Expert Alterations

Janet is super nice and awesome! I brought like 8 pairs of jeans for Janet to hem. They were all done perfectly. Janet even told me which one I should keep original and which one I shouldn’t to help me save money. So 8 jeans total is only $ 50! Usually it cost like $ 15 to do one in other places. And they were all done perfectly. Thanks Janet!

I love Janet and her darling smile. Although I can hardly communicate with her, language barrier, it doesn’t matter as she is an expert professional and can understand what I need done. She has hemmed both jeans and long dresses for me and both came out beautifully. I continue to go back to her with my business. Her kind energy, affordable prices, and skilled work are well worth it. A pant hem cost me $ 5 and long dress with side slit $ 15. Tapering a jean and hem for $ 20. Thanks Janet!

Janet was awesomely helpful despite the language barrier, and decently open to negotiation as well. I think she would be great for simple things like jean and straight skirt hemming and patching holes. Not so good for hemming A-​line skirts, but she’s definitely a great tailor charging great prices for everything else.

Just had 2 t shirts altered and Janet did a fantastic job, none of the puckering that usually happens with jersey knit. She used a double seam and the t shirts looked like they had just been purchased. Not only that, but she is nice, funny and friendly. I do not speak Cantonese but we had no problem communicating.

Best experience I would have expected in Chinatown. It helps a lot if you know Cantonese, although she knows some English. She knows how to alter the cheongsam, and well. She explained what work could be done to make it fit better, and have me the option of which alterations to do, no pressure.

it took me 2 years to have another pair of pants hemmed but janet is still the «da bomb». i did converse with her cantonese the price has increased GULP to $ 4.
that is still cheap and she’s quick and efficient too!!! she was able to give it to the next day i gave her $ 5 still cheap. thank you janet: O)

FYI, this review is written from the perspective of someone who interacted with Janet in Cantonese.
Janet (趙太 in Cantonese) is a super nice and accommodating woman. Despite being very busy, Janet was willing to squeeze me in and hem two pairs of pants for me on the spot for a slightly higher yet still extremely cheap price of $ 5 per pair (she normally charges $ 3 per pair I believe). I was so grateful, I gave her $ 15, which would still be $ 10 less than what I would have paid elsewhere.
While I waited for my pants to be hemmed, another customer came (also Cantonese speaking) to drop off a dress and I was able to watch Janet interact with her. The customer spoke glowingly of Janet and praised her profusely.
The price is more than right, bordering on absurdly cheap relative to other places in the financial district, Janet is super pleasant, and the job she did was great. I’ll definitely be bringing all my alteration needs here to Janet.

I’m a loyal customer of Janet! I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know her name until I saw one of the Unilocal reviews, but she is seriously the cutest and happiest tailor I ever met, with mad skills to match! Hemming jeans is not a difficult task, and Janet only charges you $ 3 vs. the $ 12+ farther down in FiDi – SO reasonable. She’s earned my trust, so I’ve been bringing her more difficult jobs, which go up to around $ 10 – 15, and she does them flawlessly, including pants from Balenciaga and a number of designer tops with complicated sleeves/​hemming. Be prepared to really communicate what you want though – she doesn’t quite offer up her opinion as much as one might want from a tailor.

What a cute and charming lady! I had a huge gaping hole in my sweater and she did an AMAZING job patching it up for only $ 5. In fact, it was such a good job that I can’t even find where the hole used to be (and I spent about a good 5 – 7 minutes looking). She’s def got my loyalty for all future alteration/​clothing fix needs.
Just repeating what others said but:
1. If you don’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin, then good luck. If you do, then you’re in luck! It’s like talking to one of your aunts who treats you like family
2. There is no sign but the hours are posted. It was the Unilocal photo that helped me locate it (if you’re coming from Jackson street, it’ll be on your left).

One perk of speaking Cantonese is that I get to chat with the lady who owns this little shop. She’s hilarious and reminds me of my mom — minus the part where my mom cautions me that sharing nail clippers can give you HIV.
Also, she does $ 3 hems, and the quality of the work is great! I had 4 pairs of pants hemmed (including one pair of flares with a super wide leg, so those cost ‘more’ at $ 6) and a new zipper put in on a dress (the dress was lined, so the lining had to be undone and re-​sewn to replace the long zipper), for a total cost of $ 33. I’m used to paying anywhere from $ 6 to $ 12 to hem one pair of pants. I even tried to give her a tip and she wouldn’t take it!
She has fantastic attention to detail and took the time to tell me that dress zippers break easily where the fabric is thick and too close to the zipper. She showed me the spot where she moved the fabric a tiny bit away from the zipper’s edge to prevent future breakage, because the material was doubled over there. It’s hardly noticeable, but definitely makes a difference. Zipper works perfectly now, and the dress looks great.
Getting pants fitted correctly, or clothes fixed is a great way to refresh a wardrobe without buying new stuff! I already have people who want me to guide them to this mystical place of $ 3 hems to have their pants done.
I’ll definitely be back and will bring more complicated things with beading/​more tailoring to be altered.

I went to have my pants hemmed last week and it only cost me $ 3! Whatta deal! Janet speaks Cantonese or Mandarin and a tiny bit of English. Thankfully, with the little Mandarin that I know, we were able to understand each other.
The shop has no sign outside, there’s only a poster with store hours on the door. If you see that, then you’re in the right place. There was really nowhere to change. She would ask you to just go behind a short divider and change there. She will tell you that she won’t look and she will lock the door.
The day that I went, she didn’t have a lot of backlog or jobs, so she was able to hem my pants in 15 – 20 minutes. But if you bring in more than one, you might have to come back for it on a different day. She did a fantastic job, by the way. I’m definitely going back!

I found this place through Unilocal and decided to give it a try. I brought in a pair of jeans I wanted to get hemmed — original hem. It cost $ 7 which I thought was really fair. I put them on for her to pin and she only pinned one leg. I’ve had jeans hemmed at other places before and they only pinned one leg so I didn’t think much of it. I came back a few days later to pick it up and didn’t realize until I brought them home that one leg was longer than the other! I matched them up in various ways and one leg was clearly longer than the other. We’re talking about ¼ of an inch!
I brought them back and she measured them and said they were the same but it it wasn’t until I tried them on for her again that she could see the difference. She pinned the longer one and fixed it (after another 3 days) but said it’s probably because I have different length legs. Well, I’ve never had that problem with any of my other pants so whatever… Anyway, she did a really good job and I’m happy with the outcome. I’m not happy with having to go back twice but even so, I’d still go back. I’ll just insist on her pinning both legs next time.
As another reviewer wrote, she is quite sassy but I’ve found that she’s pretty reasonable. I just ask for what I want and even though she makes it sound like she’s doing me a huge favor, she gets it done and there are no hard feelings. It helps to speak Chinese — I only speak Mandarin but she speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese.
Don’t expect much — it’s very nondescript and there are piles of clothing and fabric everywhere. She motioned to the back of the store and asked me to try on the pants and pretty much said, «Change over there, no one can see you. I’ll just lock the door. See? No one can see you.» She continued working with her back to me. See? No one can see me.

I needed some sewing done and since my office is near Chinatown I turned to Unilocal and found this place. Based on my experience, the reviews here are accurate. To call this shop non-​descript is an understatement, but it is well worth finding.
The woman who runs this closet-​sized shop was really charming and nice. She told me when my sewing would be done and it was. The price was very fair (OK cheap) and the work exceeded my expectations. This is now my go to sewing shop. This is exactly the type of merchant that I never would have found without something like Unilocal.

I love this place. After doing some serious Unilocal research, I decided to give it a try. I brought in four pairs of pants and a shirt, with all kinds of alteration requests: hemming, replacing buttons, repairing holes, taking things in, etc. Just a couple days later I came in to pick up my clothes, and was totally satisfied with how everything came out. Maybe the best part? It cost less than $ 25! Amazing.

I just moved to the city and was looking for some cheap alterations… and what a gem i found! I took in a leather skirt to hem, 2 pairs of jeans to hem and create a «skinny» leg and a uniform skirt that needed to be sewn. I had high hopes for this place so I even took in my expensive jeans to get skinnied! She did an amazing job! The hem looks great and they are the perfect length now and she tapered them off at the bottom so now they are super flattering! It took her about 5 – 6 days because I wasn’t in any hurry.
I’m seriously telling all of my friends about this place. Cheapest and best alterations in Chinatown, hands down! Oh and she kept the original hem for a grand total of $ 30! For all 4 items. I can’t get enough!

After hours of research on Unilocal,I made my decision to get my dress altered from a size 10 to a size 4 without shortening it. I loved the dress so much that I had to have it, even if it was three sizes too big.
I bought my dress on sale so getting it altered was definitely worth it, as long as it was still below regular price. I was afraid that it was impossible to modify it due to its intricate beading and structured bodice. I have never altered anything of this large extent before so I was very skeptical. The lady at Expert Alterations reassured me that it would work and that I found the perfect person that was an expert at these types of alterations. She is quite sassy (love it!) and doesn’t speak much english. I don’t mind since I speak some cantonese.
The shop is very modest and is located in an alley on the bottom of an apartment complex. There is also a very small makeshift changing area and a very short mirror. I told Ms. Sassy to take her time on my dress since I didn’t need it right away. I went in for two fittings and the dress looks great!
I would definitely come here again if I have any formal dresses to alter. There is a nook in that alley right next to the shop where she told me to park for a few minutes (at your own risk!!). Very convenient and wallet friendly!

I’ve been searching for a good cheap alteration place since I moved to North Beach. I’d tried a few in Chinatown and hadn’t been satisfied with any of them. So my search continued and led me here to Expert Alterations. I was very optimistic about this place due to the good reviews and the super friendly lady that works here. I took a pair of jeans to be hemmed. It cost $ 3 for the «cut and sew» option. The workmanship was pretty good and it was ready the next day. My only complaint is that the thread used did not match the thread on the rest of the jeans. The jeans have two different colors of thread — a yellowish color and a faded orange color. The thread she used for the hem is BRIGHT orange. Overall, not a bad experience, but I’m going to continue my search.

So I have way too many jeans, however none really fit and feel as good as my favorite ones do. The only problem with them being my go to pair is that they get beaten up and have def seen better days ie. the back of the cuffs were ripped up from being a little long, the back pockets were fraying etc.
I have been to other tailors before and was sometimes satisfied with the $ 15 job, but really wanted to find that super secret deal that I knew was somewhere down in Chinatown. I hunted on my own and didn’t really find a place that looked promising until my friend told me to Unilocal it. Probably the only good thing this friend has ever done for me.
So I came across the other posting and decided to take a chance. At least take a peak.
I am a white boy, not quite gringo status, but still white enough so walking up to this little tiny shop I was under the impression that there was going to be a lot of sign language. Nope. She knew everything that I wanted and even chimed in on some good pointers.
Dropped on Tues. picked up on Fri. and found that my jeans were better than the day I got them. The nice woman even matched the intricate stitching pattern and color-​scheme.
Did i mention it was $ 3 and when I gave her $ 5 she acted like I made her day. Go figure. Highly recommend for jeans hem.
BRAVO!!!

In brief:
Location: Trenton and Jackson
Hours: M-​F 10am-​5pm, Sat 12pm-​5pm
Price: Cheap! ($ 3 for regular hem, $ 6? for original hem)
Service: Super-​dee-​duper! (but you have to speak mando or canto or you’re out of luck)
Results: I rarely have problems and if I do (i.e. pants not hemmed short enough), she fixes it for free
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Details:
When I moved back from Manhattan last year, I needed to find a tailor to replace the cheap neighborhood one I frequented in the LES (see my review on Nelson Tailor Shop). I had shopped around and found plenty of places that would do basic pant hemming for $ 15-​$ 25, which I thought was ridiculous considering it only takes 5 minutes to hem a pair of pants with a machine. I’m just hemming sample sale jeans and BR pants from the sale rack, not Armani suits so I’m not picky.
I finally heard about this place from a friend who lives in Chinatown and I’ve never needed to look for another tailor since. Janet is great! She’s got this little work room which includes a little makeshift «dressing room.» I always try on my clothes for her there so she knows exactly how much to alter. I’ve brought her jeans, trousers, and even cargo pants that needed to be taken in at the waist. I go there every 6 – 8 weeks and she always remembers me — I don’t even need to give her the ticket/​receipt.
As for turnaround times, 4 – 5 business days have been the norm for me as I’ve never needed anything in a rush.
The downside is that her English is poor so it is probably safer if you knew how to speak either mandarin or cantonese. Also, she’s located in Chinatown, but she’s worth the 15 minute hike (each way) from my office downtown. Plus, I can pick up some Chinatown food for lunch on the way back!