At The Perfect Fit, we pride ourselves on the personalized alterations experience that we are able to provide our brides with. Bridal is what we do! We love getting to know you and hear all about your wedding plans! We know that hand picking the vendors to use for your wedding day is a task that takes a lot of research and thought, and we are honored that you are considering us as your bridal seamstresses!
We know that there are a lot of things to budget for when planning your wedding and we want to explain the investment you will be making up front! The two components of the alterations process are the fitting time and the sewing time. Fitting time is charged as a flat fee of $30 per fitting, and cost of alterations depends on what needs to be done and how the dress is constructed. Careful consideration has been given to determining prices based on how long each task will take. This ensures that you are getting a fair, competitive price and that our seamstresses are also being paid fairly for their time.
To give an exact quote, we need to see you in your dress. However, it may help you budget accordingly to know that our average bride spends about $500- $700 for their alterations, in addition to the fitting fees.
Custom projects, such as building additions for the dress or making major structural changes, require a different process than general alterations.
Each custom piece requires individual attention to bring your vision to life, and the hours vary between projects. For this reason, we start out by charging a $180 custom fee up front which covers the first 3 hours of work and then each additional hour is $60. Seamstresses can provide an approximation of full cost if it is similar to other projects we have done in the past. Full payment for all work will be required before the garment can leave with you.
We are often asked when people need to start the alterations process. This, of course, varies depending on each person’s circumstances, but typically we want to do the first fitting about 3-4 months before the event. We work on a 4-5 week turnaround, so this leaves us plenty of time for multiple fittings. Custom work does require additional fittings, so we would want to get started earlier and will not take on a custom job with less than 3 months to work on it.
We tend to book up months in advance, especially for our evening and weekend appointments. This means we would like you to reach out for an appointment as soon as you have purchased a dress! You do not need to have the dress in your possession already to make an appointment ;) We tend to be in high demand, and appointments are filled on a first come first served basis. We want to be able to provide you with a timeline that works best for you, and that means getting started early!
Thank you for considering us to be your Bridal Seamstresses! We cannot wait to see you in your gown :) This form is the ONLY way to request an appointment. These questions give us all the information that we need in order to build each person their own custom timeline up front. Please take the time to fill the form out properly and thoroughly, so that we can make sure you have the best alterations experience possible. It should only take 5-10 minutes ;)
Part of this submission is to include a front and back photo of yourself in your dress. This can be from when you purchased if you don’t have your dress in hand yet. The photos will be added to your customer profile so that your seamstress will be able to prepare for your fitting.
Please allow up to 1 week for a response. We receive dozens of requests each day, and have a lot of information to sort through in order to draw up your timeline before responding to your email.
(Please add Leah@theperfectfitalterations.com to your contacts. We have had some trouble lately with our email replies being sent to Junk mail. If you haven’t received our response after a week, please check your SPAM folder.)
Leah is the owner of and creator of The Perfect Fit. She grew up in Knoxville, and currently lives in Kingston, TN with her Husband, Stuart and their kids, Ella and Jackson.
She began doing bridal alterations in 2008 and it quickly became a passion. When she decided to start her own business, she dreamed of a place where brides could come for one-on-one attention, where they would feel completely catered to. She enjoys getting to know her brides on a personal level, and keep in touch long after the wedding is over!
Her ultimate goal is to make sure that our brides feel like their best selves while wearing their gowns, and that the alterations experience is an easy, fun and stress free part of the planning process! The fit of your gown is essential to your wedding day, and it is her promise that we will work with you until you are completely satisfied and IN LOVE with your dress.
Stephanie is our Shop Manager. She and her husband, George, moved to Knoxville in 2019 from Washington DC. She joined The Perfect Fit in the fall of 2019 and has truly enjoyed getting to know the team and our clients! She formerly worked for The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC as Wardrobe Supervisor, and as a stitcher for the costume shop for five years. There she worked on a team that built period and modern garments. She passionately strived to ensure that every show she worked on was performed to the highest quality and caliber she could achieve. In addition to her theater jobs, she also worked as a stitcher for David’s Bridal in Roanoke VA. She is passionate about making sure that there is a safe environment for everyone to voice their thoughts and concerns regarding fit, and she loves creating art with fabric. She will treat each fitting as a dress rehearsel, treating our shop as your stage, to ensure you feel your most beautiful! If you have a custom dream for your dress, she wants to help you reach that dream.
Amber lives in Lenoir City with her son, Asher and is an avid disc golfer. When she has free time, you will most likely see her on the course!
Amber's experience in the bridal world began at David's Bridal in 2015. As someone who loves to try new things and picks things up quickly, she took an interest in learning some sewing. At The Perfect Fit, she started out mostly working on bustles and handwork, while training to be a more experienced seamstress. She is now fully experienced with almost any kind of sewing we can throw at her and is honing her fitting skills. Her confident attitude pushes her to try new things and master new skills. She is also our "jack of all trades" around the shop, as she jumps in to do whatever is needed to keep things running smoothly. From steaming, to cleaning, to organizing, to sewing, she is definitely an important cog in the wheel for day to day business!
Kit grew up in Knoxville and currently resides in Loudon with her daughter, Callie.
Kit’s mom taught her how to sew when she was a teenager. After that, she was predominately self-taught for a while. If she wanted to do something, she figured out how to do it. She found patterns she wanted to try, and would alter them to be more in line with her vision. She took a few very useful costuming classes while at the University of Tennessee, graduating in 2012 with her BA in theatre. Somewhere around that same time, she got involved with repurposing and costume construction for Comic/Fantasy conventions. She would draw a lot of motivation from asking the question “ How can I make this from that?” Or “I only have 4 pictures of this costume, how do I make it?” She loved how it became a fun puzzle of sorts! Then in 2016, she started doing Bridal/Special Occasion Alterations on top of her creative sewing and has been doing it ever since!
Jocelyn grew up in Long Island, NY and has been sewing for as long as she can remember. She joined the United States Coast Guard in 2009, hoping one day to fulfill her lifelong dream of sewing and creating clothes professionally. After serving in the military for 7 years, she was accepted into the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. In 2020, she and her Husband, Lebron, decided to move to Tennessee to be closer to family. Since living in Knoxville, Jocelyn has been responsible for the design and creation of countless NCAA football mascots for Division I teams, costume creations for Dollywood dinner theaters, TransWorld’s Halloween & Attraction shows, and more. She is thrilled to now be a part of the incredible team at The Perfect Fit, and strives to give every bride a seamless (no pun intended) experience with a few laughs along the way!
