Daily AncestorTailoress
A tailoress was a woman tailor, usually sewing men's coats, vests and trousers rather than women's dresses.
Tailors made and altered fitted clothing, especially suits and men's wear, and many employed women to sew parts of garments. A tailoress might work in the shop or take pieces home, being paid by the piece.
The difference matters: a dressmaker or mantua maker made women's clothing, while a tailoress worked in the tailoring trade. The word is now rare and counted as dated.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Catharine Ott, 26, Tailoress, Penn.
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Daily Ancestor. "Tailoress." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/tailoress. Last checked 2026-10-01.