Fashions by Pearl

Pearl is a lovely woman who works out of her home in N. Scarborough - she can easily serve the GTA. She's referred by The Bride's Project, a non-profit in Toronto that sells donated and used wedding gowns for a cause. I went to Pearl because she seemed to have lower alteration rates than other options, although I didn't get any real estimates elsewhere.... She does have good expertise, and she's very friendly! She's pretty busy, though, so expect to leave messages. She was good about returning my first phone call asking to make an appt., but she was not so prompt about answering phone calls once she had my two gowns. I did not require major alterations on either of them - just lots of small stuff. This really added up - I ended up with $180 worth and didn't do everything I wanted. She hemmed a short dress, which was the bulk of the cost, but the hem came out uneven. I ended up waiting for 2 hours on the day I picked them up so that she could try and fix it on the fly. Otherwise, she turned my straps into a halter (but no decoration - I had to find something to make the attachment point pretty myself), fitted a bolero jacket, attached a sash, and fixed some rippling on the waist of the second dress... she also fixed a hole in the hem of the first. However, she forgot to finish the ends of the sash, so I had to wait on that too. Overall, I really liked Pearl, and she gave up her evening to make sure I left satisfied, which I appreciated. But I was pretty annoyed about the uneven hem and didn't have time to leave it for her to do over... I wish it had just been done right the first time! I'm sure others have been very happy with Pearl, based on the numbers of gowns she does, but I recommend her with some reservations.