Julie 2 The Rescue Alterations

Julie is awesome! I am very happy I found her in time to alter my wedding dress. My dress is very intricate and I was scared to have it altered, but Julie definitely knows what she is doing and is very accommodating. She is also altering two of my bridesmaids’ dresses, and did a stellar job on a complicated fix. Thank you for all of your work Julie!

I contacted Julie to see if she would be able and willing to do some work on a suit that I needed for a very important interview I had coming up (date and time unknown at this point). I was looking to get the pants hemmed up a few inches, my sleeves shortened, and some alterations made to the shoulders to prevent them from protruding out too far. She agreed over the phone that it would be no problem, and I met up with her at her place in order for her to take my measurements. She explained her pricing (very fair) and that her average turn-​around time was one week. This was on Monday morning.
On Monday afternoon, I received the call from my interviewer saying my interview would be held on the following Tuesday at 7:00am. I immediately called Julie and left her a message saying that I would definitely need my suit by that Tuesday at 7:00am. Based on her previously quoted week turn around time, I didn’t imagine this would be a problem but I understood it might still be a tight crunch, and that’s why I called to let her know.
On Thursday of that week, I called her again just to check and make sure everything was OK and on schedule. Again she promised that everything was fine and it was all going to be OK and that she would «definitely have it ready by [my] interview.»
The following Monday at 11:42am, I received the text message: «Hello Eric… I have completed your pants and 1 sleeve… have to get ready for work now but I will finish this for you I promise… it will be ready for you for your interview for tomorrow.» I texted her back and asked if she had any idea of when it might be ready, but I didn’t hear back from her.
So, at 10:30pm that night I called and spoke to her. She said she hadn’t started working on it yet as she just got off from work and she informed me that she had also decided not to do any alterations to the shoulders like we had originally agreed on because she already shortened one of the sleeves the full length and if she made any further alterations to the shoulder the whole sleeve would come out too short, and she didn’t want to bother with having to undo the sleeve hem she already made thereby having to start over. Seems to me that if the sleeve length is, say, 2 inches too long and you have to take the shoulders in ½ inch, you’d only alter the sleeves 1.5 inches to allow for that extra half inch at the top («Alterations 101,» right?). Instead, she offered to finish shortening the second sleeve and call it a night and said I could bring it back to her at a future date and she’d do the shoulders for free. I reminded her I needed it for an extremely important interview in a matter of 8 and a half hours. Much to her annoyance, she said if I was willing to wait longer into the night, she’d go ahead and undo the first sleeve, redo them, and alter the shoulders like I had originally requested.
At 12:44am I got the following text message: «Ok so I truly don’t think the shoulders will be done… I finished everything else but the shoulders are a bit complicated once I got in there… so sorry. Anyways I am done so we can meet somewhere half way.» She gave up and declared her work «done,» without having followed through with what she said she would.
Around 1:30am my wife picked up the suit from her and paid her. She made it home around 1:45am. The pants hem was fine, although the pants themselves were horribly wrinkled and creased. We never agreed that she would iron or press them, so I wasn’t expecting differently, though the extra touch would have been appreciated especially considering the following, additional shortcomings:
The sleeves were altered terribly. The stitching was very sloppy – loose and very uneven with lots of free-​hanging loops and zig/​zag clusters. One of the sleeves had a large cut in it at the end that rolled from the outside onto the inside. I can’t tell if she snipped it with a pair of scissors after it was altered or if she gashed it first and then continued to go about sewing it up and allowing it to show on the outside. Either way, «Alterations 101» fail again. If it weren’t for the dark, late night parking lot pickup we might have noticed this before we paid her and probably would have only paid for the pants.
I have included a screen shot of the text messages we shared and pictures of the terrible stitching and damage – I sincerely hope Unilocal lets them stay up. If they aren’t there, feel free to contact me and I’ll be glad to send them to you. Cannot recommend her any less. She makes all the promises in the world but lacks any of the ability, skill, or motivation to complete them. Look elsewhere.

Julie definitely came to the rescue the night before my cousin’s wedding! She was very reasonable and extremely efficient.