Alterations By Ioana

Ioana is like a Fairy God Mother! I decided to wait last minute to buy a bridesmaid dress because they would be cheaper. Unfortunately they only had 2 sizes smaller! It was a week before the wedding when I received it so I was in a panic and called Ioana. She was so kind to fit me in and assured me everything would be ok. We had the zipper replaced with a beautiful corset back. It looked amazing and fit like a glove! Thank you so much Ioana! Thank you to your kind a helpful assistants also! You girls are the best!

This place is AMMMAAZZING!!! I had an emergency situation with a Bridesmaid dress that wouldn’t fit. I had about two weeks until the wedding and 5 other alterations places turned me down. Thank god I found Ioana. She was able to take the zipper out, put in a corset back, hem the bottom and add extra material on the sides all in ONE WEEK. She did a beautiful job and I am forever grateful. They were quick, very reasonably priced and made me feel at ease in a very stressful situation. This is the only alterations place I will ever go to from here on out.

Did a nice job in alterations but you have to not be in a hurry. So if want good work, give them lots of time to allow it to be completed.

Ioana has saved my wedding (dress) — literally. I ordered a ‘custom-​made’ wedding dress and was it ever custom! Not for MY body apparently… but it was custom all right. The dress arrived and every single measurement was off, save the length.
I credit Ioana for creating the dress now because she literally had to re-​make almost every aspect of it. I came in every week over the course of 4.5 weeks and she made change after change and was extremely patient with my requests.
The dress was ridiculously too small in the hips, the waist was too big, the bust and bodice area were too big, the zipper was too short and on the wrong side of the dress even (!!), the straps over the shoulders were too short… everything was wonky.
Ultimately she replaced the zipper, took in the waist over and over again, let out the hips the entire way and then had to put in a new swath of chiffon in a very well-​placed and hidden insert in the back to add even more room, redid all the lining, removed all the padding and boning in the bodice in order to make it fit correctly, changed the dress from shoulder straps to halter neck, added the bustle, etc. It was a painstaking and daunting task and she put up with my incessant requests and a couple of times, even my tears. I was despairing that the dress could be saved and Ioana was a huge comfort to me over and over telling me that she would make it right and to trust her. I’m so glad I did.
I took up a tremendous amount of her time with my gown changes during her busiest time of the year what with prom dresses, wedding dresses and bridesmaid’s dresses flooding in every day. This woman is a saint! My dress is now a completely altered dress and looks amazing on me and fits my every curve (I will post photos after my wedding which is in one week).
AND — to the woman who gave Ioana a bad review stating that she was a «…busy lady, seems a little stressed, … it took her roughly a week before we can pick it up. How do I know she’s a busy lady!!!» and «You can look at her store and can see so much cluttered. I would be stressed out working in this untidy mass of clothes.» …
Honestly, the fact that her location is jam-​packed with orders for alterations is a testament to her being ‘busy’ and to just how good and talented she really is at what she does. Just because the ‘mass of clothes’ are not hidden behind some wall that would appeal more to your idea of tidiness, does not mean that her place is untidy or cluttered. The woman is working insane hours trying to make a lot of people happy in a very short time and if your order wasn’t ready for a week it is likely due to people like me that really taxed her time and to her unfailing attention to detail and desire to make an unhappy bride a happy one and also convert her into a lifetime client. She works practically 7 days a week — so even when she is closed to you and I as a business, she is still there working to get orders done as promised and not disappoint.
I would urge to you read all the wonderful reviews out here and give Ioana another try when you need alterations done. She is hands-​down — THE best!

Very friendly and skilled. Watching her work was like a performance. She could probably do it blindfolded.

Busy lady, seems a little stressed, but the price for alterations is more affordable than Macy’s. My boyfriend came here to get his designer jeans hemmed and it took her roughly a week before we can pick it up. How do I know she’s a busy lady!!! Cause she expressed her frustration with another customers by saying, «I’m a very busy lady!» This is a fifteen minute walk from my house so one star for location and another for her price. You can look at her store and can see so much cluttered. I would be stressed out working in this untidy mass of clothes.

Ioana, apologies for the ridiculously delayed review I promised you.
Ioana is the best! She’s nothing but professional and caters to what her clients’ needs.
Ioana, myself and my now sister-​in-​law went through a long journey of alterations back in October-​November 2015 when she took on altering the brides 5 sizes too large wedding dress. Ioana completely restructured this dress and I, along with the bride, could not be happier with the finished product. We were there every weekend for 8 weeks to make sure every adjustment was perfect for the big day.
I HIGHLY recommend taking any wedding dress to Ioana to have ANY alterations done. She is an absolute seamstress genius!
Thank you again, Ioana!

I came in with a big job for Ioana. My bridesmaids dress came in about 8 sizes too big with only 2 weeks before the wedding. She was able to take the dress right away and get it fitting perfectly just in time for the wedding. She was do nice and did impeccable work. Will definitely come to her again. The only criticism I have is that she works on everything down to the wire. If you say you will pick up your garment at 5, it will be done no sooner than 5 so don’t expect to show up early. Great quality work though!

Call at 4pm: come in for job interview tomorrow morning, but don’t wear a suit!
Me at 4:05pm: OMG what do I wear?
Me at 5:01pm: found nice pair of pants, but needs to be hemmed.
Me at 5:58pm: please please hem my pants.
Ioana: Oh you are one of those people!
I’m closing now. But you have jeans. I get you done really fast.
Me: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
They look great, btw!

By far the best place to go for alterations!
I got four pairs of pants hemmed and they all turned out perfect!
Service was professional, sweet, and overall wonderful. Prices are great :) I asked to have my pants done by Saturday at 10am and I received a call at 10 exactly that my pants were ready!
So happy to have found this place!

Hi Ioana — Thank you for the apology. That goes a really long way and I appreciate it. Keep the money — don’t worry about it. Thanks again for the thoughtful note and have a lovely day.

There is no one I could trust more with the investment I make in my clothing.
Ioana is not only a joy to be around, she is a real artist. I’ll come to her with favorite items, feeling it’s a risk to alter anything in case it doesn’t work out and not only does it come back flawless, it’s better than I imagined.
I’ve tried many other tailors and have been devastated by what they have done to my expensive dresses. Absolutely ruined them. I brought them over to Ioana and not only could she fix their mistakes, she actually made improvement for me, ones that she felt would help flatter me more. I’ve brought her pants that were falling about, which she was able to put back together. I’ve brought her difficult jackets that she beautifully customized for me. The list goes on and on.
She is now a good friend and an absolute necessity.

This is the reason I love Unilocal… to find professionals such as Ioana who was able to come in clutch and save me when I needed it.
I currently live in LA and had to come back home to San Jose this past weekend for some weddings. Picked up a new suit a couple months ago but due to my amazing procrastination skills I took it to my tailor two weeks before the weekend of the weddings. Don’t get me wrong, I love my tailor and he’s super helpful but this time around I noticed my pants weren’t as slim as I’d like them to be. Because I picked them up super late, I didn’t have time for him to fix them and decided I’d just wear them and make sure people only post pictures of me on Instagram/​FB from the waist up.
Thank god for Unilocal because when I got up to San Jose on Friday afternoon, I found some reviews about how great Ioana is and came by to give her a shot. She was super sweet and professional and guaranteed my pants would be ready by the next day at 11:00am (needed them for the wedding at 3:00pm). As other reviews stated, she pinned/​marked up my pants really quickly and I was in an out within 10 minutes.
My pants were ready the next morning. Not going to lie, I was pretty skeptical about them being done on time/​I thought they might be a little sloppy (I mean I gave her less than 24 hours and she had a million other customers she had to deal with so I wouldn’t blame her…) but WAS I WRONG. TURNED OUT PERFECT! Made me feel GQ fresh!
Seriously would consider moving back home to San Jose just knowing that I have someone like Ioana I can trust. Will definitely be back!

I wish I could give Ioana a better review. She’s a very sweet lady and her prices are decent, but her output is inconsistent. I’ve had a few experiences where she didn’t alter everything we discussed. There have also been a couple of times that she did not have my items done on time (I usually show up a bit after the specified time just to be courteous), and she asked me to come back. That may be part of the reason that she didn’t get to everything we discussed when I would first come in and drop off my clothes — she was rushing to finish and either didn’t write down everything we discussed or overlooked them in the interest of time.
Unfortunately this has happened one too many times, so I won’t be returning, which is such a shame since it’s less than a mile from my house!

Update: She gave me a discount due to the extended wait and she did a great job on my pants. Very professional.
Based on the the stellar reviews, I decided to give this place a try. I had to get 3 pairs of jeans hemmed. She promised me they would be done by 12pm on a Wednesday. Came in at 1215 pm that Wednesday and she said they weren’t done. She said to give her another 30 minutes. I told her I would run some errands and come back to get them. Came back 40 minutes later, and they’re still not done because she was doing someone else’s pants that came in. So she asked me to come back the following day. So it’s the following day… and they’re still not done. She’s a nice lady, but had to dock a few stars because when she promised me a date and time, I expected it to be done (since other fellow Unilocalers had their items done by the time they were promised).

I needed a bunch of suits, shirts, and pants altered, and I chose to try Ioana because of her high Unilocal review ratings — thanks fellow Unilocalers!
So I brought in everything. She did an AMAZING job with everything — and when the alterations were complete and there was one minor issue with one of the pants when were tried on in her store, Ioana fixed it while everything else was being tried on, and the «on the spot» alterations were «spotlessly perfect» ;)
She did an amazing job in the timeframe we needed. Her rates are not cheap — she is top quality — but I view it as «getting it done, right, the first time» as opposed to other highly-​rated tailors who had high Unilocal review ratings (who were very personable) but their work wasn’t as good, by far, as Ioana’s.
Congrats, you’ve found the best tailor in the South Bay, in my opinion. If you go with her, she’ll almost assuredly get it right the first time, and if not, I’m confident she’ll fix it immediately or very soon thereafter. She’s THAT good.
And Ioana — thank you so much for your work. We really appreciate it! =)

I had two suits that needed substantial alteration. I needed the early 2000’s taken out of the shoulders and to have them taken in. Nordstrom quoted me double watch Ioana did. (I only wish I’d taken the pants to her, too!) She did the work promptly and beautifully. I couldn’t be happier with the end product.
Today, I dropped by a torn pair of ski pants which she fixed on the spot and at no charge. It is a delight to have such a thoughtful and expert professional right in the neighborhood.

Amazing! Well priced and accurate!
My bridesmaid dress largest size was still to small for me Ioana took fabric from the lining and did not even need to charge me for getting extra fabric. I was worried taking the dress out enough to fit me would leave obvious marks the wedding guests and bride would notice.
When I got the dress back it fit perfectly and Ioana was professional and SO FAST!
I highly recommend her devices both for individual and group alterations!

I had two dresses, women’s jeans, two men’s pants, my wedding dress, and my spouse’s suit altered here — as well as some press work for dress shirts and my wedding dress.
Ioana is very sweet and easy to talk to. She delivered everything we needed and made sure that we were satisfied with the end product — and we were!
Ioana was even able to hem my spouse’s pants in an hour because we were going to be busy with the wedding. I really appreciated that, it really freed up our time.
My bach party dresses were once ill-​fitting but she tapered the dress and made it fit perfectly. She also adjusted all my sleeves to fit like a glove! My clothes looked like they were tailor made for me! Not only that, my wedding dress was pressed perfectly and the sleeves were done according to how I wanted them to look. I got compliments on them all night! Also, my spouse’s suit bottom was once loose, she made it it tight and nice! Exactly how pants should fit! It was a big deal for the suits to fit well because I have gone to weddings were the suits were ill-​fitting, and I didn’t want that look. Ioana made sure the suit looked great and it did! Thanks for the awesome job!!!

*NOTE: This review is based on denim alterations.
Although «Alterations by Ioana» is filled with great reviews, it saddens me to say that my experience here was just mediocre.
Came in on a Thursday afternoon to get two pairs of high-​quality jeans worked on (i.e. APC, Naked & Famous). Although the work was different (one pair needed inseam alterations; the other needed both inseam and hem), I was charged $ 25 each ($ 50 total). After questioning Ioana about the pricing because work was different between the two items, I was told that the price was standard and it was crazy to assume anything less. Didn’t want to fuss so I settled.
Picked up both pairs of jeans today and was expected by Ioana to pick-​up and go. Not so fast. Before leaving, I demanded to try out the finished products and learned that one of the inseam alterations was too tight.
Ultimately, I didn’t have the greatest experience with their craftsmanship or their service.