Kim’s Alterations

I have many pairs of jeans that need hemming. She wanted $ 16 dollars each and if I bring more than 5 it will be $ 14 ea. Go next door. $ 10 each which is reasonable~ ;)

I have used this place for about 11 years. Kim is a rock star. I started going there after I took a pair of $ 300. DKNY pants there to have taken in. I though ok she will either f”” them up or they will be ok.
I went back a week later to pick up my pant and it was perfecyooooo I couldn’t believe it as the were made out of a synthetic material not easy to sew on. It was as if they came from the factory this way. I HAVE NEVER GON ANY WHERE ELS SINCE!!!
Jeans shirts you name it it is always perfect…
Thank you KIM.
I am telling you I come from a long line of seamstress, if I ahd a sewing machine i couldn’t have done a better job the pant was lined as well amazinggggg.
Im reading the long winded reviews complaining about street parking it’s Hillcrest hello, as well as cash it’s One lady in about a 100sq ft please chill out and it’s about 8 – 10 dollars not high finance here ok.

I’ve been happy with the service here for pants hemming. Quick turnaround & good price. I’ll go back again.

My experience with Kim’s Alterations was slightly under par…
I needed to get a bridesmaid dress altered. There was nothing major that needed to be done – just needed to be taken in.
I will give Kim credit for allowing me to come in on a day when her shop was closed. I happened to call on a Monday, not knowing they were suppose to be closed, and she answered the phone. I asked if she had time for me to stop in to pin the dress in for alterations… and she said of course. I got to the shop only to find the CLOSED sign on the door and the door locked. I was a bit confused since I just spoke with the woman who said to come on it. Within a minute, Kim unlocked the door and let me inside. She told me that the shop was actually closed on Mondays but she happen to be in when I called so she let me come in to drop my dress off. That was nice!
So, she had me put my dress on and examined it. She was about to pin the dress in when she stopped herself, saying something along the lines of «I can’t pin this material.» SOOO, instead she wrote down how many inches needed to be taken in on each side. I was a bit skeptical of her doing it this way and not pinning it… but hey, she is the professional seamstress!
I needed it done within four days from the day I dropped it off… she said that she could have it done with no problem. There was an increased price for the last-​minute alterations, but whatever I needed it to get done.
As promised, I picked my dress up in four days. Ran in. Paid $ 70 in cash. Got my dress and receipt. Drove home.
Well, I didn’t have time to try the dress on before driving to Temecula for the wedding. So, the day of the wedding, I put the dress on and there was a slight issue. The inside lining of the chest area got pushed off to the side. This was not cool! I spent a good hour trying to maneuver the lining back to where it belonged… and wasn’t too successful. I made due. Whatever.
Everything was mediocrely fine… until I sneezed and the clasp on the back of my dress broke. REALLY!!!
I went from having a dress that was at least one size too big… to a dress that fit perfectly… TOO perfectly. The seamstress, Kim, clearly took the dress in just a tad too much, because otherwise a simple little sneeze would not have broken the clasp off of my dress. Maybe her NOT pinning the material and instead just writing down how many inches to take in was a bad choice on her part. Luckily there was an amazing wedding coordinator on site who sewed my dress shut in the back so that it wouldn’t fall down.
SO, $ 70 later I had a dress that fit… but had to be sewn shut. Awesome? Not so much…
Run-​down:
*Accommodating in regards to getting things done in a timely fashion.
*Location is easy to miss… and only has metered street parking out in front. Kind of a hassle.
*Kim was a sweet woman, who meant well… but I was not a fan of her not using pins to hold the places of where she needed to sew. I’ve had MANY a bridesmaid dress altered before, and plenty of them have been of a satin-​like material… and no other seamstress has had an issue with using pins on the material. Weird.
*Price…eh. Since the clasp busted, I was not happy that I paid $ 70. Had the clasp not broke (meaning she didn’t take it in too much!), then $ 70 is about equivalent to other places I’ve been for this kind of a project.
*Will I go back to Kim’s Alterations? Good question. I prefer not to… but if it were the only option, I’d give it another shot.

I won’t go anywhere else but Kim’s.
This tiny tailor shop on 4^th in Hillcrest is run by one woman. There is a small dressing room with a mirror, and you come out and stand on a small step stool with a mirror in front of it so you can see what the alteration will look like as she pinches fabric and pins. This is cash-​only place and you can pay when you drop off or when you pick up.
I’m a short woman, so everything I buy needs to be hemmed, have sleeves shortened, or taken in some other way. I also recently lost a lot of weight, so to save on clothes I had a lot of things taken in. It all went to Kim’s. The alterations here aren’t cheap, but you get much better quality than the tailor at your local dry cleaner.
I used to live in University Heights, but now live in UTC and drive all the way down to Hillcrest for my alterations — she’s that good.

Important details: Cash only. Small dressing room with mirror available.
Was about to add a new business listing for this place, then realized that there was already a listing with the right phone number but no address except «Downtown/​Little Italy.» So I added its actual address in Hillcrest.
Needed a bridesmaid dress altered in three days. This place was close and looked like it’d be reasonable. I called and she said that she could have it done in time. When I arrived, she said it’d be $ 80 (yikes!) because she’d usually need two weeks to do it. I didn’t want to go back home and find my list of tailors and call each one again, so I sucked it up and paid for it.
I’m short and always need pants hemmed, so I asked how much she charges. $ 16 for regular pants and $ 17 for jeans. Extra fee to keep the original hem. There’s no way I’m paying that much!
The dress fit well. I’m not sure if she did a great job, adequate job, or poor job because it was a bridesmaid dress so no one can tell with those awful things.
Cash only, pay when you pick it up.