Tailoring is, surprisingly, a frequently ignored skill in Zomboid, but that's more down to the lack of descriptiveness in regards to the skill's name. After all, you've got more important things to be doing to survive than sewing clothes together. However, what many people don't realize is that tailoring is, bar none the most absolutely BROKEN skill in Zomboid because, when done right, you can get nearly total protection from scratches and lacerations and get really good protection from bites.

Character creation is not a difficult aspect to cover in this guide, as there is only one thing to cover that impacts tailoring, and that's the Sewer trait, which gives you a free level in tailoring, along with a permanent +75% boost to your skill gains from Tailoring, which is ultimately necessary to reduce the material usage and time to actually grind

Aside from fitting Sewer into your build, you can literally play the game however you want with whatever build you please. This section doesn't matter too much.

As with my previous guides, there is a checklist of things to keep an eye out for once you spawn in and are all set up. The first thing that should be on your list is a needle, which you need to do anything related to tailoring, followed by scissors for cutting up leather and denim items, thread, and the Tailoring books. Lastly, you'll need a piece of clothing that covers a significant portion of your body, namely Long Johns or Coveralls. If you can't find either of those two, find an Apron, Leather Jacket, or pair of Overalls.

There are also two VHS tapes to keep an eye out for, and these are Granny Nani and Tailoring 101, though as these are Home VHS and not Retail VHS tapes, these are significantly rarer and harder to come across, as they have a much lower chance of spawning on any VHS container, and as such, shouldn't be what you're waiting on to find to start working.

Early game, you're not going to have much space to carry clothes around for tailoring, so a good habit to get into is stripping zombies naked and leaving their clothes on the floor to collect later, which also has the benefit of not losing the clothes when the zombies decompose into skeletons.

Once you're actually set up and have read the relevant Tailoring book, collect the clothes you've found, put them in a big pile, and start ripping them up. This will give you small amounts of thread that increases as you level up Tailoring, as well as the essential materials you need to use Tailoring, namely Ripped Sheets, Denim Strips, and Leather Strips. If you found a pair of Long Johns, Coveralls, an Apron, or Overalls, make sure you either favorite it if it's in your inventory or just set it in a container far away from your clothes pile so that it doesn't get shredded accidentally.

Once the pile has been reduced to scrap, take one of those listed items that I said to set aside, right click on it in your inventory, and select 'Inspect'. This will open up the Tailoring UI. Right click one of the listed bodyparts and click 'Patch All with Ripped Sheets,' and then wait. Once your character is done sewing, remove the patches. Repeat these steps as necessary until you've reached Level 10 Tailoring.

Once you've finally reached Level 10 Tailoring, you can finally use that stockpile of Leather Strips you've gotten from grinding and put them to good use. Those patches that you've been sewing may seem like they provide negligible benefits to defense, and while that is largely true at the lower levels, at max Tailoring, one patch of Leather will provide you with 10% Bite Protection, 20% Scratch Protection, and 10% Bullet Protection on that bodypart. You may have also noticed that you can wear multiple different layers of clothing at once.

You can see where this is going.

When it comes to making an armored suit with Tailoring, you need to understand that Layering is the name of the game. You want as few articles of clothing as possible to cover as much of the body as possible for the least insulation so you don't overheat and die. This section will cover each part of the body and what to wear to give you the maximum amount of protection.

You can't tailor your headwear, so you want a helmet with the maximum protection for the least insulation. Your choices here are the Hockey Helmet, Jockey Helmet, and the Riding Helmet. Older guides may suggest the Motorcycle Helmet, as it gives you Neck protection, however, this is no longer true, and you can ignore the Motorcycle Helmet since it's hot as hell anyways.

Aside from your arms, your neck is the most important part of your body to protect, and unfortunately, one of the hardest to do so with. Your options are basically limited to scarves, necked jackets, and necked sweaters. The blue scarf provides the least insulation, and as far as the other two choices go, you're basically SOL as far as insulation goes, since any option that protects the neck is stupidly hot to wear.

The torso isn't hard to protect. You'll basically want to wear the Long-Sleeve T-Shirt, Short Sleeve Shirt, and the Hawaiian Shirt, and the Apron, and that should basically keep you set as everything else will bring you up to 100% scratch protection. If you want more coverage and defense, wear a Leather Jacket instead of the Apron, though be warned that the Jacket is hot as hell. A viable alternative to the Leather Jacket is the Military Jacket, as it provides some base defense and isn't as warm, at the cost of coverage.

If it's got sleeves, then it protects your arms. Refer to the Torso section.

Wear Leather Gloves, and that's about all you can do to protect your hands.

Overalls are what you should be wearing in your pants slot, as they have innate protection and fully cover your legs and torso. For extra protection on your calves and your feet, wear the Long Socks.

Wear Military Boots and Long Socks.

Wear Long Johns. They cover every single part of your body except your hands and feet from the neck down, and can be worn under everything.

Congratulations, if your suit is made correctly, you're basically impervious to scratches and have extremely strong protection against bites. Just don't get cocky, a bad roll on an attack can get you bit anyways, and damaged clothing provides no defense on that body part. Keep your clothes patched, keep zombies as far away as possible, and you'll be just fine.