Wedding Dresses

Buying Online

How the times have changed! Gone are the days of buying a wedding dress in-store or having it made-to-measure and here are the days of buying dresses online. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! We all have seen those Youtube videos and have heard those horror stories and there are even success stories. So, how can you ensure you’re buying the right dress?

N&S TIP: Be Successful Online!

Buy in advance! Leave lots of time to order your dress to allow shipping and returns. You might have to buy another dress if what you’ve received is not what you expected!

Like any other website, make sure it is reputable.

Google the website or online retailer and ensure you read the reviews.

Reading the reviews on the dress is also very important. Look for comments regarding: sizing, true to design, damages, shipping delays, packaging issues etc.

Cheap price? There is a good chance it is too good to be true.

&

{{{ BE ARMED WITH AN EXPERIENCED TAILOR! }}}

Find an Experience Tailor!

The only way to find a perfect fitting wedding dress is made-to-measure or custom made. Even if you are buying off the rack, you will need tweaks — and if you are buying online — well… from experience you may need major tweaks! An experience tailor will make you feel beautiful on your special day, whether your dress was thousands of dollars or purchased online for under $100. Turn your online purchase to made to measure!

{The Needle & Studio}

Head Tailor Young has over 30+ years of experience. Working with wedding dresses is her specialty, having built custom gowns in Toronto for many years and working with the most meticulous and intricate gowns and dresses.

If your online purchase needs a tweak or two or an overhaul, book your appointment with us today!

Winter Repairs!

As we head dead straight on for winter, we need to prepare! Winterizing your wardrobe is just like winterizing your car. Switching the all seasons for winter tires, ensuring your car fluids are topped off, packing an extra blanket in the trunk and double checking your snow brush is in the car.

Scan your closet, find those jackets, coats, parkas, sweaters and pants get them repaired! Get them winter ready.

Here are a few ways your can winterize your wardrobe:

—1. Jacket & Coat Lining

The lining of your jacket or coat plays an important role in comfort and completely utilitarian. It protects your skin from the itchy and scratchy wool fabrics, helps you glide your arms through the arm holes with ease and the lining acts like an inner wind barrier for those cold, windy winter days.

Solution: If you notice some wear and tear in the lining, ensure you get them repaired them before it gets worse! In the worst case scenario, the Needle & Studio can do a complete replacement. Customize the lining by choosing your own colour!

—2. Buttons & Zippers

We have all experienced the struggle to zip-up our parkas with broken or damaged zippers or the dreaded zipper starts to split from the bottom up. Have you noticed that you lost a button somewhere? Do a zipper test or button check before it’s too late!

Solution: If you have lost a button, we can try to match the button style to your coat. Are you all about uniformity — we get it! We can replace all the buttons. The Needle & Studio can also do complete zipper replacements for your favourite coat, jacket or parka!

-N&S Team-

Our Studio Welcomes You!

Like all non-essential businesses, the Needle and Studio had closed for 3+ months. During this time, we thought long and hard on how we can improve our business to better serve our community.

As written in a previous blog: we updated our website, implemented an online booking system and created a new Studio Space! We decided to shift our focus on providing you an airy open space to create a better tailoring experience.

Many of our decor pieces have come directly from our Head Tailor’s home with some purchased specifically for the space. We were inspired by the very home our shop is housed — a century old home located at the corner of College Street West and the famous Palmerstone Blvd.

Whether you have come with multiple pieces or a dress or suit for a special occasion, we wanted to ensure we could provide a 1-on-1 environment to ensure your tailoring needs are met!

Our studio space welcomes you!

-N&S Team-

Off the Rack | Tailored like Made to Measure!

A made to measure jacket fits like a glove but not everyone can afford the steep prices. Off the rack or the trendy vintage pieces is much friendly on the pocket book but there is a downfall —it may not fit your body type. A good tailor can take an ill fitting jacket and transform it to a made to measure like fit.

When shopping for off the rack or vintage pieces, here are some tips to follow:

✔️ SHOULDER: Find a piece that closely matches your shoulder width. A good fitting shoulder should lay flat around the shoulder without any bunching or pulling. TIP: A larger shoulder size can always be tailored but a narrow shoulder size may not (this depends on the seams and if there is any extra fabric).

✔️ CHEST: Our chest and rib cage comes in all different sizes! When shopping for a piece, ensure the jacket can close! You should have good mobility and the back of the jacket should not feel tight.

✔️ ARMS/SLEEVES: Longer sleeves can always be shorten but a shorter sleeve can be a hit or miss. Vintage pieces may have some wear and discolouration due to wash/dry cleaning and usage. If there is enough material, we can always lengthen the sleeve, but the discolouration or wear can be evident.

✔️ SEAM: If the jacket is a mere inch or so to closure, feel for extra fabric at the seams between the outer layer and the lining by using your thumb and index finger. Check the back and sides of the jacket. An extra 1/2 inch in the back and sides can help a tailor fit the jacket to size!

✔️ SIZE: Do your best to find a jacket closest to your size! This will help minimize tailoring work, therefore; lowering the cost of tailoring fees. If the jacket is too tight or too large, this requires extensive tailoring work. Sometimes, a jacket may have to be completely disassembled and reassembled; driving up the cost of tailoring fees.

DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Due to various reasons including: provincial regulation and suppliers, we have made the hard decision to delay our reopening. Please continue to check our website for our — NEW reopening date!

-N&S Team-

IMPT: CLEAN CLOTHES POLICY

For the health and safety of the N&S staff, it is important to bring freshly washed or dry cleaned clothes. Clean garments allows our head seamstress and tailor to better assess the work required to repair your clothes and end results in higher quality!

Existing Stains/Damage: Please advise us of any existing stains, or damage that you are not having repaired, on your item. We are not responsible for any existing stains or damage found on items during our work.

Privacy Policy: We don’t share your information with anyone! We just save it for contact purposes and our records.

Return Policy: Our quality work is guaranteed. If you happen to find an issue with your item(s), please let us know within 14 days of pick up! We love to hear your feedback!

Appointment Cancellation Policy: If you are not able to make your appointment, please cancel with 24 hours notice. We appreciate your mindfulness in this matter :)

Fittings: What is pinned and consulted during your first fitting outlines the parameters of the work we will do. If subsequent fittings and adjustments are required, in correlation to the first consultation, this will be completed no additional charge. Any additional requests outside of what has been agreed upon with the tailor during your initial visit, will be considered a new consultation and additional charge may result, at the discretion of the tailor.

❤️ HOW CAN YOU HELP!

✔️ Pre-plan your visit by making an appointment online

✔️ Practice physical distancing (2 metres / 6 feet)

✔️ Come alone

✔️ Whenever possible, use our debit machine and TAP!

✔️ Bring in freshly washed or dry cleaned clothes

N&S Team

WE’RE PREPARING FOR OUR REOPENING

In the last couple weeks, the Needle & Studio has been preparing for our re-opening. We took the time to think about how we can better serve you and our community. We are excited to implement some NEW and UPGRADED services 🙌🏽. This includes:

✔️ A NEW & LARGER change room with seating and table for your comfort!

✔️ A NEW online booking system. Book your appointment in advance and online!

✔️ WEBSITE refreshed! We wanted to stream line our site and also add some new sections so that you can access information better and faster!

✔️ MORE space for physical distancing (We did some spring cleaning and re-organized our space!)

✔️ ADDITIONAL health measures will be put in place for your protection and in compliance with Public Health Ontario

Continue to check our website for updates and our re-opening. The Needle & Studio looks forward to seeing you soon.

N&S Team

THANK YOU!

This year, we will be celebrating our two year anniversary on College West— in the Little Italy neighboured. We would like to truly thank you to our clients and community for welcoming us! We are blessed to be surrounded by a supportive community. The Needle & Studio was a family project and endeavour — to not only fill a gap in professional services, but to bring Young Lee (Owner and Head Tailor & Seamstress) back to her roots, passion and trade.

The Needle & Studio team would like to thank you 🙏 again and we look forward to many more years of providing tailoring mastery to our community!

N&S Team