First let me say that Tailoring is a very difficult skill to raise in both time spent and platinum invested in the trade. However, it is a great moneymaker once you get it high enough. It is not totally out of whack like many people think; it's just harder than other skills. Of all my skills, tailoring is the one I'm most proud of. Consult with my Tailoring Recipe Charts for additional information.
When do things become trivial?
Silk Swatch: 17
Patchwork: 26
Raw Silk: 39
Studded: 57 (68 pre patch)
Cured Silk: 82
Wu's Fighting Gauntlets: 88
Backpacks: 88 (90 pre patch)
Reinforced: 108 (122 pre patch)
There are no recipes for Quivers and Fleeting Quivers despite the patterns being available. The book also has no recipe for Reinforced Leather Wristbands but they can be made using 1 steel boning. Studded tunics, Cloak, Shoulder, and Belt are broken. Reinforced Masks are broken. I sure hope someone from Verant reads this and decides to get off their lazy rump and repair these. They have been broken way too long.
AC and weights (Patchwork, Studded, and Reinforced are all medium armor wt)
Boots:
Patchwork: AC 3, wt 2.5
Studded: AC 4, wt 2.5
Reinforced: AC 5, wt 2.5
Raw Silk: AC 3, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 4, wt 0.1
Cap (wt 0.6):
Patchwork: AC 3, wt 0.6
Studded: AC 5, wt 0.6
Reinforced: AC 6, wt 0.6
Raw Silk: AC 3, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 4, wt 0.1
Gloves
Patchwork: AC 3, wt 1.5
Studded: AC 4, wt 1.5
Reinforced: AC 5, wt 1.5
Raw Silk: AC 3, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 4, wt 0.1
Wu's Fighting Gauntlets: AC 4, wt 0.1, emits light, magic
Gorget
Patchwork: AC 2, wt 0.5
Studded: AC 3, wt 0.5
Reinforced: AC 4, wt 0.5
Raw Silk: AC 2, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 2, wt 0.1
Pants
Patchwork: AC 4, wt 3.0
Studded: AC 5, wt 3.0
Reinforced: AC 6, wt 3.0
Raw Silk: AC 4, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 5, wt 0.1
Sleeves
Patchwork: AC 3, wt 1.5
Studded: AC 4, wt 1.5
Reinforced: AC 5, wt 1.5
Raw Silk: AC 3, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 4, wt 0.1
Tunic
Patchwork: AC 6, wt 4.4
Studded: BROKEN
Reinforced: AC 11, wt 3.5
Raw Silk: AC 6, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 8, wt 0.1
Cloak
Patchwork: ?
Studded: BROKEN
Reinforced: AC 5, wt 2.0
Raw Silk: AC 3, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 4, wt 0.1
Belt
Patchwork: ?
Studded: BROKEN
Reinforced: AC 4, wt 1.0
Raw Silk: AC 2, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 3, wt 0.1
Shoulder
Patchwork: ?
Studded: BROKEN
Reinforced: AC 4, wt 1.5
Raw Silk: AC 2, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 3, wt 0.1
Mask
Patchwork: ?
Studded: AC 1, wt 0.4
Reinforced: BROKEN
Raw Silk: AC 2, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 2, wt 0.1
Wrist
Patchwork: AC 2, wt 1.0
Studded: AC 3, wt 1.0
Reinforced: AC 4, wt 1.0
Raw Silk: AC 2, wt 0.4
Cured Silk: AC 3, wt 0.1
To become a successful tailor you must also become a blacksmith, a brewer, and a potter. The best class to be for tailoring is either a Wizard or Druid because you do a LOT of traveling; wizards and druids can teleport themselves all over.
The first step to tailoring is working on patchwork and silk swatches. I'd recommend carrying your sewing kit and a whole bunch of gorget patterns. Go kill spiders for spider silk and wolves, bears, and lions for their ruined skins. As soon as you collect 2 spider silks, combine them to make a swatch and save these; they are lightweight (0.1) and stackable. Also, as soon as you get a ruined skin, go ahead and combine it with a pattern to make patchwork. You may also get lucky and find a store stocked with spider silks or ruined pelts. You will get more success with silk swatches but ruined pelts are more plentiful than spider silks. Sell the patchwork back to the merchants as soon as you come across one; they are not that heavy (wt 0.5 for gorgets) but they don't stack and take up valuable inventory space.
Once Patchwork becomes trivial you need to move to raw silk armor. Here is where you begin to realize your first real, albeit minor, profit in tailoring. You need to kill spiders, spiders, and more spiders. Kill all kinds of spiders (except spiderlings, cause spiderling silk is no good) and make silk swatches with their silk. Spiders are found in many zones but I have seen most concentrations of spiders in the Karanas (West, East, and North), the Commons, North and South Ro, and the Oasis. West Karanas may be safest to hunt spiders but beware of bandits. East Karanas has lots of higher level lions and North Karanas has level 30+ griffons, griffenes, etc that will all attack you. It would be a shame to die while out hunting pelt or silk, so always be aware of what's around you. If you're familiar with Upper Guk, there is a nice concentration of heart spiders but they will train so only go there if you're familiar with the zone. Now that you've collected lots of silk swatches you can make as much raw silk as you want. All pieces of raw silk become trivial at the same time so I believe that there is no difference in the difficulty of making various pieces. Pants and Tunics require 2 silk swatches; everything else requires one. Only attempt the leggings or tunics if you have an order for them or you're trying to make some to sell otherwise it's a waste of 2 silk swatches where you could be making 2 separate attempts at skill increase. Continue making raw silk armor until the skill becomes trivial.
Now you're ready for the dreaded studded armor. There is no profit in studded and it is VERY time consuming and costs a lot of platinum, but is needed to advance your skill in tailoring to get to cured silk armor, your new best moneymaker.
To make studded armor you need medium pelts. The best place I found for medium pelts is in the deserts of Ro, the Oasis, and the Commons. Pumas and plains cats give both puma skins and medium quality pelts. I found about 1 in 4 pumas will yield a medium pelt. If you're lucky you can find a merchant loaded with medium pelts. Check the Inn and Fishing Village in N. Ro, the Gypsy Merchants and the Inn in Oasis (near P2), and the inns in East and West Commons. The Freeport area is a good place to work on studded because of the availability of medium quality pelts nearby and ore for blacksmithing the studs. First you need to make metal bits (requires 1 water and 2 ores). I found the best way to go about it is to empty out all of your backpacks, buy 200 waters and 400 small ores (all stackable). This will make 200 metal bits if you have no failures, but realistically expect around 180-190. Once you have these metal bits, buy 1 water per 3 metal bits and make studs. This may yield about 50 studs (these do not stack). Take your studs and large sewing kit and mask patterns (buy 1 pattern for every stud) and move to the deserts to find your pelts. Before the mask patterns were available I had to make gorgets, which required 2 studs per pattern. Masks only require 1 stud so with 50 studs you should get about 10-15 skill increases depending on intellect. Studded used to trivial out at 68 but now I believe it becomes trivial at 57, and since it now only requires 1 stud per attempt, I recommend you continue studded till it trivials out.
If you've reached this point, you're now ready to make Cured Silk. Yay! Cured silk armor requires a pattern, silk swatches, and Heady Kiola, which is a brewer-made item. Heady kiola becomes trivial for brewers at a skill of 46 and all components can be found in most taverns. There is usually a still nearby as well. Wouldn't it be so nice to have everything in one place like jewelers, blacksmiths, brewers, and fletchers? Heady kiola requires 2 kiola saps, 1 bottle, and 1 flask of water (all items are stackable, how nice). The kiola is also stackable so you can make a bunch at once, make tons of silk swatches, then make cured silk. Masks require only 1 kiola and 1 silk swatch so these would be the best bet for skill increase. I suggest not attempting any other items until you feel more confident in your success rate otherwise you lose too much. Your tailoring skill will peak at 82 from what I've heard (my skill was well beyond this prior to the tailoring patch).
Ok, let's review. You've done silk swatches, patchwork, raw silk, studded, and now cured silk. It's time for (drum roll please) Reinforced Leather Armor! To make Reinforced you need steel boning. This becomes trivial at 41 for blacksmiths but I raised my blacksmithing much higher and I think it helped my success rate for making steel boning. To make steel boning you need one brick of ore, 1 water, and 1 file. The file is reusable. If you can't find a file for sale by a merchant, you'll have to make one. To make a file buy a scaler mold, make some metal bits, and combine the mold, 1 metal bits, and 1 flask of water in the forge. You'll get a larger container mold and a file. Sell the mold, keep the file. Like I did for studded, I empty out all my backpacks and buy about 40 waters, and go buy as many ores as I can hold (they do not stack). Ores are VERY heavy (wt 15.0) and you will be so encumbered that you cannot walk so you may want to reset your bind to right next to the forge, otherwise only buy maybe 1 backpack full at a time. Then slowly move from the merchant to the forge and make your steel boning. Once you get a bunch of steel boning pack up a bunch of patterns. I suggest to work on your skill by making either wristbands or gorgets. Both require only 1 steel boning. Buy 1 of each pattern per steel boning made. Now it's time to find High Quality Pelts. These are very abundant in the Karanas, so head to West Karana and check out the village merchants there. Try the small village near Qeynos Hills and the one near T2. If these are empty I found a nice supply in North Karana at the Gypsy camp and also in East karana at the village near the Beholder zone (Gorge) entrance and the village to the right as you come off the wooden bridge at the fork in the road. I've also found some in Oasis, North Ro, and the Commons. Again you can see how much traveling you need to do. Reinforced became trivial for me at 122 but I think after the patch the highest you can get is 108 (not certain about that).
Cured silk armor will be your best consistent moneymaker so I suggest working your skill up to at least 90 in order to have a good success rate at making cured silk armor. Wu's Fighting Gauntlets and Backpacks become trivial at 88 (was 90 for backpacks pre-patch), so you can begin to make these with good success as you approach skill 88. Wu's Gauntlets and the 10 slot backpacks will be your best single item moneymakers. I sell wu's for 50pp and the backpacks for 50pp as well. I highly recommend that you not attempt to raise skill by making wu's or backpacks; there is too much to lose when you fail.
To make wu's, you need to be a potter (or buy poison vials from one). Wu's requires 1 glove pattern, 1 silk swatch, 1 vial of viscous mana, 1 greater lightstone, and 4 heady kiola. An enchanter using a poison vial and a pearl makes the vial of viscous mana with a spell that requires 200 mana, so unless you have an enchanter friend who will be happy to convert these for you, be prepared to pay them several plat for each one they make.
Save all of your High Quality Bear Skins till you get your skill in tailoring up real high (80+). HQ Bear Skins come off Black and Brown bears only. Grizzly and Kodiak bears will yield Grizzly Skins. I'm not so sure about young kodiaks but I don't think they drop quality skins either. The best concentrations of black and brown bears are in West Karana, Rathe Mountains, and the Commons. Usually in these zones you can pick up some by auctioning for them and paying a respectable price (5-10pp). Once I get a bunch of HQ Bear skins, I'll take my sewing kit, patterns, and skins to a high level zone such as Mistmoore, Lower Guk, Sol A, Sol B, and even butcherblock, etc. and auction. If you try to auction a 10 slot backpack in a low level zone for 50pp everyone will laugh at you. This item is for the high level rich people. They acquire a lot of items and desperately need more room to store it. Usually when I find a buyer they want 8-10 at a time. 8 for their bank vault and 2 to carry. So if your skill in tailoring is low and you risk losing a HQ bear skin to make a backpack, chances are you will fail and that is a potential 50pp you just threw away; 4 failures is 200 plat down the drain.
Good tailors can rake in the profits making cured silk armor, wu's gauntlets, backpacks, and yes, reinforced armor. I make Reinforced Leggings, Sleeves, Gloves, and Tunics and sell them for 10pp each. Your best customers are Druids; they can only wear leather and Reinforced is better than the best leather they can buy. There are much better things they can wear at higher levels though, so your target is the mid level druids who don't mind spending 10pp. I cater to mostly level 15-30 druids and best places to sell are in Greater Fay and the Karanas. Caps, Boots, and Gorgets don't sell that well cause there are other items such as Savant's cap, Bearhide boots, and Studded Leather Gorget (from Blackburrow) that's easier to get and cost less. Sometimes I come across some people who want reinforced for status (few people have it cause there's not many high level tailors around). There are so few tailors who can make reinforced as many give up at lower skill levels. I am one of the few master tailors on my server (xegony).
Tailors also make shadow silk which is required for Necromancer quests from the Temple of Solusek Ro. There are 3 different types to make: Shadow silk, Large shadow silk, and Inky Shadow Silk. Shadow silk requires 1 silk swatch, 1 shadow wolf pelt, and 1 scroll of gather shadows (purchased from a necro guild). Large shadow silk requires 2 pelts, 1 scroll, and 1 swatch. Inky shadow silk requires 1 pelt, 2 scrolls, and 1 swatch. I don't make these and go around finding necros who need them, but many have sought me out and I've made it for free if they brought the items to me. Most give me a nice tip even though I don't charge. It's also trivial for me at 122 so I have no idea when these become trivial. I've seen shadow wolves in south karana, the commons, and nektulos forest. I'm sure they can be found in many other zones but I've never really kept an eye out for them.
Now it's time for me to divulge my little known method of finding 'hidden' items on merchants. This isn't really part of the tailoring skill but it sure helps when you're hunting for those spider silks, medium and high quality pelts. When you add an item to your inventory it goes into your first available slot UNLESS the item is stackable AND you have some already in inventory. The same goes for merchants, except it doesn't matter if the item is stackable or not. Somewhere in the code there is merely a listing of what items the merchant has and how many; it doesn't matter if the item stacks or not. Merchants usually have more items in their inventory than are displayed (unless, of course, you are checking not long after the server comes up). If you buy an item from a merchant and it empties out a slot, when you click 'done' then click on the merchant again, you'll see that empty slot gone (if he has more items). All other items shift up one slot and the bottom slot becomes filled with something else he had in inventory but was not displayed. But, before you go buying everything a merchant has you need to know if he has anything of what you want to buy already in his inventory. Here's how you do it. (I recommend you boost your charisma up as high as possible before attempting this). Suppose you want to see if he has any spider silks on him. Buy out all of his cheapest item, preferably something that's stackable like lion meat, in order to clear out a slot from the merchant. Before you click done, sell him one spider silk. If the silk appears in the slot you just emptied that means he has none of those in his entire inventory so just buy it back and sell back all the stuff you just bought. However, if you see an empty slot and sell him a silk and it DOES NOT APPEAR right after you sell it, that means he has AT LEAST ONE already in his inventory. But how can you tell if he has only one more of the item or 100 more? It really depends on how long the server has been up? When was the last time the server went down for maintenance? If it's been several days there's a good chance the merchant has quite a few of the item you want. Now comes the arduous task of buying things from him in order to clear out enough to be able to buy out his inventory of spider silks. If your charisma is high, you can buy meats, pelts etc for the same prices you sell them back, hence you lose nothing. But the higher price on the item the more you stand to lose. Your inventory will also become full from the stuff you buy, so maybe if you can find another merchant nearby who definitely doesn't have the item you want, buy from one merchant and sell everything to the other. Once you clear out 1 or 2 slots you need to click 'done' then click back to the merchant to see if the item you're interested in has appeared in his display. If it does not appear right away, keep doing it. But be warned: you stand to lose a lot of platinum this way. Use this method only when desperate or you have a lot of plats to lose. However sometimes you can get lucky and have the item appear in his inventory by clearing out only a few items. I once lost over 40pp doing this but I hit the jackpot and was able to buy over 150 spider silks from one merchant (I had orders for 4 complete sets of cured silk armor at the time and got tired of killing spiders). Consider it a bonus you pay for him holding the item exclusively for you. Heh.
With the latest patch, tailoring has become very profitable and I've found many more tailors than ever before. I have enjoyed the skill and have made great profits from it but now as my wizard approaches level 50, I've had to retire from tailoring; it has become too time consuming for me to continue.
Good luck to everyone.
Xekl Xephyre
Level 49 Wizard
Xegony