Tailoring is my favourite trade skill. I have been tailoring ever since I started my main character Xanthe, and as such I like to think of myself mostly as a tailor, because of my great interest in the skill, and the amount of time I have put into it.

Added to the difficulty of raising skill, the level of the mobs that drop the required components rises in line with the quality of the armour piece. Tailoring is not for the faint hearted, there is much competition for components, and you will spend a great deal of time and money if you really want to get your skill to great heights.

This guide is a little more difficult to put together than the others, as the route you take will depend on which components you can hunt up, or buy from vendors. The table showing the route will include some items that overlap in skill level, so if you cannot get components for one item, you can try to make something else. After the table, I will go into a more in depth discussion of tactics for raising skill.

The Small Sewing Kit has 2 slots. This is pathetic, and you will not be able to make some of the more complex items (or even some of the basic ones, come to think of it). If it is at all possible, buy a Large Sewing Kit. This has 8 slots, and costs just over 1pp from a vendor.

Do not waste your money on the small kit unless you really can’t find a large one. Most cities only sell small sewing kits, but the Inn at North Ro sells the large version, as does Erudin Docks and the Shaman Guild in Halas. Doubtless there will be other places that sell them, but I have not seen them on my travels.

The third type is the Coldain Tanners Kit. This kit is required to make the Velious Leathers (Cobalt Drake, Haze Panther etc). All the basic recipes will also work in this kit, but cultural recipes (wood elf, halfling) still need the cultural kits. Coldain Tanners Kits can be bought in Thurgadin for around 12pp.

Deluxe Sewing Kits: These are no longer available in the game. At one time Large Sewing Kits became Deluxe Sewing Kits, but after people complained that it was upsetting the Backpack market they reverted back to regular Large ones. If you are lucky enough to have a Deluxe Sewing Kit you will have two extra slots to work with, which is very handy. The ONLY place you can get these kits from now, is from another player.

Velious Tailoring

With the advent of the Scars of Velious expansion pack about a year ago, a lot of new high end armour became available for tailors to make. Some of this armour is pretty damned nice, and is one reason why a lot of tailors are in the business. I get a LOT of tells in game asking me if I can make such and such a piece of armour for someone, or if they bring me enough materials for one try, can I make them a piece? A lot of other people want me to tell them exactly how to make a piece and where they can get the required materials so that they can make their own.

To these people I say the same thing: These armours are VERY VERY hard to make. If you have only materials for one try you will most likely come away with nothing. You have to work long and hard to scrape your skill up to dizzy heights of at least near 200 where you just might be able to make one piece out of 10 or maybe even 20. To get your skill up to the required 180 plus, you will probably spend from 100 to 250 thousand pp. And it's not just money, you will need at LEAST 3 months of real life time which you spend doing nothing else but tailoring and collecting materials. It is only right that you be warned beforehand, if you think you might just do a little bit of tailoring and make yourself a set of black panther armour for your twink monk. It doesn't work like that, and it is better that you don't waste your money. If you thought tailoring was bad before, think again because it only gets worse from here on in:) And for those that recognise the symptoms, yes I am a whingey high end tailor who has to explain this to at least one person every day:)

BUT for those of you with the backbone, the cash and the downright sheer stubborness to take it all the way, the results can be very rewarding. Here is the table of all the Velious tailoring, including the leathers, the silk, and the furs. ALL of these pieces trivial at 250 or greater, so there just isnt a point putting in the trivial section. It is worth listing the stats for these pieces, because when you make your attempts you might want to go for pieces you think might resell well. To save the table being cluttered, there is a link to a page with the stats after each armour type.

The In-Depth Bit

Tips

Note on Spider Silk: Whether or not you skip the Raw Silk Armour stage, you will be needing a lot of Silk Swatches (made from Spider Silk) later on for the Cured Silk stage. Any Spider Silk that you gather on your travels should be made into swatches (stackable) and stored for later use. Trying to buy large quantities of silks and swatches later on can be a pain in the arse, because everybody wants them.

The different qualities, ie. Ruined, Low Quality, Medium Quality, and High Quality are used for different types of armour. Ruined pelts make Patchwork, Low Quality makes bags and padding, Medium Quality makes Studded, and High Quality makes Reinforced.

If you have a Skinning Knife, you can use it to lower the quality of a pelt to the next quality down. For instance if I have a Medium Quality Pelt, but I want to make some Leather Padding, I can put the MQ pelt and the Skinning Knife into the sewing kit and press combine, and get back a Low Quality Pelt (aswell as my Skinning Knife). I can then use my LQ pelt to make some leather padding.

Note on HQ Bear Skins (pelts, whatever): Keep them! Don’t make reinforced armour out of them, don’t use a skinning knife on them. They are used to make Tailored Backpacks (10 slot bags) which trivial at around 87. The recipe is not here as I do not recommend using it to skill up on, as HQ bears go for 20 – 25pp on most servers and cannot be found in huge numbers. Once you can make them, they are a good source of income, but be warned you will fail a fair bit if your skill is under 80.

In Depth

Raising your skill to 26 can be done in one of two ways, or via both if you have both types of components.

The first is the silk method. First you hunt spiderlings for their silk. Spiderling Silk is different from Spider Silk, but it looks the same. Make sure you are using the right stuff. Use your Spiderling Silks to make Silk Threads. The threads stack, which will save you a lot of space. This will help you get your skill to 15. Also, if you have any Spider Silk, make this into swatches and keep it, it will also help you get to skill 15.

If you can’t get hold of Spiderling Silks, then you should hopefully be able to gather Ruined Pelts (or skins, the term varies, but you are looking for is Ruined Wolf, Ruined Cat, or Ruined Bear). Making these into Patchwork armour will take you to skill 26, and if you are still young, you can use some of the pieces to fill in empty armour slots on your character.

After 26: You can either make Raw Silk Armour, if you have Spider Silk available to be made into Swatches, or you can use Low Quality pelts and your Silk Threads and Cords to make a variety of paddings and bags. I strongly recommend that if you have the means, SKIP the Raw Silk stage, as you need to save up those precious Silk Swatches for later on.

If you insist on making raw silk, then only make the pieces that use 1 silk swatch, to conserve your resources.

LQ pelts do not always drop in great numbers, but if you have your Skinning Knife, then you can downgrade any HQ and MQ pelts that you gather. East and West Commons are a good source of Medium Quality pelts, as is Oasis (pumas, lions etc.) Leather padding trivials at 31, and can be sold to Smiths making Fine Steel Plate. Bags and such will take you up to 42.

Studded Leather requires Medium Quality pelts (wolf, cat, bear), Metal Studs (made by Smiths) and the appropriate pattern. Different armour pieces require different numbers of studs, so I have recommended making masks, as they only take 1 stud each. If you can’t get mask patterns, you could make belts, gorgets or wristbands which take 2 studs each. If you want to make your own studs, they trivial at 41 Smithing skill, but be warned, it’s a very, very boring process.

Recently, it has been reported that different pieces of the same armour type have attained their own trivial levels, rather than all pieces having the same trivial. I originally recommended making masks to take you all the way to the trivial level for Studded Leather. If it turns out that masks fall short of the listed level, I have included recipes for the rest of the armour set so you can make more complex pieces until you hit trivial.

Bearskin Potion Bags: Just a side note really, these trivial at 75 and need Grizzly Bear Skins. These seem to have been dropping more often of late, and if you don’t have enough silk to do Cured silk, or you don’t want to make loads of Heady Kiolas, then you might want to try these bags. Alternatively, if you are half way through Cured Silk and you happen to find a load of Grizzly Skins on a vendor, then it may be worth your while making a few, as the materials are right to hand. They are containers, so you will need a free main inventory slot. They are used by Shamans to make lots of 1-charge potions into a single Multi-charge potion. You can sell them on to these players, or back to the vendor, who will only give you about 1gp or something for them.

Cured Silk: This trivials at 82 and requires those Silk Swatches you saved up from earlier. It also requires Heady Kiolas made by Brewers (trivial 46, you might want to take up brewing yourself). Different armour pieces use different numbers of swatches and kiolas, the easiest piece being the mask. Masks take 1 Silk Swatch, 1 Heady Kiola and 1 Mask Pattern. If you can’t find the mask pattern, then you could try a collar, belt, or wristband, which take 1 swatch, 1 pattern, and 2 heady kiolas each.

Reinforced Leather Armour: Trivials at 108. This requires High Quality pelts (wolf, cat or bear) but I would strongly suggest that you make the HQ bears into backpacks. Not many people buy reinforced armour. Also, you will need Steel Bonings which are made by Smiths. Bonings trivial at 41 and are quick to make, so you might want to make your own. Make either Masks, Bracers or Gorgets, each of which use 1 HQ pelt, 1 Pattern, and 1 Steel Boning.

Quivers: These will take you to 115, the old skill cap. They require 1 HQ Cat pelt and 1 Quiver Pattern. Note, do not use the Fleeting Quiver pattern, as the recipe for this has not been found yet, and it won’t work with a HQ Cat pelt. The resulting Quiver is a 6 slot container that will only hold arrows. They sell back to the vendor for just over 1pp each.

Crystalline Silk: This is one of the new Velious tailoring items. It requires Crystalline Silk from spiders found in the Crystal Caverns, and less commonly in the Thurgadin Mines. 2 Crystalline Silks make 1 Swatch. Also, you will need Silver Thread, which can be bought from tailoring vendors all over the place. Different armour pieces trivial at different points in crystalline silk, as listed in the table above.

Wu's Fighting Armour: New since around 21/5/01 (when it was discovered, at least) this now allows you to get to 158 skill before you go for the big Velious Leathers. This step was heralded with much celebration from tailors, and then a swift rampage across EK to hunt spiders. Make Friends with an enchanter, as you will be needing Vials of Viscous mana. This is produced by the 12th level Enchanter Spell, Thicken Mana. It requires a Poison Vial and a Pearl to cast each one, and costs 200 mana each time. Expect to be sitting there a long long time. Still, this step is very worth it for those wanting to gain yet more skill. As I get the time I shall add a table of Enchanter spells and Mana Vial products to the end of this page to help with these more complex components.

NEWAcrylia Leathers

New, with the advent of Luclin, two sets of leathers (studded, and reinforced). Studded trivials at 188, and Reinforced above 242. They are a lot cheaper to make than Velious Leathers, as there is no temper to use, just normal water when smithing the studs and bonings, and the tannin used can be made from a cheap bark from a vendor. Some of the pieces that can be made are very nice indeed, but I would not say that this is a skill up bridge to 250.

Acrylia drops from Grimlings on Luclin, but the drop is rare/very rare. Since a recent patch, the drop rate has been reported to have decreased even further. I have hunted for Acrylia myself, and I was getting maybe 1 stacking piece and 1 Small Brick per hour, if not less. I have not yet hunted for hides, but they are reported to be dropping off Hoppers in various places on Luclin. Drop rates do not seem to be nearly as bad as Acrylia. A nice little touch for those tailors who are past Wu's, to be able to make something nice, but this is not going to be how you get to 200.

Manufactured items you may need

Useful Items you can make (for other trade skills)