Tailor Crafting in LOTRO - How to Get a Great Tan

1. Find a Master/Mistress of Apprentices

Speak to a Master or Mistress of Apprentices in order to start a crafting profession. They are also the ones who can help you drop a profession to take up a new one.

2. Select the Tailor Profession

From the options presented, select Tailor. You will see one of three types of wording:

• Learn: if you have no crafting abilities right now, then you will simply “Learn” one.
• Add: You have at least one other profession, but not the maximum number. You can “Add” to your professions and begin sewing and stitching.
• Forget a Crafting Profession and Learn: You have the maximum number of professions. In this case, you will have to totally forget one to pick up tailor crafting. Do this carefully, as you will lose all progress on the dropped profession, even if you pick it back up later.

3. Do the Tutorial

All the gathering and crafting professions have a tutorial. While it is optional, if you’re new to LOTRO it helps you become familiar with the tools and crafting facilities you need.

Plus, you generally get a free item out of it as well as your starter tools.

Given there are only three traditional gathering professions in LOTRO, the one most suited to the task is the Forester profession.

It is ideally suited to Tailor because:

1. It processes collected hides into leathers.
2. You can find other tailor-related items while chopping wood in the wilds.
3. Some crafted Tailor tools cover both Forester and in the one item.

• The physical preparation of materials for a Tailor relates to treating animals hides. Hides are turned into leathers by Foresters. The same applies when you need to create extra-strong leathers for specialist recipes. (See: Waxed and Glazed Leathers)
• Some homestead decorations may require wood (Red Canopy Bed). As a bonus, Forester sometimes has its own decoration recipes (e.g. Log-Holder).
• Both Foresters and Tailors share the same crafting facility, the Workbench. This means no to-ing and fro-ing across whichever craft hall you’re in.
• Prospector (Mining) won’t give you the critical chance items required by the Tailoring crafting profession.

Did you over-indulge in the LOTRO Forester event, per chance?

Do you have a slot or two still to spare? Then look at what else you could make for yourself. Here are a few starting points:

• If you’re a Hunter, then become a Woodworker. That way you can craft your bow and potentially both of your melée weapons.
• Warden Spears and Javelins are created with wood, as are Warden Carvings.
• Other Light Armour classes will find Woodworker complements Tailoring: for example, by making Lore-master staves and Minstrel instruments.
• For all Classes, becoming a Jeweller is a benefit. This is because you can make seven, and sometimes eight, pieces of gear with it. Though, you would need to take up Prospecting, either on that character or another.
• Take a look at Scholar crafting. With it, you can create scrolls that improve your crafting and combat abilities. If you’re a Hunter, then Scholars make fire- and light-oils for your arrows. Scholar is an all-encompassing gathering and crafting profession.
• Take up Farming or Cooking to help create foods that help you in battle.

Here is a summary list of the types of ingredients you may need as a Tailor in LOTRO:

• Leathers, made from animal hides (See other example Hides).
• Wax, when making stronger leather (See Glazed Leathers)
• Bolts of Cloth and/or Spools of Thread from suppliers.
• Optional: an ingredient to increase your critical chance.
• Ingredients for Special Recipes:
  • Shards (There are various types of these).
  • Other Rare Components.
• Guild Items (More on the Tailors Guild here)

Obviously, not all recipes will need all of these! But as you get deeper into the game or unlock rarer recipes, needing four or even five ingredients is not uncommon.

Example Hides

Each tier has its own “grade” of hide and leather. The creatures in some regions may drop different grades depending on the level of the animal they drop from.

Though the idea of a dead defeated creature automatically dropping its skin is kinda gross if you think about it. Actually, don’t think about it.

	Light Hide (Apprentice)
	Medium Hide (Journeyman)
	Sturdy Hide (Expert)

Wax and Glazed Leathers

Wax is used to reinforce leathers. This is a process that Foresters do, and is often referred to as Glazing.

The Glazing Process

The process of glazing is usually along these lines:

1. Create Brushed Leather.
2. Take 2 × Brushed Leather and 1 × Wax to make a Glazed Leather.
3. Take 2 × Glazed Leather and 1 × Wax to make a Finished Leather.

Where do I Get Lumps of Wax?

You have to purchase these from a Supplier NPC. For some reason, LOTRO never put Tailor/Forester ingredients on the Apprentice and Expert Tailor NPCs.

There are varying grades of Wax, but for the first few tiers, good old Lumps of Wax for a few copper coins are all you need.

As we’ve already seen, wax comes from Suppliers. But that’s not the only ingredient you acquire this way – and you almost always need to purchase components. Why?

The Tailor crafting profession’s main focus is clothing – a word with “cloth” in it. But, unlike other MMOs, you do not harvest fabric-making plants in LOTRO. We cannot be spinners or weaver – in LOTRO those titles are reserved for spiders!

The closest plant is uncovering flax, which you implausibly find inside fallen branches.

So, you provide the animal skins (converted to leathers), but the actual cloth and thread comes from vendors. Just see it as supporting local businesses.

You can find the full list of suppliers on the Wiki. And you can find their list of wares at https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/NPC_Supplier.

Tired of Carrying so Much in Your Bags?

I went through all of LOTRO’s storage options to find the best value for money.

Here’s what I found – I hope it helps you manage all those resources!

• Inferior Tailor’s Tools: Free from the Tailor Tutorial
• Tailor’s Tools: 2× from a Supplier or an Novice/Expert Tailor NPC
• Crafted: Metalsmiths can craft multi-tools that cover some crafting and gathering professions in one item. Tailoring features in a few types:
  • Tools of the … Explorer
  • Tools of the … Yeoman
  • Tools of the … Armourer
• LOTRO Store:
  • Universal Toolkit: ×150 and may also appear in Valar packages, depending which one you have used. The Wiki page I’ve linked to shows a few other sources.
  • Enduring Universal Toolkit: ×450
  • Certain expansion purchases may contain universal tools

Also, apologies for the repetition of words here. Unfortunately, when the name says what the item is, repetition is inevitable.

The crafted multitools are named from the old crafting professions. At the date of writing (February 2024), these have not been renamed, nor split into their component professions.

However, they are still far more durable than the NPC-purchased one. And it means you only need to carry one item to cover two or three professions, depending on which ones you have unlocked.

Comparing Tools

So here we see:

• The Inferior tool only has 30 Durability and is Brittle. So, it’ll wear out quite quickly.
• Both the “regular” Tailor’s Tools and the Universal Toolkit have 45 Durability. But the Universal one is marked as Substantial rather than Normal. This means it takes longer to use up the 45 points.

If you pick up the Town Services from Wenda Cranesbill, you also get your Subscriber’s Jug. This means none of your gear uses durability (so long as you remember to use your Jug!).

As this includes crafting/gathering tools, you need only think about the other stats your tool provides.

If you’re a VIP, the only bonus of the Enduring Universal Toolkit is a reduction of gathering time by an additional 1½ seconds.

How to Get Tailor Recipes & Scroll Cases

Here is a summary list of places or sources. However, I have explained these in more detail on my main crafting guide under Where to Get Crafting Recipes.

• Auto-Unlocks
  When you first unlock a tier of tailor crafting, that tier will have a few recipes in it to start off with. At higher tiers that number dwindles.
• Defeated Humanoids
  Humans, Orcs, Goblins, Uruks and even Trolls (I think), can drop scroll cases. They won’t always drop Tailor Crafting Scrolls, but they can.
• Lockboxes
  On-landscape lockboxes (or crates, or similar description) can sometimes contain scroll cases.
• Reputation Vendors
  Depending on your Reputation, some factions may offer crafting recipes. My example image here is from the Rangers of Esteldin.
• Skirmish Camps
  Not simply for training your Skirmish Soldier, you can spend your Marks for Scroll Cases too.
• Repeatable Quests
  In a small number of regions, you can be awarded Scroll Cases for repeatable quests. See my main crafting guide for more information.
• The Tailors Guild
  I’ll cover this in more detail shortly, but the Tailors Guild in Esteldin is a great source of recipes that help you create really strong armour.

What’s a Scroll Case?

It’s a container that picks a random recipe from the tier and profession indicated in the description.

North Downs Recipe Example

You won’t get access to all recipes straight away. But as you rise up in a faction, they will open up to you.

In this case – you had better start on those North Downs deeds!

Appearance

Stats

• +19 Agility
• +9 Vitality
• +70 Physical Mastery

Appearance

Stats

• +19 Agility
• +9 Vitality
• +82 Physical Mitigation

Appearance

Stats

• +18 Agility
• +7 Vitality
• +55 Physical Mastery
• +46 Critical Rating

So, multi-recipes are great for customising your gearing, but also for making new cosmetics. I have chosen a guild recipe here, but the L25 “Outrider’s Amour” is a non-guild recipe and gives similar appearance differences.

For tailors that means “go and hunt wild creatures for their skins”. But you can also use Forestry, and cut some wood to try and find Flax Fibres.

If you’ve just started crafting, then here are a couple of links to help you find your Light and Medium hides.

• Light Hides in the Shire
• Medium Hides in the Shire

You may find some available on the Auction House, but if you’re new-ish to LOTRO, then you may find yourself priced out. Joining a Kin may help you get established in crafting. Then, when another newer player joins you, you can help them out, too.

The Workbench is both the Forester and the Tailor’s crafting facility. A good, unexciting-looking table. A table you’ll ignore, because you have a hide stretcher.

A table you’ll ignore because you have a magic “pocket table” that you use when doing your sewing.

But you have to be near the Workbench to create your items. So there’s that.

Pro-tip: If your Forester and Tailor are on different characters, save yourself some time by keeping both are near a workbench for your crafting session. No matter how much you plan, suddenly needing more leathers or extra glazing happens!

3. Choose Your Crafting Recipe

…and make sure you have all the materials! Some may need purchasing from an NPC vendor called a “Supplier”.

Once you’ve chosen you’re recipe, you will need to figure out how many of each ingredient your recipe needs. This is especially important for hides.

4. Process Hides

For Apprentice and Journeyman Tailor, you only have to think about brushed leathers. But from Expert onwards, you may need to consider glazed leathers.

And you have to hope you collected enough hides for the task!

5. Critical Chance?

Now you have your hides and the crafting character has them, it’s time to make your item. Almost.

Now, check whether you have “critical chance” unlocked for your tier. This is available once the bronze Crafting XP bar has filled up.

If you do, then make sure your Flax Fibres (the right grade for the right tier), or Universal Optional Ingredients are in your bags.

They can also be in carry-alls, if the carry-alls are in your bags.

More on Critical Chance →

6. Choose an option if it’s a multi-recipe

Remember that all “stat gear” can be used to make cosmetic outfits too. This is especially true if you have the Wardrobe unlocked.

If you don’t mind what it looks like (because you have Festival Cosmetic Outfits, or something else far more fashionable on already), then decide which stats you want to improve.

Critical Chance is the probability that you will make a better item than the standard one. You can increase or even guarantee your Critical Chance using certain other ingredients. The crafting panel will tell you what possible critical outcomes are possible for your recipe.

Critical Chance Items for Tailor Crafting

Here are some example items that increate your critical chance:

• Common Flax Fibre (Apprentice)
• Bree Flax Fibre (Journeyman)
• Universal Optional Crafting Ingredient (this item guarantees a critical/improved version. It is consumed on use, but you can get one free/week by completing weekly quest The Tasks at Hand).

Flax is a type of plant that, if grown and processed correctly, can be used in the production of linen. It is apparently, one of the oldest textile fibres in our history.

Decorations

While there are not that many, Tailors can craft a few decorations. Usually these are rugs and tapestries. But this Rangers of Esteldín bed is an exception to that rule!

See all Tailor deco recipes on the Wiki

Captain Herald Armaments

These items allow Captains to change the kind of companion/pet they have with them. These also include buffs for their herald.

Captain Standards

Captains can stand up a Standard (Banner) in battle. These create an area that benefits allies, or weakens enemies.

Burglar Tools (and Signals)

These are items for sneaky hobbitses, or any other races! Early ones reduce the power cost of Burglar abilities.

Later, Signals have various effects in Fellowships.

Rune-keeper Satchels

Rune-keepers need to keep their engraved lumps of rock somewhere.

But they’re not just for storage. Satchels grant Rune-keepers bonuses to different attack types.

To join the Tailors Guild you must:

1. Be proficient as an Expert Tailor (Tier 3)
2. Find a Master of Crafting Guilds somewhere in Middle-Earth and speak with them.

Speak to whichever one you find. When you’re asked “Do you want to join the Tailor’s Guild”, your answer is “Train”.

Follow the Quest

The Master of Crafting Guilds will have an introductory quest for you. You will need to complete this to finalise your membership of the Tailors Guild.

Ignore the fact that, in Caredgam’s case, he talks about you needing to go to Esteldín in the North Downs. Because you’re already there! Apparently all Masters of Crafting Guilds are forced to read the same script. Terms and Conditions apply, while stocks last.

You can find this dude, Caredgam, in the Craft-Hall of Esteldín. That saves you the hassle of finding another one then going to the North Downs.