Alterations By Sandra

Ordered a bridesmaid dress online that fit all wrong. It seemed hopelessly loose and baggy but Alterations by Sandra fixed it with ease and now it’s gorgeous! They were nice and professional and it was obvious the women there had tons of experience with this sort of thing. Thanks!

Sandra was very kind and gave her professional guidance on how to save money for my bridesmaids and my wedding dress. I can tell Sandra takes great care in what she does.

I wish I had taken a before shot of the bridesmaid dress that Sandra had to work with. It was awful, and looked like a satin paper bag (with poofy sleeves) with no shape at all. She did the most wonderful job, it fit like a glove, and I received so many compliments on this dress. Sandra took this garment from a so-​so bridemaid dress to a beautiful cocktail dress which I will certainly wear again! Not only was it affordable, she also is very laid back with her appointment style, making it easy to pop in and out — so different from the bridal boutiques that only have their seamstress available one day a week — during rush hour! (ahem, Alfred Angelo!!!) I will definitely be returning to Sandra for more alterations, etc. Thank you soooo much!

I found Sandra on Unilocal and have to say that Sandra is the kindest, most professional tailor I’ve ever been to. I took my gown in and she had it done one day early. The stitching was impeccable, you could never even see that I had it altered. I received great compliments at the Charity Gala I attended at the Del Mar Country Club. Thank you Sandra for being a super classy woman and classy business! From now on you are it for my tailoring needs!

I had ordered a dress that was hand made and had received it about three weeks later. To my horrible surprise although my dress was beautiful the woman who made it gave me a white bustier that shines through the red on the bust, I wanted a white tulle barely there teased look. It was not what I got. Freaking out about the cost to get the dress altered being that it was made for free. To my surprise sandy was awesomely priced. I found her on Unilocal and when I walked in it was this loud mouth woman who I instantly was like alright she is no bs she knows what she is doing and she is funny. Off the bat, I wanted this for my dress. I gave Sandra my picture of how it should have been and she agreed with everything. Two weeks later I picked up my dress and it was magical! She replaced the white with red and it was now completely elegant. It took breaths away when I revealed the new dress. She was awesome. Will come here every time! Thank you for my dress!

I will be back! I have always had an issue with finding clothes that fit. Even when they «fit» …clothes still look baggy on me.
I bought a dress for the Marine Corps ball. It was perfect, but slightly baggy in the front, and a little long even with heals. Sandra made sure that my dress fit me like a glove and I wasn’t tripping over it. Also, it had a train in the back, so she attached a button to bustle it up. I’m so happy she suggested this! It was needed within the first hour of the ball.
Thank you Sandra and your staff! I will be back with more clothes soon!

Very nice, prompt, and took good care of me.

Another Theory Suit Dress «customized» by Sandra! I am always hesitant to leave these reviews because it means more women will flock to Sandra and increase wait time on my alterations but Sandra’s work is just one of a kind. My colleagues always ask about my suits because they fit like a glove and I can not praise Sandra enough :)

Sandra is amazing! She was able to squeeze my 6 month pregnant belly into a bridesmaid dress! She completes her work in a timely manner and it looks amazing. She is reasonably priced and in a very convenient location.

I love Sandra! She does a fantastic job. She really knows what she is doing and will make any garment look its best. She also won’t lie to you and tell you something looks great when it doesn’t. I wouldn’t trust anyone else for alterations after having her alter my husband’s suit and my dress.

As a person, Sandra is one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. As a seamstress, she is amazing.
I hired a seamstress (Natalie Holihan) to make my wedding dress and after more than eight months I finally got the dress. But it was a week before my wedding and it was an absolute disaster. The dress was a mess. I called St. Sandra and she fixed my wedding dress, reception dress and veil in four days.
I’m so touched by everything she did for me. She calmed my nerves and worked overtime to give me the dress of my dreams.

I had to get some last minute alterations on a dress I was wearing to a wedding and Sandra came to my rescue! I took the dress in day-​end on a Wednesday and she was able to get the alterations done by Friday at noon — just in time for the weekend wedding. She did a fantastic job! The changes she made to my dress were perfect — exactly what I had envisioned. I will be going back to use her fantastic services again in the future.

Although I don’t usually write reviews, I thought it was important to share my experience with a local seamstress/​alteration business, Alterations by Sandra, with the Unilocal community. I’ve gone to a number of different tailors and seamstresses over the years, but have had uneven results with the quality of the work done. Many times, given what I was charged for the work on both designer and every-​day wear, the alteration charges were often close to the original cost of the items! Needless to say, I was rarely satisfied with either the professionalism and/​or quality of the work.
That is, until I found Alterations by Sandra on 9^th Avenue in San Diego. Given my previous experiences, I had actually compared seamstresses in my local area as to their educational training, credentials and prices. None compared to those offered by the business Alterations by Sandra. Indeed, after having brought Sandra a number of different items, some needing extensive alterations, others only minor repair, her work was consistently excellent; her pricing fair and affordable. Sandra’s professionalism, education and experience in tailoring is clearly evident in the fine work she does for me, whether it is on couture or on an off-​the-​rack outfit. (Her prices don’t fluctuate either, according to the value of the item on which she is working.) This may be due to the fact that Sandra does not sub-​out the work, but does it herself.
Lastly, I find that Sandra is not only competent and creative, but that she takes pride in her work going above and beyond, on several occasions without charge, of what can be reasonably expected of any tailor.
In conclusion, Sandra merits an A+ in all domains.
Sent from my iPad

I have been taking things to Sandra for the past few years (both when she was at Downtown Shoe Biz and at her new location). I have had her taken in (work) dresses and shorten dresses/​pants. Her prices are reasonable, and the work is done well. I am very surprised at the one-​star review from a bride below, as it is inconsistent with my experiences with her.

Sandra is an amazing seamstress! Five years ago, I was looking for someone who could alter an ill-​fitting leather skirt and found Sandra on Unilocal.She came highly rated with 5 Stars. Sandra did not disappoint. Her professionalism and expertise set her apart from previous alteration experiences.
I’m 5′ tall, busty, but tiny framed which makes it almost impossible to find clothing that fits me right off the rack. I have been taking nearly every piece of my clothing to Sandra for alterations for the past five years with amazing results. Her attention to detail and fit is outstanding. She recently did all the alterations for my daughter’s wedding party with outstanding results.
Her new location in East Village is prime. There is short-​term parking right in front of her business, and 4 hour parking a few yards away, on G Street, across from Café Chloe.
With her expertise, kindness, and excellent pricing you cannot go wrong with Alterations by Sandra.

Brought a dress in to have some alterations done before a wedding and Sandra did a great job. Her prices are very reasonable and I will definitely bring other items to her in the future.

WARNING FOR BRIDES
I saw that she had great reviews so I decided to take my dress here. I gave it to her in May, and it took forever for her to finish it. When I went in a few weeks ago for my «final» fitting, she hadn’t even finished the bust and sewn in the cups we had agreed to. I think she takes on more work than she can handle, and you don’t want someone like that working on your wedding gown.
I finally picked it up last week with the cups sewn in, but the bust is still not right. I pointed it out to her that it is shaped weird, but she said, well, you’re not really busty. I KNOW I am flat chested, but with how large of a cup she put in, there must be some way to get the rest of the dress to sit right around it so it doesn’t look like I’m just wearing two lumpy socks stuffed under my dress. The fact that she didn’t offer to fix it tells me she just doesn’t know how.
I went home and I cried BC it is now less than 3 weeks till my wedding and I still don’t have a wearable dress to walk down the aisle in. And for what she charged me, I could have bought a better fitting gown at Davids bridal!
There was a misunderstanding over the price, too. I thought she quoted me $ 250 for everything, including the hem, waist, bust, and bustle. She told me everything, but she later said she meant everything except the hem BC even though I hadn’t picked shoes yet, she said she could tell I wouldn’t need one. Then she said it would be an extra $ 150 if I needed to have cups sewn in, but gave me a chance to find a good push up bra first and see if that would work. Well, it didn’t BC the bust was wayyy too big for me, so I asked for cups to be sewn in. Then when I brought shoes in for the second fitting, she said I didn’t need the dress hemmed, so I asked if she would discount the work, and she said she hadn’t quoted me the hem. She ended up giving me $ 40 off in the end over the misunderstanding, but $ 360 for the quality of work I received is still a total rip-​off.
I also noticed that some of the detailing on the bust wasn’t totally reapplied and is coming off. Her excuse is that after staring at a dress with so much detail for hours you get lost and start to miss things. But isn’t a good seamstress supposed to have an eye for detail and catch those things other people wouldn’t? Overall, I can tell that she just put the bare minimum of effort into my dress. I now have to pay another seamstress to correct it, and just thinking about how much I’ll have to spend on my dress after I already dropped so much cash on her work this just makes me want to cry more!
I will post before and after pics after the wedding to show the unflattering disaster she called finished work, and the updated pics once I can get it fixed. They will have to be posted after the wedding, though, BC I don’t want pics of my dress floating around that my fiancé can see. I just wanted to post a warning to other brides here before they decide to trust the biggest, most expensive, dress of their lives to her.
If you don’t want to take any chances, find someone who ONLY does wedding dresses because they will understand how to form them to flatter you, and someone who is professional enough to turn down work they can’t handle instead of sacrificing the quality of work on your gown to satisfy someone who came later and had a tight deadline.
Another reason not to go here, she didn’t tell me this upfront, but she ONLY takes cash.
Don’t get me wrong, she is a nice lady, but just because she is nice doesn’t mean she’ll do a good job on your dress.

I’m the type of person that gets nearly everything I buy altered. Dresses, pants, certain shirts — everything, so when I moved to SD and needed to take a dress and coat to have tailored, I was really happy to find Sandra. She is a perfectionist with a meticulous eye for detail — but she also knows how to reign in unrealistic expectations and give her opinion on what will work best with the fabric/​your body type. I will definitely be using her for years to come :)

Sandra definitely deserves 5 stars! I got married Feb 1 and called Sandra 2 weeks prior begging for help. She laughed on the phone and assured me that everything was going to be okay. I came by her shop that same day to get my wedding gown altered. She was amazing. She answered all of my questions and was gentle with my dress. I’m so happy to have found Sandra.
I would def recommend her to anyone asking for gown alternations.
Thank you so much Sandra!!!

I needed to have major alterations/​repairs done to my vintage lace wedding gown. This gown was worn by my mother during her wedding. It was hand-​stitched for her by my grandmother. Since it is so dear to me, I was hesitant to take it anywhere.
I checked Unilocal and found Alterations by Sandra. I initially chose to stop by because it is the only alterations place in San Diego with only 5 star reviews. Previous Unilocalers, you did not let me down!
Sandra is warm and friendly. She totally reminds me of my sweet mother. But also she is a serious tailor. I was impressed by her professionalism. We discussed what needed to be done with the alterations, cleaning, etc. She had me try on the gown and she took some notes before quoting me a VERY REASONABLE price. I was shocked at how low it was!
I was also pleasantly surprised that she is willing to do such a complete overhaul on a vintage, handmade lace gown. Part of me was very scared that I wouldn’t be able to wear this gown at my wedding. Now I can rest easy knowing I will be able to wear the gown that I wanted to wear at my wedding since I was only a little girl.
She said that she would love it if I would email her a photo of myself wearing the gown. She went on to say that it is something that she asks all of her brides to do, but that so far, none have. I can tell you this: She has been such a special part of my wedding journey and I definitely will be sending her a photo!
If you need alterations, especially for items that are dear to your heart, I suggest you stop by and see Sandra.