I need to find someone to alter a dress for me. Looking in the phone book under "alterations" and "tailors" mainly gets me men's tailors. Any suggestions?

Yelp can be surprisingly helpful for this sort of thing.

Yeah, I'm looking on yelp right now. There's one or two places that are listed with one or two reviews.

Stupid non-big towns. I think I've got a couple possiblities, though.

Speaking of dry cleaners, what's an average turnaround time people encounter? We have an insano cleaner who turns it around in 24-ish hours, but the quality is hit or miss. I generally get 2 days (or 3 if I take my stuff in at the very end of the work day, which is fair).

So today (Monday, right?) I take one skirt to a cleaner I'd never gone to before, and the cleaner person asks me when I want it back. So, since it's Monday and I figured Wednesday, maybe Thursday at the latest, I just said, "Whenever."

She says, "Oh thank god. Is Monday okay?"

I was so taken aback that I actually replied, "You mean NEXT Monday?"

She sighed, and said, "Well, WHEN, then?"

V. tempted to take my skirt back and leave, but I said Thursday.

Is 3 days an unreasonable amount of time for me to expect one skirt to be cleaned? Was 7 days reasonable for the cleaner to suggest?

signed,
damn I need to get some Dryel

I have always had good luck with dry cleaner alterations. For that level of stuff, someone who seems like she knows what she's doing probably does. And anyone can do hemming.

Is 3 days an unreasonable amount of time for me to expect one skirt to be cleaned? Was 7 days reasonable for the cleaner to suggest?

Well, in my office, if a salesperson sends me an order without a deadline, that order automatically goes to the bottom of the queue. If other jobs with deadlines come in after theirs, those ones are done first, so Deadline-Free Order that could have been done in 24-48 hours may in fact wind up taking a week or more to get to.

[edit: Which is to say, I think a 3-day dry cleaning turnaround is totally reasonable, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the customer to ask for it.]

Yeah, Teppy, that's weird. A week is just STRANGE. WTF?

Is 3 days an unreasonable amount of time for me to expect one skirt to be cleaned? Was 7 days reasonable for the cleaner to suggest?

Well, in my office, if a salesperson sends me an order without a deadline, that order automatically goes to the bottom of the queue. If other jobs with deadlines come in after theirs, those ones are done first, so Deadline-Free Order that could have been done in 24-48 hours may in fact wind up taking a week or more to get to.

Hmm. I just assumed dry cleaners had a general time frame that customers could expect their clothes back, not a "You give us a deadline and we'll meet it or else we'll take a week" policy.

Actually, this was the first cleaner I'd ever gone to where THEY asked ME when I wanted my clothes back; most just hand me a ticket and say "Wednesday after 4:30," etc.

ION, I think Jilli needs this product.

Unrelatedly -- meara, did you get my e-mail?

My dry cleaner has the clothes done by late afternoon if I bring them in by 9 a.m and by about 2 p.m. the next day if I bring them in after that. They clean inhouse, though. I've never had any trouble with things like hemming and minor alterations through the dry cleaner.