Is anyone familiar with this seamstress ?

[Lady Amy of York]

Hi everyone. Fist of all  I am not one  to badmouth anyone, so please understand that  ,that is not my intent and that i am just trying to track  down my garb I ordered.

At the beginning of May of this year my husband  ordered  a doublet and slops  and  cape  from  a seamstress online. He  also decided to surprise me by having a new  velvet court gown made  for me . That was in May.

In the end of June we contacted  the seamstress who was making the garb  to inquire about it's  status. We informed here that our homefaire started in July and we were curious if  the garb would be  done in time  for this season at our homefaire. She  assured us we would have  the garb by the second week of July.

Come August no garb yet. We   understand fancy garb takes time  to make, but when we made  several attempts to contact her by email, and by  phone  we  got no response  back.My husband was starting to get concern because he had payed her already by paypal  and  the price of  the garb was not cheap.

Here it is now September,our faire season is over for  the year, and no garb  and no response back yet. We would like to know if she fell behind  with orders, did she fall ill, or simply put what is  the  status on our  orders.

The seamstress's name is Virgina  and   the name of her online  website /store  is  Midnightbreeze Designs. If anyone knows this person, or if she is  a member on here, please ask her to contact me. Thankyou! I appreciate  any help  we can  get.

[isabelladangelo]

No, but I found a wealth of info on her online.   Have you tried both phone numbers or her ebay page?
 
(512) 847-9975

(512) 558-1383

And yes, they both belong to her.  Her name is Virginia Davis and I recognize a lot of the patterns she's used, unfortunately.  You are supposed to come up with your own patterns and not use commercial ones but she's hardly the first person I've seen that has done that.

At any rate, call up both of those numbers and try to get in touch with her.  Unfortunately, it's too late to file a claim through paypal -you might still want to try- and you might have to chalk this up to a lesson learned.   Most seamstresses only ask for half the money up front and the rest when the order is finished.

[Lady Amy of York]

Thanks  for info ! Yes, i tried  both numbers  and  her ebay  page  and  her etsy  site  also.

Yes, i was a bit concern  when my husband told  me  he paid in  full.But i feel sorry  for him too, cause  he  was  trying to buy him something  nice  and  surprise  me  with  a new  gown.From now on we only  go  with seamstresses that i  know on here  or  at  my homefaire.

Tried  to   file  a  claim with paypal , but you have  to file  claim  within  10 days  of  purchase,  which  does  not  work well in anyones  case if  you are having  something  made  for  you.

Plans  are  to contact the credit card  company  and  see if  we can  do  a charge  back.

  Someone  also  suggested   the better business beaureau  or  small claims  court, which i hate  to have  to  do that but might have  to. If it was  a  small amonut of  money it would  be  one  thing, but  this was  not a cheap purchase and  as  we all know  money  does not come  easy  these  days.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

So sorry to read this, Amy. I hope you get a total refund.

[Serenity]

That is a shame.  I was considering ordering from that EBay store.  Thanks for the warning. 

Have you left feedback yet?  She seems to respond to the negative feedback, if nothing else.  Her score is not the best, but it's still pretty high. 

PayPal may work something out with you considering the nature of the transaction.  I have found them very accomodating.  Good Luck!

[Lady Amy of York]

i have left emails , etc. 

Tried  contacting  the credit card  company on friday to   to a  charge back but their  dispute  department was  closed  for    the holiday weekend.  my husband   was  going to contact  the credit card company and pay pal again today.

yes, i would not order  from them.  Since posting this post, i have received a few personal messages  from others  who have  had dealings  with  this   website  and this  seamstress  and  the  feedback was not  too postive.

Its  ashame  cause she has  several websites, ebay, etsy, facebook,  and  she is made  to appear very reliable,  and her  stuff looks very nice  on her site, but oviously that is not  the  case.

[irish]

awwwww amy.....what a crappy deal!
i hope it all works out. thats why i make my own or deal with people on here or even at faire.
good luck!

[isabelladangelo]

Honestly, looking through her stuff I noticed a lot of problem right away.   I'm only pointing these issues out to make people more aware in the future and, if they see these issues with another seller, to not buy from that person. 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79042921/gown-grooms-set-for-sheila Although this is a custom listing, the fact she uses the exact same photograph of the original -and not her own work- is disturbing.   (It's the first photo, bottom row on the link.)

I would let that slide -given that it a private listing- but I want to show why it's important to know your sewing patterns:

This lovely dress is from McCalls 3282

This "Juliet" inspired one is actually my favorite Simplicity pattern

This men's doublet is this McCall pattern 4695

So, why is this a problem?   Honestly, partly because it's illegal.  Technically speaking, by most pattern company standards, you are not to make the clothing from the pattern for resale.   However, the other problem is that the seller's that typically do this illegal activity aren't the most experienced seamstresses/tailors.   They may have been sewing for a few years but they have zero idea how to truly tailor a garment to *you*.   

She may have used pretty materials, but you can do that yourself rather easily.  Follow the directions on the pattern and you can have your own outfit for a lot cheaper.  (Heck, you can even buy a sewing machine, the material, the pattern, sew it up yourself, and still save money based on the prices)

[Harbinger]

while not relevant prior to the 2nd

for what it's worth the 512 area code is in the Austin area
and there are a good deal of evacuations going on in the
outlying areas.


-h

[Lady Amy of York]

awwwww amy.....what a crappy deal!
i hope it all works out. thats why i make my own or deal with people on here or even at faire.
good luck!

Exactly why  i only deal with the seamstresses i know at my homefaire  or the ones i know on here also. But like i said, i did not make  the purchase, my hubby  did. He is a  smart, decent ,loving, caring , good guy, but he is  not as  experienced  as in purchasing garb as i am. I feel bad  for him, cause  he  was trying to buy himself  and me  something  that he  thought looked nice.

I too noticed  things that did not look right on her site, but by then my husband  had already made the purchase  and  well i just hoped  for the  best  and that things  would  work out  and i would be proved wrong. Apparently  not  !

Anyway  was able to contact our credit card company  today, talked  to a very nice  person, and  a small claims  dispute has been  filed. Was told  it could  take  a few  weeks, so we shall what happens.

[irish]

yes, he is a good man.
hope all works out.

[Sir. Kindle]

Hi Lady Amy,

I'm sorry to hear you are having difficulty with Virginia.

I too have had dealings with her and still have an unresolved issue at the moment.

I first purchased a full mens outfit and then gown from her about 3 years ago. She took a lot longer than she said she would to make them, but she eventually came through. Fitting wasn't perfect, but they were good enough. However, after only 1 wearing, part of the gown started to fray. I contacted her and she responded quickly and said to send it to her and she'd fix it and return it to us quickly. It took nearly 4 months and lots of emails/phone calls before she finally responded by saying she had shipped it out yesterday.

Fast forward 2 and a half years and my wife and I decided to look into having new outfits made. I looked around and contacted a few people I had done business with before, either from this site, or others. While I was planning on using someone else, I decided to email her and see what she had to offer. She came back with a price that was far, far below anyone else. Knowing that she wasn't reliable, time-wise, I figured I had contacted her in March, and it would give her plenty of time to get them done before faire season started.

Well, faire season has started. While we initially got the outfits about a month and a half ago (after many emails and non-responses on her part), they didn't fit correctly at all. Mine was too big all over and my wife's bodice was waaay too short. I contacted her, stressed that if I sent them back to her, I'd need them before faire season. She assured me we'd have them back in time and, for once, she actually got them back to us. They aren't the perfect fit they should be, but they will work.

However, part of our order included a matching sword cape, a tall hat, and a french hood. Well, these have yet to materialize. I've emailed her at least 5 times since re-receiving the outfits, but have gotten no response.

In the past, as someone mentioned earlier, she seems to respond to negative emails and threats. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I was about to send her a new email, giving her only a few days to respond before I contact the better business bureau, post unfavorable comments on her facebook page, and so on and so forth. This seems to work well, as she has consistently responded after these threats AND has actually delivered on her responses.

I would suggest that you send her an email stating that you will do these things and see what happens. If she doesn't respond, follow through. I've had luck so far with this method and I hope to have luck again with them, as I need my the hats and sword cloak before Oct. 1.

Good luck and I truly hope you get your outfits and that they fit as they should, or that you at least get your money back.

I will not be using her again. While I've truly enjoyed her final products and have gotten nothing positive responses from my fellow faire friends about how nice we look, I just don't wish to ever have to deal with someone like Virginia again.

Here's a picture of me wearing her most recent outfit. I love the look, but it's been more hassle than it's worth.



Good luck,
Sir. Kindle

[Rowan MacD]

  Amy,
  Have you gotten your garb yet?

I have decided to make my own dress this winter.  I only have 2 years experience and only one set of garb done, but it's safer this way.

[Lady Amy of York]

Here is what ended up happening:

We contacted our credit card company and  filed a  dispute.

Then our credit card contacted Pay Pal. Pay Pal then contacted MidnightBreezeDesigns  and let them know  there  was a  dispute.

MidnightBreezedesigns contacted us on a Monday I think it was, and said  they could have  the garb made and  shipped by Wednesday.My husband  and i looked at each other, and we were both like " If we are paying that much  to have garb  done we don't want it to be  rushed being  made." Plus they were suppose  to send  be  a mock bodice  to try on which they never did  before  they made  the actual bodice  of  the  gown. After reading what Sir kindle  went thru with this  same  seamstress,I was  thinking "  What if  the gown does not fir  right are we  going to wait forever to get it back if i return it for  alterations."  

Plus  to top it off neither me or  my husband cared  for  the  costumer service  we had  received  from this seamstress all along. Not returning emails  and phone calls, promising things  and  then never making do on those promises.

So we asked  for our full money back, which  they agreed  to, and i think we just received credit  to our account last week.

So from now on only going with seamstresses i know on here, or  seamstresses i know  from my homefaire,  and   i am thinking about learning on to sew. I have not sewed  since  the home ec  courses i took in highschool.

[Rowan MacD]

  Me too.  I have learned a lot just by doing.  Also check out your local fabric stores- they have sewing classes and probably would not mind you bringing your project in to work on.  Nothing like having expert advice handy!