Glenville Tailoring & Dry Cleaning

Just what I need.
This place seems trustworthy and I’m happy I found it.
First two tailored pieces came out great:
1) I had a maxi skirt for over a year that I couldn’t wear because it needed to be adjusted — it had to be shortened or taken in so it would stay on my waist. She fixed it.
2) The second piece was a pair of high-​waisted pants that needed to be taken in towards the top. This was kind of a guinea pig pair for me to see if a tailor could make such a style work… My only really good pair of high-​waisted pants were getting old and small so it was time to move on. I’m happy to see she fixed that awkward extra room I had in the back /​top of the pants. I will be coming back with similar pants moving forward. :)
I recommend this place to everyone.

I went to Glenville Tailoring & Dry Cleaning to get two sport coats and a pair of suit pants to be tailored. The owner of the business, Luba, did an amazing job fitting my suits to me. I’m a very skinny guy, so there was some major work done on the waists. The suits came out absolutely perfect and fit like a glove. I highly recommend Luba to anyone that is looking to get that perfect, custom fit.

This is a second review after my first one posted back in December of 2014.
Recap of my first review: I had dropped off a ballroom dance costume for alterations in the beginning of October after reading a great review of her fixing another costume quickly. She told me that she would have it done by November. As of December, she still had not started the dress.
New Review: In January, I tried to go back to pick up my dress (unfinished, to bring to a new tailor) before Luba went away for the rest of January and February. I did not want to risk her not finishing it before my deadline of March 1, so I wanted to take the pressure off her and just bring it to someone else. (This was my NEW deadline– the date of my next ballroom competition. My original requested deadline was mid-​November– my intended first competition with this dress. Because she had not even started the job by December, I obviously did not have the costume to wear for my November competition. I did not want to miss having it for my March competition.) There would’ve been no hard feelings– my intention was to pick it up early January before she went away. This would take the pressure to finish a tough job on in a short amount of time off her. However, I left work early (she’s only open M-​F 9 – 5) to pick up my dress the day before she was slated to leave, and when I arrived at 3:30 she had already left for the day… and for the rest of the month. She was long gone already. In fact, there was another man waiting there to pick up pants for his wife. He said that Luba told him, as long as he was able to get there before 5 pm on this day, she would be there to give him the pants. Much to our chagrin, she was already gone. So, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t’ get my dress until she came back at the end of February (and this man’s wife wouldn’t see her pants for 2 months, either, through no fault of theirs.)
Fast forward to the end of February. I am at her door bright and early on the day she was to be back at work. She never showed. I called her number every day for the next three weeks… no voicemail, no message saying to call a different number… just ringing and ringing and ringing. March 1 came and went… another competition without a dress.
Finally in mid-​march, I called her up and was shocked someone had finally picked up. She said she had started working on my dress. I WAS FURIOUS. Turns out she was sick for a few weeks after arriving back in the states. Fine– that happens. However, there were so many things she could’ve done, in my opinion. She should have called me as soon as possible to tell me that she was sick, etc, that she would unfortunately not be able to make my March 1 deadline. I had no idea where she was or if I would ever see my dress (worth hundreds of dollars) ever again. She didn’t even have the courtesy to call me to let me know she had started working on it.
When I arrived later that day to pick it up (I told her to stop working on it and I was going to bring it to a new tailor) I nearly burst out in tears because it was in pieces. She was very kind, and while she was defensive at first, in the end owned up to the fact that she should have «put her cell number on the sign on the door when I go on vacation» or «called you when I returned to let you know I wouldn’t make your deadline of March 1.» She ended up giving me a hug.
TL, DR: She’s is a very sweet, older lady. She is also a terrible business woman. I still cannot comment on her tailoring abilities because after 6 months of waiting for this job to be done, I got fed up and ended up taking my dress to another tailor.
(PS– for those who need closure: I brought it to a new tailor on newbury who was able to turn it around in 10 days (!!) for my end-​of-​March competition!)

I love this place! I get all of my dry cleaning and tailoring done here and everything is clean, pressed, and immaculate, usually within a week. It’s not the most modern shop, but my clothes come out looking better than any other place I’ve been to and for a lot cheaper. She’s tailored my dresses, jeans, suits, and a myriad of other articles of clothing. It’s a one woman show and she’s the kindest lady you’ll ever meet. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.
She mostly works on her own schedule so be sure to call ahead and ask her for the hours. It’s not open on the weekends so it’s tough to get there when you work full-​time, but totally worth it.

First, and most importantly, the lady did a great job of hemming two pairs of tailored pants. They came back pressed and the hems were perfect. However, I couldn’t give her 5 stars for the following reasons:
1. She spent the majority of the time chatting on the phone whilst she was measuring me.
2. She told me it would take a week. I hadn’t heard from her after a week (Friday) so called on the Monday to see if they were ready. She told me she needed another two days. That said, they were then ready on that Wednesday, as promised.
3. I could swear that she told me it would be $ 20 as I left after having the pant legs measured. However, when I went to pick them up I discovered that they were actually $ 28 (I might have misheard her the first time) and that she was charging me an extra $ 2 (which she hadn’t mentioned over the phone when we spoke half an hour previously) as one of the pairs was lined. I felt that she should have told me this when she was measuring and pinning the pants. I didn’t have that much cash on me so I had to trek out to the nearest bank, withdraw money and then trek back to pay her.
She does seem like a really nice lady though and she is obviously really good at what she does. I’m not sure that I’d return again though. I felt that the time and cost were too much just to hem pants.

Luba is the most wonderful Ukrainian grandmother you never knew you wanted or needed. She takes such care with everything I bring to her and will even tell me if she thinks the item is not worth fixing. I recently brought her three pairs of pants and four skirts to alter, and she did an amazing job on each one. She even narrowed the pant legs to make them more modern. And, its really reasonably priced, even cheap compared to some other alteration places… CASH ONLY.

A little scary, taking a bridesmaid dress to a new tailor, only a few weeks before the wedding. When I put the dress on, she criticized the dress’s maker like crazy — the hem was ALL uneven, the zipper was a mess, the straps too long, etc. I left pretty worried, reiterating when the dress needed to be ready by.
When I picked the dress up (it was ready well before I asked) it fit perfectly — better than I could have hoped. Cost me $ 65 (cash only), which I guess is a pretty good price, although a bit more than I expected.

I had previously been using another Brighton area tailor. After a very unsuccessful trip where I was charged over $ 150 to alter a bridesmaid dress, I decided to check out Unilocal for a new tailor. Glenville Tailoring had some really great reviews so I called over.
I called ahead and spoke with the tailor who told me to come by whenever. The store front is located in a garden level apartment in an apartment complex. The shop is definitely not what I would describe as modern, but do not let the store front worry you. I had brought a very long pair of jeans, and bridesmaid dress, which I intended to have the length shorter. Upon trying on the jeans, the tailor began pinning right away and asked whether I’d be interested in having the jeans turned into straight leg jeans, instead of the boot cut they were. She pinned them showing me how they would look, and told me it was would $ 20 to shorten the jeans and make them straight leg.
Upon trying on the bridesmaid dress, she actually told me that I did not need to take up the length. WHAT TAILOR EVER TELLS YOU THAT YOU DON’T NEED WORK! She offered her opinion that the front could be adjusted slightly to cover the bust more. She said it was be $ 10 for the dress.
When I returned, the jeans fit EXACTLY as they looked pinned. The dress looked so natural that it was hard to tell when she had sewed up the bust. For $ 30 I was out the door with a new pair of jeans and altered bridesmaid dress.
I will be returning to her with any tailoring needs I have.

Called Luba very same day in order to make some spot repairs on my kangaroo mascot costume. She invited me over promptly and was kind enough to put aside her immediate mending to do a right-​on-​spot fix while I wore the suit and showed her what needed a litle nip and tuck, and a tiny hole that needed a quick stitch or few. A bargain rush job at only a meager 15 dollars! Definitely will go back for future needed repairs to my suit and not try to rush her so much!

I love this place. I had Luba alter my reception and wedding dress and gown. They both were done on time and in beautiful condition, for about $ 80. YUP! For wedding dresses…
If you are looking for a super fancy experience, i.e. modern surroundings, tract lighting, full service restroom etc. this place is not for you.
If you are looking for a wonderful deal on excellent work this is the place for you. In fact, Luba is now the tailor for my household needs.

Luba knew exactly what to do with a pair of suit pants that just looked wrong. She was able to spot the places to narrow on the leg and the waist line so they fit well for around $ 20! Just the right price and a fantastic job!

To be fair Luba did an amazing job hemming and taking in a pair of work pants as well as patching up two pairs of jeans. She did a great job and the price was unbeatable.
However…she has absolutely no system as to when things come in and when they will be done. Both times I showed up to pick up my pants when she had told me to and both times my stuff was buried under a pile of other stuff, untouched. The first time I went she was very apologetic and finished my pants the next day.
The second time I went it was a nightmare. After my pants weren’t ready she advised me to call before showing up, so I did. I called and had to explain what pants were mine and what was wrong with them. (Not give my name or a receipt number, etc…) She told me they would be ready on a particular day (I forget which one). So I go to pick them up and where are? Buried under a pile of clothes, unpatched BUT she had hemmed them which I had NOT asked for. Sigh. She had gotten my pants mixed up with someone elses. Again, she was very apologetic and promised to get it done by the end of the week. On my third trip they were finally done.
In the end it took me a month to get two pairs of pants back. She patched 4 holes for $ 20. That’s a deal. So it’s up to you whether you want to deal with the hassle for a low low price. I probably won’t be going back…

Luba is amazing. Her work is always of exceptional quality, and the turnaround rate on altered items is insanely fast.
So, to run down the list of pros:
1) Crazy fast — as in, rush orders can be done in 24 hours.
2) Quality European-​style tailoring means you can have your items fitted in just about any style, and to any conceivable size
3) Reasonable rates. I’ve never been charged more than $ 40 for even the most contrived alteration.
Protip: as Luba occasionally goes out of town, it is a good idea to call ahead to find out if the place is open.

This place is great. It is by far not only the cheapest, but very high quality! I get all my dress clothes altered and dry cleaned here!

Luba is a gem… the alterations on my dress aren’t even finished yet and I already love this place. She even agreed to teach me how to sew buttons on for computer lessons… outstanding!!!

This place is awesome. Couldn’t be happier. Got two pairs of pants re-​hemmed for $ 9.00. It was ready the next day and was done with precision.
The store is set down below street level.

Thank you all for convincing me to go to Luba! She was such a sweety and fantastic to work with. I went to her tailoring shop on the weekend when it was closed, and from the outside it looked odd because it was leading down to the garden level area of an apartment building. But I’m glad I came back during the week and brought my dress over to her. She did a great job of taking in the sides of it to make sure the strapless bridesmaid dress i got would not fall off. She had it in mind that I should make the dress a bit shorter and I think she would have just done that as part of the tailoring but I decided it might be nicer to keep it at that length for the wedding. I said maybe I should dry clean it and she said she’d just press it out instead — save a few bucks. So. she did a perfectly fantastic job and for $ 25, which is really greatly reasonable.
As a side note — I had actually purchased a dress last year for the wedding that was really big on me as I had lost a lot of weight — it would have been a $ 60 tailoring job at another place and I couldn’t justify it. went right on ebay and found a better fitting dress for $ 25 and then got Luba to tailor it for $ 25. Definitely the way to try to get a bridesmaid dress for the future (I paid $ 140 for the original one. now time to sell it back on e-​bay).

Outstanding. I brought her a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans; one of the shirts had tears over tears on the sleeve. Luba did awesome and both shirts are wearable, somehow the tailoring isn’t visible, and the jeans look fantastic. Will definitely be going back there again. Cheap too! I only paid 18 bucks for patching on a couple holes in my jeans, and 2 shirts.

Luba of Glenville Cleaners was such a great find in the Allston area!
I brought her a tailored peacoat I had bought online. The sleeves were too long, the length looked funny on me, and I’d somehow lost two buttons despite having worn it twice. Luba worked some magic bringing up the length, shortening the sleeves without sacrificing button holes, and moving buttons around so the coat would close properly.
Her work was impeccable and her prices incredibly low. She also works fast — she told me it would take 2 weeks, then called me 4 days later saying my coat was ready.
She also dry cleaned the coat — no chemical smell, no missed spots. Perfect!

An outstanding tailor and dry-​cleaner. The dry cleaning is cheap and good, and the alterations are of the highest quality and always done to specification.