To summarize, Jila wiped makeup on my dress from her hands, sewed the lining crooked, and gave me little to no solutions to fix parts of my dress that didn't fit me properly. She changed her story about the alterations and accused another seamstress of ripping me off, even after they had fixed her mistakes and altered parts of the dress she wasn't able to. After the wedding, she asked me to bring in my dress so she could learn another way of sewing.
I should have taken my dress somewhere else when I watch Jila transfer makeup from her fingers onto my new, white wedding dress! I thought it was a fluke, but the next time I was there she also transferred makeup onto a piece of paper she was writing on. I had so much stress the week before my wedding over my alterations and hope that you would think twice about taking your dress here. Please read on for a more detailed account of my experience.
I actually went to look for a new dress a week before my wedding because the fit was so bad and Jila gave me the impression there was nothing that could be done and it was due to the type of fabric it was made of. Luckily the dress shop told me to bring my original dress to them because there was no way it shouldn't be fitting me properly. Turns out it could be altered to my body, but Jila had just done a very poor job. They told me it looked like sloppy work. When I told her this, she asked for me to bring the dress back so she could learn a new way of sewing. To me, that means she recognized that she wasn't able to do it right and admitted she didn't know the proper way to sew my dress.
After I took my dress to a new place I found out Jila sewed my hips crooked! I was unhappy with the wrinkling and lines that were around my waist and hips, and Jila told me numerous times that it was due to the type of fabric. She still had to take my waist in, and I asked if that would help the wrinkling and she said no, there was nothing she could do for that. Well, I found out later the wrinkles were there because she sewed the lining crooked and that's why the fabric wouldn't sit flat on my body.
Here are the issues I had with Jila Tailoring Studio:
- She flattened out the wire on my chest, but then the seams looked like nipples. She said there was nothing she could do but steam, and that didn't help. The new place fixed this problem
- I asked her to put cups in, and they were way too big and make a huge crease on my bust. I asked her to take them out, and she says, "you picked those cups" when I called to talk about it (she actually gave those to me and didn't give me a choice). Also, she complained that "You made me put them in and out and in and out." I only asked for the big ones to be taken out because they looked bad, but she made me feel like I was being unreasonable and made her do way more work.
- There was extra fabric on the lining around my chest, and she said nothing could be done- The other place fixed this
- The dress was having a hard time staying up and she gave me one option-satin spaghetti straps- the new place gave me multiple options for straps, as well as suggestions for different types of bras to be sewn into the dress to help it stay up. Jila never suggested this.
- I emailed her with a question and she replied that day. I emailed again two more times with questions and she never responded. I know she received them because she had responded the first time. I thought it was unprofessional to ignore my questions.
- I told her that another place had fixed my dress and asked for a refund for what she had not completed. She says, "the other place ripped you off and I wish you would have brought it back so I could fix it." But, as I said before, she told me numerous times she could not fix it. Why would I take it back when she said she couldn't fix it? The other place fixed her poor work and made the dress look perfect, yet she is saying that they are the ones that ripped me off. That's not true, because they could have just sold me another dress and made way more money, but they could tell I loved my dress and wanted me to have that one.
- After emailing her after the wedding, she actually changed her story and said that fixing the waist would have helped and claimed that she gave me a refund for the cups, which she never did, nor had I asked for.
- She stopped responding when I was trying to find a solution to our problem. I put in an official complaint, and guess what, no response again. I should have expected that.
- There were lines where the original cups were at, and she said she couldn't do anything. The new place fixed that.
Please considered another seamstress so you can avoid stress before your wedding. I was very disappointed that Jila didn't offer me a refund for her mistakes, even though she asked to look at the dress after the wedding so she could learn a new way to sew. Please find another seamstress that is more experienced so you don't have to go through this. read more