Mirela Garic Custom Tailoring

Mirela is wonderful! I got a bridesmaids dress altered here and I will definitely be back. Fast turn around and beautiful work! Highly recommend

She is very good, a nice person, and always very busy. She knows just how to make things fit.

I feel bad writing this review, I really do. Mirela, as a person, is warm and lovely. But the fact of the matter is, I’m looking for a reliable tailor, not a new friend. I went to Mirela for a very simple, straightforward hemming of a long, silk (and expensive) bridesmaid dress. I have used Perfit alterations in the past (in San Mateo), but it is inconvenient (I live in Palo Alto) and on the expensive side (but I can vouch for the fact that they are extremely professional and do a great job!)
I was apprehensive when I went to drop off the dress and saw the state of Mirela’s store/​work room. It is completely disorganized, clothes just hanging uncovered on a rack. But I had read the positive Unilocal reviews and reassured myself it was just a simple hem job. We agreed upon a time I would come and try on after she made the alterations. On that agreed-​upon day, I just so happened to call ahead and she said «actually tomorrow would be better». So I came back the next day. When I tried on the dress, we both realized the sash of the dress needed to be hemmed, as well. So we agreed upon a time the next week for me to pick it up. I came back a week later (on the agreed upon day), but I didn’t call ahead. When I arrived, the dress was hanging haphazardly (uncovered) amidst other clothes and she said it was done. When she went to grab the dress, apparently there was still chalk on the sash, meaning it hadn’t actually been worked on. So I had to come back AGAIN to pick it up. I finally came to pick it up (at this point it is exactly one week before the wedding), and I didn’t even want to try it on, since I was so frustrated with the amount of time I had spent shuttling back and forth.
When I arrived, the dress was hanging all ready to go… except it was in a hanging bag that didn’t even go all the way to the bottom of the dress (NOT the bag that I brought the dress in). I was annoyed, but I didn’t think it was a huge deal. So I paid and got the heck out of dodge. Walking back to my car, I actually took a look at the bottom of the dress. It was hemmed, however the ENTIRE bottom of the dress was literally black with dirt/​soot/​whatever it was, most likely from the improper storage and the dirty floor! It even trailed up the back of the dress! I was so frustrated (and at this point panicking since i wasn’t sure if it would come out) that I drove directly to the dry cleaner. Thankfully, I have a good dry cleaner (Roy’s in Palo Alto) and they fortunately took care of it, good as new.
I really should have marched directly back into the shop, but my panic distracted me (considering it was 1 week before the wedding, and i was fearing the worst, that I would need to rush order a new dress). So instead I decided to leave this review. True, I didn’t give her a hard deadline in which to finish the dress, but she missed multiple deadlines (that she set for herself!). Truth be told, it was the dirtiness of the dress when I picked it up really set me over the edge. I would have MUCH preferred paying a lot more for a more professional, reliable experience. I won’t be returning.

Mirela is wonderful! Highly recommended!

My faith in human race and kindness and customer service was slimming down to nothing! I looked at Mirela at Unilocal and came for a zipper change after I had gone to 4 different places and they told me at least 4 days to get it done.
Mirela looked at it and just fixed the zipper, sowed back a small area and did it on the spot.
Before she helped me I watched her consult with another customer. Escada outfit, Prada suits as well as simple zipper items.
I am from Brazil and am used to this knowledge there or in Beverly Hills but in Menlo Park all I got was attitude and nothing to deliver.
If you are looking for an absolute EXPERT that have what it takes to deliver and execute flawlessly and is customer service oriented you need to come to Mirela.
She has gained my trust and confidence and loyalty.
If you look at my profile you will see that I do not freely offer compliments like this one.
Amazing

She was very nice when I dropped off my dress but seemed very overwhelmed and very busy. When I went back to pick up my dress there was a sign on her door saying she was out of the country until the end of August. I dropped off my dress on June 30. She had my phone number all she needed to do was call but now I will never go back there again.

After having a different tailor store tell me that what I was asking for was «impossible», I looked to Unilocal to find Mirela Garlic. Having never been in before, I asked her if she could insert some padding into my two swimsuit tops. Without hesitation, she said yes. Although the job would be difficult, she was incredibly kind and helpful. We were able to talk and consult as to what I wanted done, and then I left it up to her to make the magic happen. When I picked up my suits I couldn’t have been more excited and proud of her work! They are perfect. The overall price was BEYOND reasonable.
I will return with all my tailoring needs! Thank you!

Mirela is very good. She has tailored a couple of items for me, ranging from pants to dress shirts and even some pull overs. She is very nice and gets the job done in a timely manner.
Cash only though…
I highly recommend!

Mirela is extremely skilled, kind, thoughtful, and hard-​working. She also offers the best prices of anyone in the Bay Area! She has patched up holes in two pairs of pants and they both came back great.

Honest, friendly and does great work. Her prices are very reasonable too.

After reading reviews on Unilocal,I brought some trousers here to be tailored.
It’s a tiny shop just off Santa Cruz Ave in MP. Great location and small size must keep costs low. Very friendly, personable and great work. Highly recommended.

Mirela altered my wedding dress and made me a dress for another event without a pattern from scratch just by looking at an old picture. She is amazing. I have been going to different tailors for years and she is the best I have ever been too. I have now used her for over 6 years and I have never had a bad experience. Her fees are really reasonable too. I have recommended her to a number of people and they have all been happy with the results.

Mirela altered my wedding dress this spring at an extremely reasonable price, and she did what I thought was an excellent job (disclaimer: she’s the first tailor I’ve ever been to). She took the dress in by a couple inches all around, decreased the length, reinforced the bustle ties, replaced the zipper, sewed in bra cups, spot cleaned the dress (it was a used dress), and pressed it, all for less than the price the dry cleaner across the street quoted for a cleaning alone. I visited her a total of 5 times for fittings and to pick up the dress. I appreciated her candor about what she thought needed to be done, and she had great ideas for hiding my body flaws. Although she had to reschedule our appointments a couple times, a little flexibility in my schedule and a lot of work from Mirela resulted in a job beautifully done. If you’re looking for a tailor who, with a little patience, does a great job for a very reasonable price, Mirela is your woman. I would hire her again!

Repetedly promises that things will be done at a certain time and aren’t. This went on for several weeks to months resulting in many wasted trips to the shop. When I finally picked up 2 suits, paid for them, and tried them on at home, nothing had been done on them at all and they had to be taken back.

I don’t understand the bad reviews, I’ve been to Mirela for a handful of denim alterations and they’ve all turned out great! No complaints. She did a True Religion original hem and nobody can tell the difference, and if you own TR brand jeans you know what I“m talking about when it comes to difficulties altering the hem. I get all my alterations done with mirela!

Mirela did some alterations for me on short notice. Other tailors were not available when I needed work done.
She did good but not excellent repairs, requiring multiple returns.
There were multiple times I came for my clothes when she had some weird excuse about them not being there.
When I came back for a Tux, it was missing the front button. The tux is a high end manufacturer with nice cloth buttons. After a number of times coming back trying to get my Tux, today I went in to find it there with plastic buttons. Not just on the front, which by the way, is not a large enough button for the jacket, she replaced the cuff buttons with plastic too. Then she acted like she did not know what I was talking about, and claimed she had plenty of cloth buttons.
I grabbed my tux and ran! I do not trust her on several levels. You would be best going elsewhere.

Mirela is creative, efficient, and very professional. her work is excellent, and her design sense is really good. you can trust her advice. I really liked her tailoring of a jacket I loved – it was too large and boxy, in an out-​of-​date style, but I loved the color and fabric. Now it looks sensational! She is also very pleasant and easy to work with.

I procrastinated about getting my wedding dress tailored, but Mirela did a fabulous job. It was a very intricate tailoring job and was fairly complex (at least that’s what I heard, I don’t really sew so I don’t know!), but nonetheless she had it done on-​time and did a good job with it. Her prices were incredibly reasonable.
For simple hems and sewing buttons on, I’ll be coming back consistently. The only reason I would say it’s probably not 5 stars is because I like a tailor who is a bit more assertive about what needs to be done and does it automatically – if you know exactly what needs to be done, and tell her, she’ll do exactly that, but won’t do anything else before clearing it with you. That’s good, but my problem was that I don’t «know» what needs to be done, so I wasn’t very astute about giving her guidance and ended up saying «you decide!» Also, I think she knows a lot more about female tailoring than male tailoring, but that was just my impression.

Mirella bought the business from Tom about four years ago, so there is a new owner. She’s a decent tailor, but not someone I would recommend. I brought a new pair of black jeans in and I watched her pin them when I was fitted, and requested a leg length on the long side. She was nice and listened. It took me a few days extra to pick them up due to a hectic schedule. She gave a follow-​up call that was just a tad upset at me for not picking them up at the promised time. In the end, the hem job was different lengths on each leg by ¾ inch and a bit too short
for my taste. I ended up throwing the jeans out since they were too short. I think we all have bad days. Maybe this was a bad day for this gal.

I’ve had Tom alter several dresses– shortening, taking in at the seams, redoing straps, realigning flounces. He does good, meticulous work. However, his prices for simple things like hemming jeans are a little steep ($ 10 – 15), so I go to Chinatown to get them done for under $ 3.