Tara’s Tailor

Don’t let Tara slaughter your dress! Bought my dress at the White Dress and Tara was first on the list of tailors, so I didn’t even question taking it to her for alterations. During my fitting, I repeatedly said ‘now, I don’t want my shoes to show, they won’t show will they?’ because I had decided to wear ballet flats purely for comfort not for beauty. She said ‘no no! I do it right!’ and when I came to pick up my dress, sure enough, my shoes showed, she cut my dress too short! my dress was a good inch off the ground! also, she had gotten lipstick (bright fuschia) stains on the bodice from tearing the thread with her teeth!
Was conviced my dress was ruined, luckily the White Dress allowed me to take it to another, better, far more qualified tailor to fix it, to the tune of $ 400 just to repair what Tara had messed up!

Tara did a lovely job on my wedding dress. Her new location in Costa Mesa is so convenient, just off the 405 freeway, close to south coast plaza. Her hours are really flexible and she does her best to make sure your dress is ready in time. Also, what I really like about the new location is that there are plenty of parking spaces (old location was very hard to find streeet parking), and the room where your dress gets altered is spacious and comfortable. She is a gem!

She has done a fantastic job on my dress. I do believe its pricey but well worth it!!! I think she is honest & a hard worker… she loves what she does & Im happy my dress looks beautiful on me :)Thanks Tara

Tara did a great job! Everyone at my wedding complimented the fit of my dress. I could not be happier with the outcome of my dress.

Tara’s work was good overall, but the pricing was terrible (it seemed she kind of made up the price on the spot). Also, she is not very open to what you really want and steamed my wedding dress WAY too early in addition to only stuffing the top. My mom got her dress for my wedding done there, as well– and when we were leaving and going to pay she haphazardly told us our total was $ 900. Uh… no. She gave us the wrong dress. The REAL total was $ 500 but she never batted and eyelash when she realized she was wrong.
We called White Dress (where I got my wedding gown) and they said they no longer refer people to her (thank god). They offered to fix the dress and re-​steam it to make sure it looks perfect. So, bonus point for White Dress. Again, Tara’s work looks fine but she is a bad businesswoman. Go elsewhere!

I agree with all of the comments regarding pricing. I experienced the same shady answers and pressure. Go elsewhere

Don’t even think of going here. She does bad work and rips off all of her customers. Her location is in Corona Del Mar above the White Dress.
Do not be fooled by her relaxed attitude. She acts innocent when she confronts you saying «what you don’t trust me?» Makes you feel really uncomfortable and she manipulates you into agreeing with her. Went to 3 fittings and every time there were at least two other customers there. I found it odd that i heard a couple of complaints from the girls about her work but the sucker I am stayed anyway.
She will be reported to Better Business Bureau for her demand for check or cash only and not giving receipts. In addition, her prices are outrageous and after ruining my friend’s dress still demanded payment. My friend took her dress to a nearby tailor also recommended by The White Dress and he pointed out every single bad job done.
The White Dress is no longer referring their customers to Tara.
Tara’s tactic 1) put breast pads in your dress 2) can’t hem from the bottom but will anyway 3) will cut the under layers with scissors to shorten it and not sew the edges making for an uneven cut… 4) will give you only 2 bustle options 5) will say they say i am expensive but i do good work 6) i use to make dresses so i know how to alter them properly
She is lazy and does bad work. She is a dirty business lady. She will not give you a quote before pinning your dress to estimate the work. You are hers once she pins you. Anyone who thought she did a great job got taken advantage of.

RUN! This woman is awful! At my first fitting appointment she took 2 other people during my appointment and when the first girl came in for her second fitting, her dress was snagged badly in 2 places. By the time Tara started working on me she was using large safety pins to pin my $ 5000 dress, leaving large holes in the fabric. She told me it would cost $ 1000 for just raising my skirt a few inches and adding cups and a bustle. She also said she didn’t know if she could raise my skirt because it was «very difficult looking» since she hadn’t worked on this dress style before. After telling her I wanted to take my dress and think about it because of the high costs she insisted I pay her a $ 100 pinning fee for her time. After I refused because she hadn’t told me about the pinning fee and furthermore insisted that it was necessary for me to come in and be pinned before she could give me an estimate, she started yelling and ripping the pins out which she had placed, causing some of the fabric to rip. This woman is awful, unprofessional and overpriced. She also didn’t wear shoes, there were pins on the floor all over, and the office is tiny with no air conditioning. She is rude, inexperienced obviously with dresses she hasn’t worked on before and I would not recommend her to my worst enemy — what a horrible experience! Another tailor down the street who works on only wedding dresses quoted me $ 600 for the same job with 100% class and confidence. I am going to warn The White Dress not to recommend their brides go here — I have no idea why they do — maybe only for location convenience.

Tara does pretty great work. I came in with a dress that was too big. I was able to bargain with her to get a fair price, $ 350 for minor alterations to the side seams at the upper waist/​bust, a french bustle with 6 points and cups sewn in. Once she was done, I tried it on and it fit perfectly. When I got it home, I inspected the work more carefully. I guess I was expecting it to look exactly the same as before, just smaller. I wasn’t expecting to be able to see the sewing she did. The seams were straight, but on the inside and part of the outside, I could see the stitches. The lining of the bust has several snags/​holes in the acetate lining, and the stitching there is totally visible. The thin, inner straps holding the dress on the hanger are damaged and look as if they won’t stay sewn to the inside of the dress for long.
I inspected the outside of the dress to see how it was treated. I found four small snags in various places (dress is double-​faced satin), a small tan-​colored dot staining the back of the gown, pin holes from pins being in the dress, plus black marks on one of the buttons on the back of the dress that were all definitely not there before. Nothing that anyone but me would notice these very small marks, but I expected my dress to not be stained or snagged while getting altered.
For the alterations I give four stars, for the treatment of the dress, I give just two stars. I will now have to spend money to remove the black scuff marks/​stains on the button and tan-​colored stain on the back of the dress.

Tara did a top notch job. She has been doing this for over 30 years and gives amazing service!

Very Overpriced!
But there was nothing I could do after she pinned the dress. I should have asked for a quote BEFORE she started to do the pinning. My $ 1,000 mistake! I had a very normal gown that needed to be hemmed, taken in on the sides and bustled. While Tara did a great Job on the alterations, I was charged at total of $ 1,300 for the total alterations. My husband-​to-​be almost had a heart attack as this was almost the price of the entire dress!
I’d love to give her one more Star for her work, but I felt taken advantage of out of all the vendors I had used for my special day. But what can you do?
If you can find a tailor who comes recommended and does just as good of work for lower the price, I’d go with them instead.

The most over priced tailor in town. She wanted to charge me $ 800 dollars for a wedding gown alteration! I took the dress elsewhere and had the same job done for $ 85!