37 motifs match “tailor”  ·  back to the chapters

• Tailor works in fairyland. F376.1
• Skillful tailor. F662
• Skillful tailor sews up broken eggs. F662.1
• Birds hatched from broken eggs repaired by skillful tailor have red line around necks. This indicates where eggs were broken. F662.1.1
• Skillful tailor sews together scattered planks in capsizing boat. F662.2
• Skillful tailor sews bean together after bean has split from laughing. F662.3
• The devil as tailor to a dandy. The dandy demands clothes sewed without thread. The devil disguised as a tailor makes them. In church the dandy's clothes fall to pieces, leaving him naked. G303.9.9.11
• Tailor married to princess betrays trade by calling for needle and thread. H38.2.1
• Skillful companions create woman: to whom does she belong? Woodcarver carves a doll, tailor clothes her, gardener gives her speech (or the like). (Answer sometimes given: her father, her mother, or her husband). H621
• Clever tailor. J1115.4
• Receiver of stolen goods. A tailor makes a Jew a coat of stolen goods. Accused of theft, he says that the Jew has the cloth. J1169.6
• The gift of the fool. Of three brothers the shoemaker makes shoes for the queen and princess; the tailor, clothes; the fool – children. J1272
• Tailor caught resting his head on royal robe while he rests tells king there is no better resting place for king's robe, for "the head is the king of the body." J1289.19
• Two eggs. Widow serves tailor one egg. He sings, "One egg, one egg." She decides one egg is not enough and serves him two next time. He then sings "Two eggs are two eggs." He is next given two eggs and a sausage, etc. J1341.4
• The tailor's dream. A tailor dreams that at Judgment Day he sees a flag made up of all the pieces of cloth he has stolen Upon waking he asks his servants to warn him if they ever see him tempted to steal again. This happens. He replies, "The piece I am about to steal does not fit into the flag." J1401
• Goose mistaken for a tailor. In a ghost house he is thought to be a tailor who snips the devil with his scissors. J1762.1
• Crab mistaken for tailor. J1762.1.2
• Tailor puts on thimble as protection from slug. J2623
• Sewing contest won by deception: the long thread. The ogre sews with the whole length of the thread. When he returns from the first stitch, the tailor has his task finished. K47.1
• Tailor throws piece of cloth out of the window. The stingy woman has the tailor come to her house to cut cloth. He throws a piece out of the window, "the devil's share". While the woman has gone after it he cuts off a piece for himself. K341.13
• Trickster persuades tailor to leave his goods. Makes him believe he will get order to clothe fifty poor. Trickster makes away with goods. (Or tries on boots and makes away with them.) K351.1
• Wolf is requested by tailor to be measured for suit of clothes; wolf beaten. K551.20
• Boastful fly-killer: "seven at a blow". A tailor who has killed seven flies writes on a placard: "Seven at a blow." He is received as a great warrior. K1951.1
• Tailor as hero. L113.9
• Self-righteous tailor in heaven expelled. Throws God's footstool at an old woman thief on earth. L435.3
• Tailor. P441
• Tailor occupies God's throne for a day. P441.1
• Tailoring only trade devil cannot learn. He fails to knot thread because it would make sign of the cross. P441.2
• Tailor punished in hell. P441.3
• Busy tailor asks soldier to mount watch in his place. P441.4
• The tailor and the smith as rivals. The tailor declares that the smith is blind and the smith declares that the tailor is a fool. At the wedding in church, the smith drops a hot piece of iron into the tailor's boot. T92.12.1
• Jokes about tailors. (Cf. P441.) X220
• Oversight of the thievish tailor. Sews the stolen piece of cloth on the outside of his coat, thinking that it is on the inside. X221
• Thievish tailor cuts a piece of his own coat. X221.1
• Thieving tailor can hide stolen cloth even in needle-and-thread tube. X221.2
• Tailor always associated with goat. X222
• Tailors cowards as warriors: go home to their needles. (Cf. W121.) X223