Elaine’s of Palo Alto

I had my wedding dress altered by Elaine in 2009. I needed the hem lifted a bit and some pretty intricate work done on the bust. She did a great job, the bust fit like a glove after she was done. I’d absolutely recommend her.

If a piece of clothing can fit better, Elaine makes it so. I’ve been depending on her for years to keep me looking good. She is a wizard with fit and alterations. I also recommend her for going through your closet with you to weed out old favorite things that may actually have turned to rags through staining and stretching. And she is very upbeat.
Her hours are kind of restricted, but as a community volunteer, I can live with them, and if if you are desperate, she makes time for you.

I got my wedding dress tailored by Elaine, she did a great job! My dress involved lace which added some difficulty when taking it in, but Elaine did a great job so you the pattern remained as beautiful as ever. My bustle worked beautiful and didn’t break the entire wedding day. Elaine was very professional and a pleasure to work with for the fittings. My dress was finished ahead of schedule, which made for a stress free lead up to my wedding.

Elaine’s focus at this point in time is NOT dressmaking… but rather teaching or other more lucrative projects.
Upon our first meeting, she told me she doesn’t make enough money making dresses (RED FLAG) — I had 5 weeks to make my dress for the wedding.
A week after accepting and cashing my deposit and days before the patterns were due, I get an email (not even a CALL) that she’s producing a clothing line or something and is simply too busy for me, and that I need to come pick up my dress (shouldn’t she drive it to me?) —
Oh yes, and the best part. when I asked for my deposit back, she asked that I BRING PROOF THAT SHE CASHED IT because she was so swamped she didn’t even remember receiving it in order for her to return the deposit to me.
Apologetic? Sure. she was. but her priorities lie NOT with making your dress…
I cannot speak to her skills or the quality of her product, as I never had the opportunity to see for myself. Careful with this one unless you have copious amounts of time, and great organizational skills, because I believe you will need to manage her as well.

Elaine did a fantastic job altering my wedding gown, a junior bridesmaid dress, and the groom’s suit for my wedding. Her work is impeccable and her prices were relievingly fair. I know that my gown ended up taking her much more time than first quoted, yet she got it completed on time and I suspect she gave me a significant price reduction. I highly reccomend her and will be back. Thank you, Elain!

In planning my second wedding, I knew in my head that I wanted something a little different from the usual white or ivory gown, and decided that I would have a gown made. I did a lot of research, asked for referrals locally, and decided to work with Elaine. She was so helpful! She helped me design the dress, choose the silk and lace, and create exactly what I wanted. Her sewing is impeccable and she has a great eye for tailoring. The final product was beyond my wildest dreams! I highly recommend Elaine’s whether you are looking for wedding or evening dress, a more simple outfit, or tailoring. She’s awesome!

One of the most important things for anyone to look good in their clothes is a tailor. Unless you’re a fit model, chances are, things aren’t going to fit you off the rack. I regularly take my clothes to get altered at another location, but for my wedding dress I wanted to find someone who specializes in wedding alterations.
My wedding dress was a rush job (my fault for waiting till the last minute) and did not fit me properly (for all those brides-​to-​be, wear the bra you’re planning to wear at the wedding or the bust will not fit properly). I had also been working out to get in shape for the wedding, so I needed to have the dress taken in. The dress was too low-​cut despite my request to raise the neckline by a couple of inches.
When I brought my dress in to Elaine, she was critical of the dress, pointing out all the things wrong with the garment. She takes great pride in her work and I think it disturbed her to see what was in her eyes, shoddy workmanship. I asked her, «Can this be fixed?» She told me yes. She redid the seaming on the darts to fit my bust better, hemmed the dress so it was even, and took it in on the sides and the back to give me a better shape. She also cut and hand-​sewed a panel of lace to the front of the dress to raise the neckline. It was so well done, it looked like part of the design of the dress.
For simple jobs like hemming or taking in a garment, I think you can find a tailor with more reasonable prices. However, if you have a really expensive garment that you don’t want to ruin or a difficult alteration, I would recommend Elaine.

I’m a tall guy and most things off the rack don’t fit me unless they are «tall» sized. I bought a wool coat that had the right sleeve length for me, but was too big in almost every other dimension.
I brought this coat to Elaine, thinking she would just take in main torso part of the coat (so I wouldn’t feel like I was wearing a tent.) She did that, AND took in the sleeve diameter, AND altered the cut of the coat in general so it fit my shoulders perfectly. All for a very reasonable price for the amount of work. And I get to wear a custom-​tailored coat. I was super happy with the work and the pleasant experience!

Brought a bridesmaid dress to Elaine’s a few months ago. Although she is a sweet personable lady, the experience was subpar and too expensive. The dress just needed to be hemmed. It took 3 weeks.
When I called to pick up the dress for the first time, it wasn’t ready. Elaine made an excuse, but seems like she just forgot about it. A week later I went to pick it up to find the hem was uneven. Sick of going back to her house, I vowed to pick up the dress on my third visit. And so I did.
However the craftsmanship was not good. The sheer dress had a 2.5 inch hem folded under. As you can imagine, this 2.5 inch border looked pretty weird with the light-​weight see-​through fabric.
At that point I was so over futzing with the dress that I just paid and left.
All in all, do not recommend.

I took a bridesmaid dress to Elaine. I was in a bit of a rush to have it done, and I felt pretty bad for the amount of pressure I put on her to have it done. She was extremely nice about it and my dress fit PERFECT. I looked long and hard for one little area that looked altered, and it was absolutely seamless. I can’t say how much I appreciate her help.
It’s true that it cost more than taking it back to David’s Bridal, but it was fast and absolutely amazing. When it comes to this kind of work, the extra dollars as SO worth it.

Elaine is the only person I’d trust to get an alterations job done honestly and get it done right. She is wonderful!
My husband took his wedding suit to Elaine, and I brought my wedding gown and reception dress. Elaine’s work was exquisite. Based on my positive experiences, I went through my closet to bring her all my items needing altering, and a few pants that had previously mediocre jobs from various dry cleaners.
Elaine understands fabrics, she understands your body type, and she knows what is flattering as well as possible. I will never take alterations anywhere else and recommend her work 100% !!

I had a mixed experience with Elaine. On the one hand, she is very personable with reasonable prices, and good about checking email. I took my tux in for a rush job since the wedding was in less than a week. In the end, the tux fit very well. So why did I only give her 2 stars?
My rating is more a reflection of all the little things. I was quoted a price of only part of the job and the total was higher than what I was expecting. She also left out the fact that she accepted cash or check only so it was slightly awkward and it totally cleaned me out.
All that, I can live with. The part that didn’t feel too great was that when I dropped the tux off, I clearly stated that I needed it done by Wednesday because we were traveling on Thursday for the wedding. Then, when the end of Wednesday came around and still no contact from Elaine, I called in to check on the progress. The tux wasn’t finished and she told me that I had given her a later date and started to blame me for the miscommunication. We figured it out and she got the tux done by the next morning and the story ends well. I would consider giving it another shot since her work was good quality and she was very nice but I would hesitate based on all the little things that made the experience such a chore. So, reader beware, she seems to be hit or miss.

Elaine has been doing a great job for me for years. When I travel, I buy some silk and bring it back, and she makes me a custom garment to my specifications. She also has made me a custom suit and several pairs of custom pants. All have been reasonably priced and done when promised.
I first met Elaine when I got married. I didn’t want a fancy wedding dress since I was a bit older. I couldn’t find anything in the stores. Elaine suggested I bring a dress that I liked. I had a simple A-​line dress in black which I brought to show her. I then bought some lovely off-​white silk, and she used the black dress as a guide, with some modifications, to create the perfect dress for me. It cost ¹⁄₁₀ of what the fancy wedding dress designers charged, it fit perfectly, and it was exactly what I wanted. I can’t imagine buying a wedding dress any other way.

I’ve always been overweight and store bought clothes have always been a nightmare for me. Elaine was my savior, making me professional outfits that fit my body to a T, made me look great and gave me confidence. Elaine’s style is the reason I keep going back. She is frank, honest and tells it the way it is in addition to being creative, fun and entertaining. I have found that her prices are reasonable and that if I ask for something she will give me a quote but also suggest alternatives to bring the price down and still accomplish my original goal. There is no one better than Elaine.

Elaine is an artistic genius and a technical wizard.
I came to her with special gown and a shoebox full of ideas. She patiently navigated the miriad of options, explained the technical difficulties with some of my ideas, and guided me to the most beautiful outcome, which was, ironically, the most elegantly simple resolution!
Elaine can be trusted with your most complex and challenging projects. She is a true professional.

I wish I could say I had a good experience, but NO! It was awful, awful, AWFUL!
I brought a very expensive bridesmaid gown to Elaine, tried it on for her and was quoted $ 50 – 60. When I went to drop off the dress, she jacked up the price to $ 120! I felt like she took advantage of me. On the advice of a friend, I contacted her and asked if she could negotiate the price to come in closer to her original quote. She was passive aggressive and really unprofessional considering she had DOUBLED her quote.
In the end, she agreed to do the work for $ 100. But I didn’t realize that for $ 20 less, she just wasn’t going to alter the entire top half of my dress! So she pretty much screwed me over for $ 100 and I was forced to take my dress elsewhere to complete the job.
The worst part is that she was legitimately rude during the situation. If you are going to jack up your prices, at least be understanding that customers are going to have questions. But no, she chose to be mean AND not do a good job altering my dress.
THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS OUT THERE FOLKS!!!

Elaine did an amazing job on my wedding gown. I bought my gown at a sample sale at Glamour Closet. Though I loved the gown, it was too big and too long. I was very nervous when I took the dress to Elaine. Elaine took the dress in for me and hand hemmed the gown. She did an AMAZING job! On my wedding day my gown was a perfect fit and looked absolutely wonderful.
Elaine also did the alterations for my sister-in-law’s bridesmaid dress. The dress fit perfectly. My sister-​in-​law was able to dance all night comfortably.

Elaine Goldman recently altered two suits and trousers for me. The suits were originally from
and I would say that when I first received the suits in the mail and put them on, I felt like a midget in a space-​suit.
Elaine’s tailoring was, to say the last, beautiful and very reasonably priced. I have received so many compliments on my suit and how well it fits me, and I owe it in large part to Elaine.
So, for any guys who want to look for an excellent tailoring job with fast turn-​around time and a reasonable price, I would strongly suggest Elaine.
— Daniel
P.S.
The one negative review I read below must be bogus, because the customer service I received was fantastic.

It was $ 30 to get wide-​legged pants hemmed to a slimmer leg and $ 22 to get another pair of pants hemmed to a shorter inseam with the original hem. I was very happy because now I’ll actually wear the wide-​legged pants out! Before, I just had them hanging in my closet because they were so wide — the look on me was very short, fat mushroom. Not appealing at all! :)
She was really nice, but my email kept going into her spam, making communication somewhat hard. She says she prefers email communication to calling, too. Also, I think her personality is fun but I could see it rubbing some people the wrong way.
Her work is high quality. And she specializes in wedding dresses. After seeing her work on my pants, I would trust her with my wedding dress, which is what I’m about to do in a couple of months. ;)

Elaine has been my alteration maven ever since I relocated here from Washington D.C.
I have never known a better seamstress or creative professional in my life. The work she did on my clothes was nothing short of a miracle. She is always gracious, generous and professional.
She is the best…