On a video call in mid-June, a dozen women from across the country — many of them seated at sewing machines and enveloped by clouds of white tulle — debated the pros and cons of working in the busy world of bridal alterations.

They were discussing issues like: How do you handle a demanding mother of the bride? How do you display exceptional alterations on social media when they are best seen in person? Some women said they preferred to work in-house at a bridal shop, where they could have a steady stream of clients and backup for when things went wrong. Other women said they liked working as independent tailors because their schedules could be flexible and there was no profit-sharing.

Moderating the lively conversation was Melissa Oddo, an independent seamstress based in central Connecticut. In 2019, she founded Stitched Collective, an organization that hosts in-person events for seamstresses nationwide. The group also offers monthly video calls to discuss business planning and various aspects of the craft, such as hemming and fixing damaged embroidery.

The collective seeks to debunk misconceptions about being a tailor, “demonstrate the viability of this industry as a long-term career path” and bring “a new generation of young people into the trade,” according to its website. A central conundrum framed the call: How can bridal seamstresses in the United States navigate the overwhelming amount of business being sent their way in 2023?

During the pandemic, weddings were delayed, canceled or held virtually, and many of the seamstresses who once worked at bridal shops, often part of older generations, decided to quit or retire.

Now, a wedding boom is underway. More than two million weddings are expected to take place in the United States in 2023 for the second year in a row, according to the Wedding Report, an industry trade group. At the same time, an extraordinary number of dresses are being bought, and brides are more knowledgeable and demanding than ever before.

But the pool of available bridal seamstresses is barely able to keep up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the data research company Statista both estimate that there are nearly 20,000 tailors working in the United States today.

Experts across the industry say that bridal tailoring — the trade of sewing not to create an outfit from scratch, but to adjust an existing one — runs the risk of becoming a dying art, because not enough people are entering the business.

“We are heading for a crisis in the wedding fashion industry because there are not going to be enough trained seamstresses to alter the wedding gowns that we are selling,” said Beth Chapman, the owner of the White Dress by the Shore bridal store in Clinton, Conn.

A Generational Gap

Tailors and seamstresses are some of the oldest workers in the American work force. The median age of a tailor or seamstress in the United States is around 52, a decade older than the median age of a worker, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 14 percent of them are under the age of 34, and only a small portion of them work on bridal gowns.

“When people think of a bridal seamstress, they imagine an older woman in a house with weird plush carpet and a little cat who immigrated from a country where the trades are more highly regarded,” Ms. Oddo said.

In the United States, the job of a seamstress is often undervalued and viewed as less respectable than other careers for a few reasons. Tailors are overwhelmingly women, according to a report from Zippia, which maintains workplace data, and a significant portion are immigrants, many of them undocumented, as The Knot recently reported. Both demographic groups are often underpaid across most sectors, including tailoring, which pays an average annual salary of around $34,000 in the United States. Seamstresses can spend anywhere from a few hours to several days working on alterations for a single gown.

There is no standardized, formal certification or education required to become a seamstress. Home economics — once offered as a common class focused on cooking, sewing and other household management tasks — isn’t taught anymore in most schools. As a result, many young people don’t learn the basic sewing techniques they need to master more complex tailoring skills.

“I think in our generation, you might not even know that becoming a seamstress is an option,” said Madison Lee, a 28-year-old seamstress in Dothan, Ala. Her grandmother taught her how to sew at a young age, and she earned a degree in apparel, textile and design from the University of Alabama.

Two years ago, Ms. Lee started Madison Conner Designs, a bridal alterations business. At first, she said, her young age drew skepticism from brides’ mothers and grandmothers. “The first question I would get was, ‘How long have you been doing this?’” she said. “I could tell I was being vetted by them because of my age.”

Since then, Ms. Lee has seen steady business, as the people in her small town are now more familiar with her work. With the recent increase in brides, Ms. Lee believes there are plenty more opportunities on the horizon for her store. “There are three or four other seamstresses left in my area, but they are all older — they will all probably retire within five to 10 years,” she said. “I’m already booked out for months, and that’s after raising my prices.” Her challenge now is not finding clients, she said, but rather finding people to hire and train to help meet the demand.

The Next-Gen Seamstress

Wedding dress shopping is a momentous, emotional moment for many families, often with high expectations. Buying a dress requires significant time and money, as the average cost of a wedding gown is nearly $2,000, according to the Knot. And brides want to rest assured that the person who completes their alterations is competent and experienced. In the hands of an unskilled tailor, a beloved dress can fail to match the bride’s vision, or be ruined altogether.

“Becoming a seamstress means building a large catalog of talents, especially for bridal work,” said Kpoene’ Kofi-Bruce, 42, the creative director of Ette the Wedding Tailor in Chicago. “This is nothing like simple crafting. This is a difficult art, and it takes a long time to learn.”

Many seamstresses learn their skills by completing apprenticeships with other tailors or watching videos online. But the mystique and challenges of bridal alterations, and the fact that it is a solitary endeavor, are also part of why many professionals crave connections with peers, so they can exchange ideas and share advice.

That’s where Ms. Oddo, the founder of Stitched Collective, hopes to help.

The idea for the group came to Ms. Oddo when she found herself struggling to find talented seamstresses to help her with the workload. “I realized in the hiring process there are really no avenues telling young people how to do this, just like no one told me,” she said. “I don’t know a ton of people who know this is even a career path.”

Most of the organization’s members are in their 20s and 30s. “I think Melissa is really breathing life and reviving what a seamstress is thought to be,” said Ms. Lee, who participated in the June call. “She is making us fun again. Making us hopeful. And making this alterations experience exciting.”

As older seamstresses retire, and as modern brides increasingly turn to Instagram and TikTok for wedding dress inspiration, there is more space for passionate young people who do know how to sew and are interested in pursuing tailoring as a career, or start their own businesses.

Many of them have embraced social media as a way to reach customers and showcase their projects.

“My Instagram is my portfolio of work, and I am a big advocate for posting before-and-after pics,” Katie Rose, a Stitched Collective member and the owner of Katie Rose Alterations in Olympia, Wash., said in an interview. During the group’s June call, she noted: “I am not trying to be like, we don’t need stores, but the brides will find us.”

Ms. Chapman, the store owner in Connecticut, said she was eager to hire a tailor to work in her bridal shop.

“There is a world of opportunity for people to become a seamstress,” she said.