seamstress

plural seamstresses · alternative sempstress

1. A woman who sews clothes professionally.

   “If you have finished blathering about men, perhaps you won’t mind skipping over the new seamstress you’ve no doubt found?"

   1992, Robert Jordan, “Chapter 52: Need”, in The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time; 4), London: Orbit Books, published 2021, →ISBN, page 862

   3 more examples

   […] the Seamſtreſs brought in her ſilver thimble, the Chamber-maid her Bodkin, the Cook his ſilver ſpoon, the Vintner his Bowl into the common Treaſury of War and they who contributed to ſo pious a work, were invited more then others in ſome Churches to come to the Holy Communion in the very time of adminiſtration; […]

   1656, James Howell, Some Sober Inspections Made Into the Carriage and Consults of the Late Long-Parliament, whereby Occaſion is taken to ſpeak of Parliaments in former Times, and of Magna Charta, with ſome Reflexes upon Government in General, pages 128-129

   They are seamstresses, who have plied the daily and nightly needle in the service of master tailors and close-fisted contractors, until now it is almost time for each to hem the borders of her own shroud.

   1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Procession of Life”, in Mosses from an Old Manse

   “Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen’s maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball.”

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 21