Beyond the Reflection

Very unprofessional. See the filtered review by Janay J– My experience was similar to hers. Brandie is a poor communicator, doesn’t finish work on time and is VERY late (hours late) for appointments. One positive thing I can say is that she has some creative ideas about altering clothing, things I hadn’t thought of. Now if only she had actually finished the work and been on time for the pick up meeting! Actual quality of work– the work that she finished that is– was okay. I can’t imagine how anyone can think it is acceptable to be hours late to a meeting with unfinished work. Prices were in line with what you’d find at most dry cleaner alterations places. I felt a bit like my clothes were being held hostage so in the future I’ll just go to an alterations place where I can at least stop by in person to check on the progress of items.

I found Brandie T on Unilocal after reading the rave reviews and recommendations from fellow Unilocalers. Contrary to their experiences, I would NOT recommend her services to ANYONE. Well maybe for a simple hem where you could stand over her to make sure she’s getting the work done, but definitely not for anything more than that. The optimistic side of me would like to think that she meant well, because I cannot fathom how a person could have this much disrespect for another person’s time and money. I don’t know who conducts business in this manner. One thing that I’m very sure of is that there are no words I could say to accurately explain how frustrating this experience has been. PLEASE SAVE YOUR MONEY & FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO WORK WITH.
To further expand on working with Brandie T & Beyond the Reflection, she was constantly late on deadlines and had the worst communication skills… which pretty much means she ignores your calls/​texts/​emails and on the occasion that you get in touch with her, she’s deceptive about the progress she’s made. If/​when you finally get to see whatever it is she’s working on for you, it will probably be in pieces as if she just started working on it right before you walked in the door.
She began working on my project at the end of July and gave me a September 1^st deadline. Then she disappeared for an entire month. I came across a negative review on
titled «She took my money and ran» (which she has since deleted once I shared my horrible experience on the site too) and of course began to panic. It hit too close to home! I finally got in touch with her after calling back to back to back to back. (You really have to hunt her down… sometimes over a span of days.) She kept giving me new deadlines and the only reason I continued working with her is b/​c I was really in-​between a rock and a hard place. But truthfully, I should have walked away as soon as I got uncomfortable with the situation. She promised to communicate better, complete the project, and also added in some extra perks to compensate for how much she’d inconvenienced me. However, it was still the same old story… disappearing, me hunting her down, her giving excuses… until the other day when I met her (she was over an hr late by the way as I waited in the rain) to receive what she told me were the FINAL COMPLETED designs. What do you know? The garments were still in pieces! I showed them to a professional seamstress and she was horrified by how poorly the garments were constructed.
Brandie knew that I had a lot invested in this project, and in the long run I lost precious time and money dealing with her. I never got those added perks, I never received any completed work from her, and I’m worst off than where I started. The perplexing part is that after she gave me the «final garments» she wanted to continue working on the pieces for the 2^nd, 3^rd, or whatever time it was. This is why I say I said I’d like to believe in her mind she had good intentions or that she felt like this, for whatever reason, was an okay way to conduct business. However, I can’t imagine why she felt this way because she was very aware of the time table for this project, how important this project was, and how dissatisfied I was with her work ethic thus far. I very plainly told her she had no more extensions, and yet still she doesn’t inform me that the «final» garments aren’t complete until I’m literally pulling them out in pieces from the garment bag.
I know people on Unilocal have nothing but good things to say about her and I know she has a strong presence on this site. I’m not posting this with any malicious intent. I can agree that when I met her she had a kind disposition, but at the end of the day, I felt like it was only right to warn anyone else who might consider working with her. I would hate for someone else who can’t afford wasting time & money to go through what I’ve gone through, and clearly what other people have experienced as well (i.e. the deleted negative reviewers who never got the chance to see the work they commissioned Brandie T & Beyond The Reflection for).

I have known Brandie was a seamstress for a while now. Whenever someone in Unilocal Talk mentions in a thread that they need something tailored, someone always mentions Brandie. I was a fan of hers already simply because I like her in Talk, so when it came time to needing my wedding dress hemmed and possibly taken in, Brandie was my first and only choice.
One thing I like about Brandie is that she’s just as big of a cat person as I am (we have 4), so we had something to chat about immediately. She’s incredibly nice and very personable, and a fantastic seamstress. I only had a hem done, but I got to check out a lot of the other work she’s done or is doing now while I was there. Pretty neat. If you check out her Unilocal profile (Brandie T), you can see some of the other neat work she’s done. I fully intend to go back to her whenever I need something done, and while she’s fairly far from me via the el (45 mins vs. 12 driving, but I have no car), I have no problem making the trip.
She’s also very reasonably priced. It was $ 20 for the hem. I highly recommend her for all of your tailoring needs.

I’ve been looking for more tailors to refer clients to for quite some time now and am so happy to have come across Brandie!
A number of clients come to me with the idea that they need to get a whole new wardrobe or new suits but then after 15 minutes with their closet (or suitcase, for those who come in from out of Chicago to get styled), I find out that their current clothing choices are fine, just ill fitting.
There’s a fine line between professional and sloppy. The fine line, is good tailoring. So, after tossing the outdated and worn out looking pieces to the side, we get to work on the how, why and where certain pieces need to be taken in to look professional.
Yeah yeah, I’m a stylist… not a seamstress or tailor… but… I can tell when someone who sews is going to do a great job. Brandie designs costumes for goodness sake! Plus, not only did she take my client’s big order on a busy day, she’s got a great personality and at numerous times during the fitting, read my mind and knew exactly what I was going to point out to pin before I had a chance to say it!
Five stars for this hun with an update to come upon seeing my client happy as a clam!