Sewing up a good job takes skills, training

Sandi Perez-Lixa's clients like it when she keeps them on pins and needles. It is, the Greenwood-area seamstress says, a whole lot better than tacking up their hems with duct tape.

Pins, needles, knits, leathers and silks all are tools of the trade for Perez-Lixa — owner of Clothes Encounter and one of more than 1,000 tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers in Washington state. These specialists create custom clothing, and alter and repair garments for individual clients or retail-store customers.

"The bottom line is my job is to help people look their best," says Perez-Lixa, who has been sewing since she was 12. "I interpret what people need for their garments. A lot of times they come in with pants or skirts that they love but that they can't find on the market anymore. They know it fits and they like that style. People are real excited when I can do that for them."

Nationally, there are about a half-million sewers and sewing-machine operators who have found work despite many jobs being exported overseas in recent years. Most of these people work in large plants that mass-produce clothes and accessories.

Custom sewers such as Perez-Lixa are a comparatively small thread in the overall fabric of the apparel work force, but insiders say it's work that may offer opportunity — particularly because fewer people know how to sew these days.

"There was a time in history when most people learned to sew from their mothers or their grandmothers, and there were home-ec programs in high school," says Camila Sigelmann, instructor at Seattle Central Community College's (SCCC) apparel-design program.

"That whole art is disappearing. We were finding that students weren't coming into our program with sewing skills that were up to par. That's one of the things we've had to respond to as a program."

Today, some technical schools and community colleges offer custom sewing classes in their continuing-education courses. Select outlets of some fabrics retailers — including Jo-Ann Etc. and Pacific Fabrics & Crafts — offer introductory to advanced sewing classes, too. Some custom sewers, such as Perez-Lixa, offer private classes, as well.

Technical schools and community colleges, meanwhile, include sewing classes as part of their broader and extensive 18-month, full-time apparel-design programs.

National labor figures show more than a third of sewers are self-employed, but apparel and accessory stores offer the greatest job opportunity in sewing and apparel design.

"I would say that students with the type of training we offer would more likely end up working for a clothing manufacturer rather than a retailer," Sigelmann said.

And while some experienced custom seamstresses do open their own business, instructors say the field is competitive and recommend students spend several years working for a company before embarking on their own.

"Most of our students want to become apparel designers. That's what we're training them to do," says Seattle Art Institute School of Fashion academic director Laura Portolese-Dias. "But in apparel design, you need to understand sewing."

Since many students have no sewing or pattern-making skills, classes guide them through zippers, pockets, collars and buttonholes.

"Sewing is integral all the way through our program," says SCCC apparel instructor Hisako Nakaya. "It's complemented with pattern-making, pattern grading. It's very focused on computer skills because these days it's much more technical work."

Indeed, custom sewing is about half-technical and half-creative, Portolese-Dias says.

"The artistic part comes at the beginning, when you're conceptualizing and putting it on paper," she says. "Computers make this much easier, but it's still important to have those artistic skills. Some people say 'I'm not an artist. I can't draw.' But through the computer, they find it's much easier."

Even with computer design and computerized sewing machines, the work is still very hands-on. Vibrant and subdued shades of fabric — from cottons and knits to leathers and satins — give many tailors and seamstresses a variety of work.

For the most part, these specialists work five-day, 40-hour weeks. Extra hours are often needed for tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers trying to meet clients' deadlines.

"A lot of people mistakenly believe that fashion design is fluffy, that it's only about figuring out what to wear," Portolese-Dias says.

"But it really takes a lot of intelligence. You have to be about to put your ideas down on paper and then create something from that paper. It also takes a lot of business sense and interaction with other professionals in the industry."

With these skills, some apparel designers, including Perez-Lixa, use their sewing specialty to stitch together work as seamstresses or tailors.

"This is a serious business. It's not just one where you get a sewing machine and open a shop," Perez-Lixa says. "There's a responsibility when you make people's special clothes."

By offering custom clothing work and alterations in the same shop, Perez-Lixa says, she's made her business successful.

"You can't survive on just fixing hems and zippers," she says.

Nationally, the average hourly wage for tailors, seamstresses and custom sewers is about $10 an hour. In Washington state, the hourly wage typically ranges from $8.71 to $13.62, according to the state Employment Security Department.

Some experienced custom seamstresses do open their own business, yet all three instructors say the field is competitive and recommend students spend several years working for a company before embarking on their own.

Yet even with top sewing skills, apparel workers' may face declining employment opportunities. If consumers continue to buy new, mass-produced apparel instead of ordering custom-made or altered and repaired clothes, this niche will see fewer jobs.

But Portolese-Dias remains optimistic.

"People are always going to need clothes," Portolese-Dias says. "It may not experience tremendous employment growth, but there's always going to be a need. When we're not feeling good, or even when the economy isn't going so well, we're still going to go shopping. Sometimes it's something psychological that makes us feel better."