Tuxedo Isle

My experiences with Tuxedo Isle varied greatly over the three years I used them as my primary tailor. The shop does all kind of alterations, including wedding dresses, and I had often seen brides in with their dresses when I went to the shop. The location is on the far west end of Sherwood Park, with late evening hours on Thursday (great when you work full time). The staff there was generally pleasant and positive to deal with, but the third time I took a dress there turned out to be my last.
In total I used their tailor for three dresses. One was from an outlet in the US and required some simple alterations to the bust to make it fit, and the store did this wonderfully, with the dress being ready in under a week. The second dress I took there was completed satisfactorily. I got a zipper replaced, and a bra sewn into the top. The cups they fitted into the dress don’t fit my body well, and looking back on it now, I should have insisted that I try the cups in the dress before they were sewn in.
The third dress I took in was a disaster. I got a bridesmaid dress from a shop in the city that didn’t do alterations, so I took it to Tuxdeo Isle. I needed the top taken in, and I also asked to have some of the corset boning removed because it was terribly uncomfortable. The dress was measured and pinned while I was wearing a bra and I moved around and judged it to be the correct fit and left my dress with them. When I came back, they had mis-​measured and taken in the top so much that no one in the store could get it zipped up, even when I took my bra off. I left it with them a second time, and came back a few weeks later to see if they had fixed it. They let out the zipper a bit, but really, once a dress is cut you can’t make it bigger. It wouldn’t zip up with my bra on, and just barely fit without anything on underneath.
That last month before the wedding was terribly stressful, as I «crash dieted» to lose enough weight that the dress would fit. I was able to get it to fit for the wedding, but it was still tight enough that I couldn’t sit down after eating dinner. It’s been two years and I haven’t even bothered to try the dress on since, which is a shame because it’s a lovely dress, and was quite expensive to purchase. Although the tailors are friendly and the prices excellent, I’ll never go back to Tuxedo Isle, one ruined dress is enough.