Tailoring: A Beginner’s Guide

So you want to be a Tailor?

Perhaps you admire those flowing robes or maybe you’re just a fan of pink. If so then Tailoring is for you! In addition to being a good profession that provides armor for Warlocks, Mages and Priests, these are also the only folks that can make regular bags and a few specialty bags too.

Companion Skills

Since Tailoring doesn’t require a gathering profession, there are a number of other companion crafts you can choose. A gathering profession would be good as an income generator, the most useful of which would be Skinning since bag and boot recipes tend to use leather. Many people choose Enchanting to go with Tailoring since Enchanting does not require a gathering skill either. As a Tailor you’ll be able to create your own items for disenchanting, so that’s a nice bonus.

To begin your Tailoring adventure, you’ll want to find a trainer. Most major cities have a full selection of the various trainers, simply ask a guard to mark your mini-map. There are also trainers located in some towns in various newbie zones, but this isn’t reliable so your best bet is to take care of this in the city. Keep in mind that you should be level 5 before you seek a trainer.

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Bolts of Cloth

Once you learn the first few recipes from your trainer, you’ll notice that they require ‘bolts’ of linen. Bolts of fabric are made from the various pieces of cloth that you’ll receive as loot during your adventures in Azeroth. You need to convert all of this cloth into bolts for use in your recipes. You also get skill points making the bolts, so I highly recommend that you make bolts as much as possible while you still gain points for doing so. If you happen to end up with stacks of cloth before you gain the ability to create bolts with it, it’s probably smart to store them in the bank and save them for easy points later on.

As you move through the various recipes, you’ll start using higher level types of cloth. The first recipes use Linen, followed by Wool, Silk, Mageweave, Runecloth and finally Netherweave. Here’s a chart to show the progression of cloth types as they relate to mobs and recipes, plus the amount needed to create bolts.

Cloth Type Pieces Per Bolt Mobs That Drop It Crafting Level
Linen 2 5-17 up to 90
Wool 3 16-27 75-130
Silk 4 25-40 125-210
Mageweave 5 40-50 175-250
Runecloth 5 50-63 250-300
Netherweave 6 58-70 300-375

To advance your training to higher levels of Tailoring and learn new recipes, you’ll want to visit a trainer regularly. There are many ways to skill up your new profession. For those looking to power level quickly, the WoWWiki has a decent shopping list and progression chart. The only downside to using this guide is that you end up making a lot of “common” quality items that can only be sold to a vendor. I personally prefer to make at least some of my investment back, if you’d rather go that route you can stick with crafting green/uncommon quality items. Another alternative, which I used myself, is to craft shirts and novelty outfits. Since they have no level requirement, these items sell fairly well and have a wider market to other players.

Bags and more bags

One of the items that will be quite popular for any Tailor is a bag. At the lower levels you may not be able to get huge amounts of money for them (depending on your server), but eventually you should be able to make good money selling bags. This will probably be at 340 skill, when you can make the Imbued Netherweave Bag. Most players at some point will upgrade all their bags to Imbued Netherweave or the even larger Primal Mooncloth Bag.

Specialty Bags

Tailors also have a number of recipes for specialty bags. The types of bags you can make include soul shard bags for Warlocks, herb bags for Herbalists and enchanting bags for Enchanters. These bags tend to sell for more money than comparable regular bags, mostly due to their unique nature and the rare components required to make them. But it would probably be a good idea to seek out these recipes because if you can collect the components you should be able to make even better money selling these bags.

Shirts

I know what you’re thinking… why does anyone need a shirt when they have chestpieces and breastplates? Well, some chest armor does a better job of covering folks up than others. For those who don’t like to show so much skin, they can add a shirt underneath. Or perhaps they just like the look of a certain shirt with their chosen armor. Shirts are basically a vanity item, but sometimes they can sell more than other gear at the same crafting level. So check the Auction House and see what the going rate is for shirts. You might find that you’ll get more money making a shirt for the same material it would take to make regular armor items.

Fun Stuff

What’s better than a Pink Mageweave Shirt? How about a White Wedding Dress or Tuxedo Jacket! That’s right, you too can outfit an entire wedding party for the next big event in scenic Moonglade on the shores of Lake Elune’ara. Ok, maybe not. But you can make fancy dresses, suits and other fun outfits. During the Feast of Winter Veil there are recipes for Green Holiday Shirts and Winter Clothes, and the Lunar Festival also had recipes as rewards for doing related quests. So if you get bored with the same old cloth armor, you can always make some lovely pink shirts for your next guild event.

Mooncloth & Moonwells

At the Artisan level of Tailoring you’ll learn how to make Mooncloth, which is used in the Mooncloth armor set as well as the Mooncloth Bag (a 16-slot bag). Mooncloth is a special kind of cloth that you create, not a type of cloth that mobs drop. In order to make mooncloth, you’ll need to purchase the recipe from Qia in Winterspring. You’ll also need 2 pieces of Felcloth, which drops from demons in Azshara, Blasted Lands, Felwood and Dire Maul. Felcloth tends to have a 2-5% drop rate, so plan on it taking some effort to collect. You’ll only be able to make it at a Moonwell so here’s a list of moonwells you can use for this purpose:

  • Temple of the Moon (Darnassus)
  • The Park (Stormwind)
  • Auberdine (Darkshore)
  • Cenarion Hold (Silithus)
  • Iris Lake (Ashenvale)
  • Thalanaar (Thousand Needles)

It’s rumored that other moonwells around the world, such as the one at Jaedenar in Felwood, can be used as well. Feel free to experiment at any moonwells you happen to run across.

Quests

Tailors get only one crafting quest – for the Shadoweave Mask at around level 50. Alliance players can speak to Jalane Ayrole at the Mage Quarter in Stormwind and Horde players should talk to Josephine Lister in the Magic Quarter of the Undercity. They will send you to Nilith Lokrav in Searing Gorge. By doing the series of quests for Nilith, you’ll receive the recipe as the final reward.

Other patterns available to Tailors are sold by various faction vendors in Azeroth and Outland. Once you have the required reputation with that group, you can purchase the recipe you need. An example is the Mooncloth Boots, which Meilosh in Felwood will teach you after you become Friendly to him and complete his quests. Finally there are several Tailoring patterns that can be gotten as a “gift” from Hermit Ortell in Silithus by giving him Twilight Texts. He sends a variety of items to you in the mail after receiving your texts, which may or may not be one of his Tailoring recipes.

On to Outland

Once you reach 300 skill in Tailoring, you’ll have to travel to Outland to visit your new trainer. Horde players can talk with Dalinna at the inn in Thrallmar and Alliance players will need to find Hama on the second floor of the Honor Hold Inn. Master Tailoring is really quite easy to level, you can get through the first 40 points by making bolts of cloth. I highly recommend you collect as much Netherweave as you can, enough for at least 20-30 bolts so you can hit 325 skill. At 325 you can reuse those same netherweave bolts for the next bolt recipe: Imbued Netherweave, which can take you all the way to 340 before it turns gray. When you reach 350 you’ll be able to learn three new cloth recipes: Primal Mooncloth, Spellcloth, and Shadowcloth from the specialty vendors in the Lower City of Shattrath. Even though the material cost is high for these new cloths, you may as well get points for making them. As with other armor professions, the last 10-15 skill points will require you to make rare/blue quality items such as the Imbued Netherweave Robe or Tunic. Good Luck!

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