own, smaller skill bar instead of one long bar for the whole game. Since Dragonflight you can also equip profession equipment for bonuses and access to new crafts.

• Enchanting: lets you disenchant crafted items into materials, and some higher patterns use those materials.
• Skinning: supplies leather that some recipes need, for example certain boots and bags (see Gathering Professions).
• Mining: supplies gems and elemental materials used in some higher recipes.

Some special cloths can only be made a limited number of times. For example, Imperial Silk (Pandaria) and Celestial Cloth can each be crafted once per day from bolts of Windwool Cloth, and Hexweave Cloth (Draenor) once per day from Sumptuous Fur and Gorgrond Flytrap.

Each expansion brought a new main cloth that drops mostly from humanoids: Netherweave Cloth in The Burning Crusade, Frostweave in Northrend, Embersilk Cloth in Cataclysm and Windwool Cloth in Mists of Pandaria. In Mists, regular patterns stopped needing thread.

• The Burning Crusade: tailors with 350 skill could pick one of three specializations in Shattrath City's Lower City: Mooncloth, Shadoweave or Spellfire Tailoring. Each unlocked an epic three-piece set. Specializations were removed in patch 4.0.1.
• Spellthreads: tailor-made threads that add caster stats to leg armor. The first ones needed reputation with the Aldor or the Scryers; later versions kept coming in Wrath, Cataclysm and Mists.
• Wrath of the Lich King: at 325 skill tailors could learn Northern Cloth Scavenging to loot extra Frostweave from humanoids in Northrend. At 310 they could make the Flying Carpet (a 150% flying mount) and at 425 the Magnificent Flying Carpet (280%).
• Cataclysm: tailors with 400 skill or more got extra cloth half of the time from anything that drops cloth.