EXPOSED
The screen half of this job — drafting blocks in Gerber/Optitex/CLO, grading a base pattern across a size range, nesting markers for cutting efficiency, writing spec sheets — is exactly the parametric, rules-driven work that software already automates well and generative 3D tools are eating faster. What survives is physical: draping muslin on a form, reading how a specific knit or bias-cut fabric actually behaves, and correcting fit on a live model during a fitting session. This occupation sits right on the COOKED/EXPOSED line mainly because it has no licensure, no client accountability shield, and has already been thinned by offshoring, so automation lands on an eroded base.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. Grading and marker-making are already one-click operations in Gerber/Lectra, and CLO's parametric blocks now generate a first pattern from a sketch — what keeps this at 7 rather than 3 is that muslin draping on a dress form, pinning out a bias-cut swing, and diagnosing why a rib-knit sleeve twists on a fit model still require hands on cloth that no solver reproduces reliably.
Some physical or field component. A 12 reflects a job split roughly evenly between a CAD workstation and a cutting table — walking hard-paper or tag-board patterns, notching, pinning muslin on a form, and standing through fittings — all inside a controlled sample room, not on a roof or a job site, which is what keeps it out of the 13+ band.
No licence, no signature requirement. There is no state licence, no exam, no registered stamp on a pattern; a graded nest that comes out short-yielding is caught by the cutter or the sample maker and reworked internally, so nothing legally attaches to your name — hence 1, not zero only because an ASTM/ISO spec-sheet signoff occasionally carries your initials.
Some relationship component. A 6 acknowledges that designers who trust a specific patternmaker to interpret their sketch send work back to that person for years, but the deliverable is a graded pattern file that any competent shop can open and use — the buyer never meets you and does not care who drafted it.
Meaningful discretion. Deciding ease allowances, where to place a dart versus a princess seam, and how much to shrink for a 4% wool relax are real calls made from experience rather than a table, but they are reversible at the next fitting and reviewed by a designer or technical director before production cutting — that review loop is why this is 8 and not 14.
Has AI actually changed your work?