A Good Tailor is Hard to Find?

V

vanojr9

#1
Hi ladies and gents, I wonder if you could speak to your experience with tailors. I just got a lovely spring Burberry coat off of eBay, but it needs a few nips and tucks to fit me just right. The sleeves are a little long and wide and the top of the coat is a little big. The logical solution would be to take the coat to a tailor, but I'm really scared of the results. I've only had one tailoring experience in this town...I took a brand new BCBG dress to a seamstress to have her readjust the bodice a bit so it fit better, and she completely ruined it (I won't get into the details, but she put in a few darts that were really crooked, I looked silly in it. I could have put in better looking darts myself at home with a stapler :cursing: , I'm still fuming). I mean, beyond repair, I've taken it other places to see what can be done. And she refused to refund the $250 the dress cost, she insisted that she'd done what I asked. The worst part was that she'd come highly recommended by my "friends" who worked at a designer boutique...I found out later that she had a string of unhappy customers. Anyway, that was a year or so ago, and I haven't taken anything to a seamstress or tailor since.

So I'm obviously reluctant to take my new coat to a tailor and have another ruined and expensive garment on my hands! What I'd like to know is whether you've found it really difficult to find a good tailor. Should I be a little more trusting than I am, or should I be completely gunshy (as I am now)? I'm so paranoid that I'm thinking about driving the coat up to a professional tailor in Chicago to get it taken in, which will cost a lot more time, money, and energy than to just get it adjusted locally. What do you think? Did I just have one bad experience or is this par for the course?
 
#2
Yeah, I'm wondering this question myself. After having a few horrible experiences with tailors, I'm thinking, wouldn't it be a great idea if people could review tailors like they review shoes and bags? Really, tailors are really important - they can totally ruin a very expensive piece of clothing, but there's almost no way to know how many unhappy customers a tailor has, even if he/she comes "highly recommended." I'm in need of a few alterations also, but am sooooo reluctant to go to a tailor...and even if I decide to go to one, even a "professional" one like you said, you never know...

I'm being of no help at all, I know...:shrugs: I guess we have no choice but to take that risk, since there is NOWHERE to research quality of tailors!!!
 
#3
I've also had really bad experiences with tailors and have yet to find one I trust. I've gotten pretty good at doing hems and shortening dress straps myself but if an item of clothing requires anything more than that, I actually won't buy it. So, no I don't think your experience is unusual at all - it IS very difficult to find a good tailor.
 
#8
yeah, I found a great tailor but I was gunshy at first, so I started out with her (a few years ago) doing small things such as simple hems on jeans and sleeves. Then I had her do a few more complicated jobs. I also had a referral from a friend who showed me some of the work this tailor had done and that really helped my confidence.
 
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