I've been trying to raise sewing passively, but ever since I attempted to make exceptional clothes in bulk with skill clothes on (and forgot to wait for the passive potential to finish), the skill refuses to rise no matter how much animus I've put in it.
I've waited for over 6 hours since taking off the skill clothes and it won't rise either. I've made doubly sure it wasn't locked as well.
Just to be sure, I tried this on engineering by lowering and raising it again. Engineering rises as normal.
Edit (8 June 2021): I've tried waiting butt naked for an hour for my sewing skill to rise. No dice.
Edit (14 June 2021): This was resolved on my character by staff intervention. I would suggest not wearing skill boost clothes if you're currently raising that skill though.