I ran into a small problem with my bridesmaid dress. It was most certainly built for someone who has a chest, and I do not. It was also built for someone who has very very large high/long shoulders. The sample I tried on did not  have these problems, but for some reason when my dress came it did. I basically had to have the whole thing reconstructed. It was quite a journey and it cost almost as much as the dress to have it done.

I don’t have a local tailor and the bridal shop refused to do alterations on the dress (some policy they have).  I did some research, made some calls and found someone. (Believe it or not, no one I knew was able to recommend an alternations person in the area. ) I found someone who seemed to check out. I went in got pinned up and was in high spirits having just lost a couple of pounds. While she was pinning me up and trying to convince me that she wasn’t doing it too tight, she tells me not to gain any weight. Classic. Then she goes on to tell me her bizarre weight loss and maintenance stories. Now I just want to leave. I am all for chatting, but I really don’t want to get to know my tailor that well.

I leave hopeful and plan to return in three weeks. I go in nice and sweaty after a power yoga class to pick it up, so I don’t try it on in the shop. I go home and try it after I shower.  The first thing I notice is that I think the hem is not straight. Then I realize that the armpits are tight, like the dress is resting in my armpit. This is not going to work I think to myself and envision and massive sweat problem during pictures. I give her a call the next day she is open, which is 2-3 days later.  She tells me to bring it in, but that I will have to pay again because it is not one of the original fixes. I become a might pissed. The changes she made caused this new problem I say and that she should have measured properly. Note to self don’t get pissed at the tailor, they can really mess up the dress.

I go in, put on the dress and she tells me it looks fine. I say “I am not concerned with how it looks , I am concerned with how it feels.” I try to move and she tells me how I am moving is not a natural motion…um how do you know how I dance lady? I go back and forth with her for about 15 minutes before she agrees to change it. All the while I am thinking, I am the customer, if I want to have a dress not up my armpits, then remove it from my armpits. I couldn’t figure out why this was such a big deal.

Now to give you an idea of what was already done to the dress, she had to hem it, take in the skirt an inch and a half on each side, take in the top a LOT and cut the straps because the were literally three inches above my shoulder. So my reasoning was that if you cut the straps you should have measured the arm holes before. Now she was going to have to cut the armpits. I got a slight discount from her originally stated re-price, which I should have also protested but just didn’t have the energy.

I picked up my dress in a couple of days and to be perfectly honest have not even tried it on and don’t plan to until the wedding this weekend. Poor form, I know, but I just don’t want to spend another cent on that dress. But when I picked it up, I walked in to her yelling at an elderly lady about her pick up time/when she needed her stuff done. I was appalled, needless to say between what I saw that day, and experienced myself I will not be going back to her.

I’ve heard some other horror stories about tailors, what’s yours?