Glebe Street, Penarth · since 2011
Alterations pinned on you in the fitting room, wedding dresses, made-to-measure suits, curtains, zips and dry cleaning done in the shop, with every price on the website and the ready-by date worked out today.
Services
No. 01
Hems, waists, sleeves, side seams and straps on anything from jeans to a wool overcoat, pinned on you in the fitting room and finished upstairs. A trouser hem is £14 and three working days; the price list has all twenty.
From £10 for shortened straps; trousers taken up £14, jacket sleeves £28.
No. 02
Wedding dresses fitted over three appointments from eight weeks before the day, with hems, bustles, bodices and straps done by Ana in our bridal room; bridesmaids, mothers of the bride and prom dresses too. From £120 for a bride, £65 for a prom dress.
From £120 for a wedding dress fitted (hem and bodice); a bustle from £45; prom dresses £65; bridesmaids from £40.
No. 03
Two-piece suits, jackets, trousers and shirts cut to your measurements by Gareth, who spent eleven years in a Savile Row workroom: twenty-two measurements, your choice of cloth, a baste fitting and a forward fitting, ready in six weeks. Suits from £895, shirts £95.
Two-piece suits from £895, jackets from £595, trousers from £245, shirts £95.
No. 04
Dry cleaning done in the shop, not sent away: suits, dresses, coats, knitwear, silk and curtains, pressed by hand and returned on hangers in covers. Shirts laundered and pressed overnight. Most things ready in two working days; a two-piece suit £16, a shirt £3.50.
A two-piece suit £16, a shirt laundered £3.
No. 05
Curtains taken up, let down, relined or made to measure, Roman blinds, cushion covers and seat pads. A free measuring visit within three miles of the shop, so the drop is right at your window. Shortening a pair from £30; made-to-measure from £180 a pair.
Shortening a pair of unlined curtains £30, lined £45; made-to-measure from £180 a pair; Roman blinds from £120.
No. 06
Zips replaced in jeans, skirts, coats and bags; tears, split seams and moth holes mended; buttons sewn on, linings and pockets replaced; and while-you-wait for a button or a split seam. From £6 for a button, £16 for a trouser zip, £30 for a coat zip.
A button sewn on £3, a split seam £8, a trouser zip £16, a jacket or coat zip £30, a coat lining £85.
The price list
| Job | Price | Takes | Ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trousers taken up, plain or blind hem | £14 | 3 working days | Wed 4 Nov |
| Trouser waist taken in or let out | £18 | 4 working days | Thu 5 Nov |
| Dress or skirt taken up, lined | £28 | 5 working days | Fri 6 Nov |
| Jacket sleeves shortened from the cuff | £28 | 5 working days | Fri 6 Nov |
| Suit fitted, jacket and trousers | £75 | 7 working days | Mon 9 Nov |
| Curtains shortened, a pair, lined | £45 | 7 working days | Mon 9 Nov |
Dates count Monday to Saturday from today if you hand it in before 3pm, from the next working day if later. Express at half the days costs 50% more.
How we work
Nothing is cut until the pins have been checked on you and on the table. Where a seam can be let out later, we leave the allowance in rather than trimming it, so the garment can change with you.
The ready-by date is worked out from the job and written on your ticket. If the workroom falls behind we ring the day before, not the day after, and never on the morning of a wedding.
Everything left with us is insured while it is in the shop. Wedding dresses hang in covers in their own locked rail, and nothing goes home with anyone but the person on the ticket.
Try it on before you leave. If the hem, the waist or the sleeve is not right, we pin it again and redo it free, the same week. Most people never need to; everyone should feel they can.
Bridal
Wedding dresses are fitted by Ana in the private bridal room at the back of the shop: a first fitting about eight weeks before the day, a second at four weeks and the final ten days before, when you sit, walk, dance and hug in it. Put in your wedding date and the bridal page works out all three.
Dry cleaning
Our own machine, a gentler hydrocarbon solvent, stains treated by hand first, and everything pressed on the steam table. Most things in two working days; shirts the next day if they are in before 10am.
Customers
Ana took six inches off a lace dress from the waist so the scallops stayed at the hem, added a bustle and moved the straps. Three fittings, each calmer than the last. On the day it looked as if it had been made for me, and I danced until midnight without stepping on it once.
I am six foot five with long arms and have never owned a jacket whose sleeves reached my wrists. Gareth measured me for an hour, the baste fitting was fascinating, and the navy suit is the best thing I own. The second suit took one fitting.
Huw came out, measured our bay in three places and found the floor drops an inch and a half across it. The curtains came back the next week hanging perfectly level, with the old weights put back. Free visit, £45 a pair, done.
The shop
The bay-windowed shop between Windsor Road and the station, with the fitting room at the front, the bridal room at the back and the workroom upstairs. Four minutes from Penarth station, with two-hour free parking on the street.
£14 for a plain or blind hem, £16 for jeans with the original hem kept, £18 with turn-ups. Three working days for most, four with turn-ups. The price list has all twenty jobs.
The price list works it out: choose the job and it gives the ready-by date, counting Monday to Saturday from today if you hand it in before 3pm. Express at half the days costs 50% more.
Not for alterations, repairs or dry cleaning: come in and we pin it there and then. Bridal fittings, made-to-measure and weekday evening fittings are by appointment.
The first fitting is about eight weeks before the wedding, so book as soon as you have the dress. The bridal page works out all three fitting dates from your wedding date.
Yes, in our own machine at the back of the shop, with a gentler hydrocarbon solvent. Most things are ready in two working days, shirts the next day.
9 Glebe Street, Penarth CF64 1EE, four minutes from Penarth station, with two-hour free parking on the street.
Most alterations and all dry cleaning need no appointment: come to the counter on Glebe Street and we pin it there and then, with the price and the ready-by date on your ticket. Bridal, made-to-measure and evening fittings are booked.
