Jean Wu

Would NOT recommend.
Had to get my jumpsuit fitted for an upcoming event. She initially said she was flexible with timing and that she was available during a certain timeframe, but when I showed up at her door to pick it up, she didn’t answer her door or any calls. I called three times. She called me back later explaining that she had a special customer fitting — understandable but I wish she told me beforehand.
She also overcharged me on pants hemming (she charged $ 17 whereas the going rate is around $ 10 — she said it was because the quality of her hemming is superior but it didn’t look any different).
I found her via Unilocal because of the reviews but I will not be going back again. Inflexible, lacklustre job and overpriced. She has a friendly attitude but her lack of responsiveness pissed me off.

Warning to brides — do not take your wedding dress to be altered with Jean. I found her online through a list on blogTO and called her to find out if she alters wedding dresses. She assured me that she’s had ++ experience with wedding dresses and told me to come in for a fitting.
At the fitting, I started to get a bit worried about her abilities. I told her I want a simple bustle for my wedding dress. She seemed confused about what I was asking for and I had to show her a picture of a bustle. I thought maybe it was just a language barrier but when we went shopping together for the materials for the alterations, she didn’t seam to know what type of buttons or hooks would be appropriate. I started to get even more worried.
We went back to her place after we bought the materials and she asked me to get in my dress again to pin the place for the bustle. She fumbled with my dress for about 20 minutes and it still didn’t look right when she finally pinned it.
As a kicker — while I was about to leave, a girl came to pick up her (what looked like a bridesmaid) dress. She tried on her dress and turned out Jean had cut the dress too short, which seems to be a common theme in the reviews I’ve read so far. Jean proceeded to try to fluff out the dress and not take the blame for the dress being too short.
That was a huge red flag for me, on top of the other concerns I already had, so I told her I wanted to take my dress elsewhere. She tried to charge me a fitting fee — which would have been fine except she didn’t mention that fee to me when I called her on the phone. She tried to lie and tell me that she did tell me there is a fitting fee.
I think she’s a very nice person but I don’t think she has the expertise to alter a wedding dress. I went to see another seamstress after Jean and it was very clear right off the bat that she was experienced and knew what she was doing. I did not get the same feeling with Jean.
The other seamstress was more expensive but I’m glad I went elsewhere because I wouldn’t want to ruin my dress, trying to cut costs on alterations.

Brides– please take your wedding dresses elsewhere!
I took my wedding dress to Jean after finding her on Unilocal,and another friend recommended her for doing her bridesmaid dress. After several weeks and multiple trips to her house/​business, I ultimately had to take my ruined dress elsewhere to get altered completely again. Here is a list of things she did wrong with my wedding dress:
1) A professional wedding dress seamstress would know to alter the bust and fit the top of the dress first BEFORE hemming the dress at a second fitting (I found this out later). But Jean fitted me for my dress the first time (My wedding dress was a size too big on me), and the second time I came back to her house, she already altered the top AND cut off the hem! She cut off 5 inches off of my lace dress as part of hemming, when in reality I didn’t need the bottom hemmed at all. She would’ve known this if she altered and fitted my dress at the top first before hemming the bottom. Unfortunately, the way she cut off the 5 inches of lace was irreversible– she couldn’t put the lace back to where she cut it off from. So ultimately, we had to go find French lace together to match my dress as closely as possible to apply it back to an area of the dress that it didn’t belong (this altered the original look of my dress).
2) Multiple times, she told me something couldn’t be altered because it is «impossible», but in reality it is because she’s inexperienced with wedding dresses and didn’t know how to do it. For example: she told me my dress can’t be bustled. It’s a simple lace dress with a small train. After I took the dress elsewhere, the new seamstress said it would take 10 minutes to bustle my dress by adding some buttons, and every dress can be bustled. This just shows Jean is obviously inexperienced– had I believed her, I would’ve missed out on the opportunity to wear my dress throughout my reception. And guess what?! Jean told me that I don’t need to bustle my dress, because I won’t be dancing that much at my wedding anyways…(WHAT!!! Did she really say that to me?)
3) Other than cutting 5 inches off of my dress, she also had to alter my ribcage area because the dress was loose. The last time I went to Jean’s place for the fitting, I noticed the ribcage lace was all wrinkled and uneven after her alterations. I asked her why, and she said that’s how the seams of the sides are and that’s the best she can do. Later when I took the dress to a new seamstress, I found out 1) Jean never fitted the ribcage to my body and there was a lot extra lace just bunched up in the middle, causing the wrinkles; 2) Jean only took in the top layer lace to fit to my body, but FORGOT to take in the 2 slip layers underneath! Jean never noticed to take those 2 layers in; no wonder my dress looked uneven from the outside.
4) Every time I asked her a question about why her alterations looked off while I was trying on the dress (i.e. the ribcage or the hem), she would come over and «fluff» up that part, as to hide the imperfections, and say how it looks ok. I need this dress to fit perfectly on my wedding day, not to just to hide the imperfect alteration job.
5) Her place is not the most tidy. I know she’s an efficient worker, but at least I hope she treats all of her garments with respect. When she and I had to go to the fabric store together to look for the French lace to add back to my dress, she STUFFED (not folded) my entire wedding dress into a recyclable grocery bag and just walked around town with it! The dress had no wrapping on the outside and I’m not even sure the bag was clean. That’s obviously not how you’d want your dress to be treated!
After going to Jean’s house multiple times and her failing to alter my dress as a professional would, I had to take the dress to a professional bridal shop with a month left until my wedding. The seamstress there had to take apart the seams that Jean sewed and redo the alterations for the sides altogether. I also had to pay the full price of the alterations because they pretty much had to redo the entire dress. After this experience, I’m honestly disappointed because this left me a month before the wedding, and I really should’ve taken the dress to a professional bridal seamstress in the first place.
My overall dissatisfaction comes from the fact that:
1) She told me something couldn’t be done when in reality, it was because she was inexperienced and didn’t know how to do it.
2) She blamed me multiple times for TELLING HER to cut off 5 inches of my dress. You’re obviously the professional and should know how much to hem the dress and when in the process to do it. The worst part is AFTER she took responsibility for cutting off my dress and we went to buy lace together, she backed out on her words and blamed me AGAIN and saying it was me who told her to do so. I think a professional seamstress should and would honor their words and not blame the customer for the mistakes that she made.

Found her on Unilocal and glad I did… Very personable and got the job done as advertised and on time. Got my suit jacket and pants altered and there were no issues. She did an excellent job and u will definitely go back

Was looking for someone to resize my down jacket, and Jean was the only seamstress in the area who would take up the task. She did an awesome job! Details below:
Service: She is really friendly and nice and tries her best to explain to you her recommendations and alterations. For instance I wanted my jacket taken in further than she was recommending, but she showed me how that would look disproportionate with my sleeves (it’d make them look too puffy). In the end the jacket looked great so she was right!
Quality of work: Very professional. No seams or lumpy parts — the jacket looks totally unaltered in its shape and form, an incredible feat for a long, quilted down jacket. Jean is magical. She also got it faster to me than the date we’d discussed, which was great for me.
Price: A bit pricier than I expected ($ 150) but well worth the money and service.
Altogether, a big recommend! She’s really reasonable and professional, and if she can do something as complicated as a down jacket, I don’t think you can go wrong with her!

I found Jean off of a blogto review and I’m glad I did. Don’t be surprised to arrive at a townhouse with a makeshift changing room. If you’re okay with that, it will be worth it. I brought her a chiffon dress and a heavy material jumpsuit. She was thoughtful enough to tell me my dress didn’t even need alterations as I obviously didn’t know how to wear it properly — she was right. My jumpsuit was another story. I bought it on a whim thinking it would be an easy fix, but after trying it on for her, I realized she would need to deconstruct the entire thing to fit me properly. She managed to get the job done and WELL and with a reasonable price and turn around time. I love it! I’ll be sure to go to her for future alterations.

Nothing but good things to say about the quality of her work.
She doesn’t work out of a formal shop, rather a residence, but she’s obviously very adept at what she does.
I came in to get a hole in a pocket of my pants repaired. She did a good job, at a very reasonable price.
I recommend.

Jean’s slaying the clothing alteration game. I brought in a bridesmaid dress which was about two sizes too big and made me look like a lumpy box. Jean spent about 20 minutes pinning and folding it around me, experimenting with taking the back and sides in and the straps up, and ultimately plotted a course of action. She’s friendly, not phoney.
If you don’t have time for your clothes to be meticulously fitted to you as though you were born wearing a magical dress which expanded and moulded itself to your physique as you grew, don’t go here.
Jean’s place of business is located on a quiet lane behind bustling Queen St. West. Stepping in, it appears as though ten people work in the small apartment. The place is bursting at the seams (tailoring joke, LOL), with clothes, shoes, sewing machinery, etc. from floor to ceiling. The fitting room is actually the landing of her staircase, but it’s separated from the stairs with a makeshift curtain.
Today when I went to pick up my dress, Jean had a Youtube playlist of dance instruction videos playing — the foxtrot, to be specific. My God, Jean. You’re so endearing. I love you.

Finding a reliable person for alterations has become so difficult. Fortunately for me, a friend recommended Jean when I was looking for someone to shorten my winter coat. I gave her a call, booked an appointment, and saw her later during the week.
Prior to my appointment with Jean, I spent an hour or so shopping along Queen, so I brought a few extra things along with my coat. Her place was a little hard to find, but I just used Google Maps when I was in the area.
Jean is such a nice person. At first it was a little difficult to understand her English, but it wasn’t very bad. She also speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. Anyway, I showed her my coat, told her what I wanted, and she took some measurements. I also decided to have two of my new pairs of jeans hemmed and tightened a little. To my surprise, she charged much less than my previous seamstresses at the dry cleaner’s. She said my clothes would be ready within a week, but she called me the next day to let me know they were all ready for pick-​up!
I was busy that day, so we set an appointment for the day after. She greeted me when I arrived, and we chatted a bit before she asked me to try on my newly altered clothes. And OH MY! THEY FIT PERFECTLY! (I usually tip my seamstresses, but this time I felt I had to. LOL) We chatted a while longer, and she asked me to have a seat. She was as happy as I was when I told her the alterations were perfect.
I’m definitely recommending Jean to my sister and friends. This one’s a keeper!

I was a first time client of Jean after reading the reviews here and was pleasantly surprised. I got my down filled coat decreased in size for $ 55 and the craftsmanship was great. I brought my coat in on a Thursday and it was ready Wednesday.

I entrusted this woman with a silk shift dress which had pulled at the seams and a cashmere cardigan with a couple small snags. Big mistake. One should never do a «test run» with valuables and i learned the hard way. The silk shift was sewn together in a jagged, sloppy line and the cashmere sweater wasn’t even fixed with a matching thread. The whole experience was a disaster. Tread carefully!

I found Jean Wu reading Kat F’s review. If she could take in a vintage winter coat from a size Large to Small, I had to check her out!
I’ve been trying to find an alternations person downtown. I live in Cityplace and many of the cleaners offer alterations but they charge ridiculous prices for simple jean hems. I usually bring my stuff to Markham at this place near Pacific Mall, great lady but it wasn’t convenient for me.
Jean is very sweet. Here’s her profile — former FX and Fashion Crimes sewing & alternations person. Her clients include CityTV staff. She can do it all — dresses, jeans, suits, coats etc. men and women clothing.
I started with two pairs of ‘Seven for Mankind jeans’, great job — quick one day turnaround. I’ve passed her my Femme de Carriere suit jacket to shorten the sleeves and my new BCBG dress. She’s going to have it ready in the next 2 days.
She speaks Cantonese and english. I used my half and half Chin-​english and we communicated just fine. Her english is okay but again as Kat mentioned, show her and explain what you like and she’ll ask questions if she doesn’t know. Very friendly and prices are good.
At the moment her answering machine has no greeting but she’ll call you back if you leave a message. She works from home so don’t mind the mess.
Last thing, it’s St. Patrick SQUARE not Street. I learned, circling around and around and she had to come find me. Basically it’s behind the Spring Rolls and La Crêpe building, small side street with townhouses.

I found Jean though this Unilocal.She was close by and fast!
I had to hem a dress and to convert the straps on the dress. Not only was her work fast (dropped it off on Tuesday and picked it up on Saturday), but she did a good job.
She was quite pleasant to work with, but the language barrier could be a bit difficult to work with, but she does ask you for your confirmation.
I am glad I found her and will definitely work with her again.

If you need your pants hemmed in a hurry, go see Jean. I found out about her through a former coworker. She’s in a great location (Queen/​John) and does really, really quick alterations and repairs.
I’ve often saddled her with five pairs of pants to hem at one time and they’re ready to be picked up later the same day or the next morning. I also had her take in a vintage winter coat with ‘fur’ collar — from a size L to a size S and she did a really good job! Very affordable, too.
English is lacking a bit but if you show her exactly what you want she will get it right as she does a lot of pinning and asks questions. Just a fair warning for when you call her — phone communications aren’t her strong suit. Very sweet lady!