Amara Fashions

I had a bridesmaid dress emergency a week and a half before my friend’s wedding. I had gained about 12 – 15 lbs. since ordering the dress over half a year before (some brides are obsessive about that), and it just didn’t fit anymore. I found the same designer, fabric, and color of dress (used) online (for about $ 30). It a different style and size, but the fabric would work for alterations. I went to 2 tailors before Amara’s in Old Town. Sabatino’s said it would be very expensive, and would take a month (she wasn’t even sure if she could alter the bodice… when I had the same fabric/​color/​style bodice of the extra dress with me, and even suggested making it a tie-​up back if necessary). Amara said, «no problem» to doing the complicated work, in a very short amount of time.
I did pay a substantial sum for the work ($ 200), but it was an emergency, and I had already been turned down twice that day. The work was fantastic! She was so kind and helpful. The shop is small, but I loved the quality and timelinessof the work. She used the fabric from the other dress so that you couldn’t even tell I had to use fabric from another dress to make mine larger! Amara’s has a new devoted customer!

This is the WORST alteration place I’ve ever been to — I’m crying I’m so upset. I walked in and was hesitant to begin with because the place reeked of urine, but unfortunately, I felt too uncomfortable to leave. The two dresses I had were very expensive and I told her if she felt uncomfortable or anything, I’d rather have her not do anything — she assured me it’d be fine. I also gave her two pairs of jeans that needed to have the buttons sewn back on.
I come back next week, and the two dresses are RUINED — not even reparable — $ 500 down the drain. Still, I felt like I deserved it because I was too meek to run, and I wasn’t going to write a review because she’s obviously struggling and I didn’t want to ruin her business.
However, today, I’m wearing the jeans for the first time and the button pops off… how hard is it to sew a button on a pair of jeans??? This is unacceptable and I have to report this… not only did I lose $ 150 on the cost of the alteration, but I doubt any respectable alteration place is going to be able to fix my $ 500 dresses. I’m out $ 650 because I was too afraid of hurting someone’s feelings… never again…