Policies

1. Deposits & Payment

Deposits. All commissions require a deposit before work begins. The deposit is a minimum of 50% of the quoted price. Where your order involves fabric purchased on your behalf, rush fees, or specialist materials and trims, the deposit may be higher than 50% so that it covers those costs in full. I will always confirm the exact deposit amount in writing, with the quote, before you are asked to pay anything.

Deposits are non-refundable. The deposit covers the time I have set aside for you and the materials bought for your garment, both of which are committed the moment your order is confirmed. The only exception is if I cancel your order — see Cancellations below.

Work begins on payment. Your slot in the schedule is held when the deposit is received, not when the quote is sent. Until then, the dates I have given you are indicative and the slot may be taken by another customer.

The balance. The remaining balance is due before collection. Garments are not released until the order is paid in full.

Your own fabric. You are welcome to supply your own fabric. I will tell you before you buy whether the quantity and the cloth are suitable for the design — if you buy without checking and it is not workable, the cost of replacing it is yours. A 50% deposit still applies to cover my time and your place in the schedule.

No surprises. If a change needs extra time or extra materials, you will be told the cost and asked to agree it before I do the work.

2. Cancellations, Refunds & Fabric

Bespoke work cannot be cancelled for a refund. Because every garment is made to your measurements and cannot be resold, the 14-day cancellation right that applies to standard online purchases does not apply to bespoke and made-to-measure commissions. This is set out in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

If you cancel before your garment is finished — at any point, for any reason — your deposit is not refunded and nothing further is owed. You will not be charged for the remaining balance.

If you cancel after your garment is finished — that is, after you have been notified that it is ready to collect — the full price is payable whether or not you choose to take the garment. The work is complete and the materials have been used.

If I cancel your order — because of illness, equipment failure, or because I cannot complete the work to the standard I would want to put my name to — you receive a full refund of everything you have paid, including the deposit, within 14 days. If you have supplied fabric, it is returned to you.

What happens to the fabric

• Fabric you supplied. It is yours. If your order is cancelled by either of us, it is returned to you — including any part-cut pieces, which I will keep together and hand back as they are.
• Fabric I bought, and you cancel. You are charged the cost of the fabric, at the price I paid. Where this is already covered by your deposit, nothing further is due. If you would like the fabric, it is yours to take once paid for.
• Fabric I bought, and I cancel. You are not charged for it, and the fabric stays with me.

Your statutory rights. Nothing in these policies affects your legal rights. If your garment is faulty or not as described, you are entitled under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to have it repaired or replaced, and I will put it right at no cost to you. Please tell me as soon as you notice. A garment needing a fit adjustment is not a fault — adjustments are part of the fitting process set out below.

3. Fittings, Alterations & Collection

Fittings. Your commission includes two fittings. The first is usually 7–9 days before your deadline, the second 4–5 days before, so there is time to make changes without rushing.

Alterations. Adjustments made after the first fitting are included. Adjustments made after the second fitting are included, and are the final round of alterations on your garment. Once those are complete, your garment is finished.

After collection. Once you have collected your garment, any further alterations are at my discretion and may be chargeable. If you take the garment away and return later wanting changes, I will help where I can, but please do not assume further alterations are included — they are not.

Design changes. If you change the design after work has started, I will quote you for the additional time and any additional materials before I begin. You will always see the cost before I do the work.

Changes in measurements. If your measurements change significantly between your measuring appointment and your fittings, the garment may need substantial re-working. Where this requires more than an ordinary adjustment, there may be an additional charge for the extra time and materials. I will tell you the cost at your fitting and agree it with you before carrying out the work.

Collection. I will email you when your garment is ready. Please collect it within 4 weeks of that notice. The balance is payable on or before collection.

Late collection. After 4 weeks I may charge for storage. I will tell you the rate before it starts to apply.

Uncollected garments. If your garment remains uncollected and you have not been in touch, I will send you written notice that I intend to sell it. You will then have a further 28 days to collect it and settle any outstanding balance. If it is still uncollected after that period, I may sell the garment under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, deduct what is owed to me including storage, and return any remaining proceeds to you.

If something has happened and you cannot get to the studio, please tell me. I will work with you. This policy exists for garments that have been abandoned, not for people having a difficult month.

4. Rush Orders & Timescales

Standard turnaround is 4 weeks from the date your deposit is received and your measurements are taken. Complex commissions may take longer, and I will tell you at the quote stage if that applies to yours.

Rush orders. Work needed in less than 4 weeks is subject to my availability and to agreement. Where I can take it on:

• 2 to 4 weeks — no additional fee
• Under 2 weeks — an additional £30
• 1 week or less — an additional £50

Rush fees are included in your quote and payable with your deposit. Accepting a rush order is always at my discretion — paying a rush fee does not guarantee a slot, and I will tell you honestly if a deadline is not achievable rather than take the booking and let you down.

Deadlines. Please give me your date, not a rough idea of your date. Every quoted timescale assumes you attend your fittings as scheduled; if fittings are missed or moved, your completion date moves with them.

5. Booking & Consultations

Enquiries. Start with the form on the website. Tell me what you would like made, when you need it, and anything you already know about fabric or design. I will come back to you with a quote, a deposit amount and a timescale.

Consultations. If you would like to talk it through first, you are welcome to book a consultation. It is not required — if you know what you want, we can go straight to measuring. Consultations are 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the commission, and you will be sent a link to choose a time that suits you.

Studio hours. I work Monday to Saturday. The studio is closed on Sundays.

Changing or missing an appointment. Please give me at least 24 hours' notice if you need to move an appointment — just reply to your confirmation email and I'll rearrange it. Appointments missed without notice may need to be rebooked, and repeated missed fittings will move your completion date.

Your portal. Once your order is confirmed you get a private link to your own page, where you can see your measurements, your appointments, what has been paid and where your garment is up to. It is the quickest way to check on things, and it means you do not have to message me to find out.

6. Privacy & Cookies

Who I am. Stitches by Lucy, a bespoke tailoring studio in London. I am the data controller for the information described here. You can reach me at contactstitchesbylucy@gmail.com.

What I collect. Your name, email address and phone number; your measurements; your order and appointment history; any reference images or links you send me; and records of payments. That is all. I do not collect anything I do not need to make your garment and run your order.

Why. To make what you have asked for, to contact you about your order, to take payment, and to keep the tax records I am legally required to keep.

How long. Your contact details, measurements and order history are kept for 24 months after your last completed order, then deleted. Invoices and payment records are kept for 6 years, as HMRC requires.

Who sees it. Nobody outside the studio. I do not sell, share or rent your information, and I do not send marketing to anyone who has not asked for it. The services that run the website — hosting, the database, email delivery and card payments — process data on my behalf under contract and cannot use it for anything else. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe and never reach me.

Where it is held. The website and the database holding your information are hosted in the United Kingdom. Two services I rely on are based in the United States: Resend, which delivers my emails, and Stripe, which processes card payments. Both are bound by contract to protect your information to UK data protection standards and may only use it to provide those services to me.

Your measurements. These are personal and I treat them that way. They are visible to you in your portal and to me in the studio system, and to nobody else.

Your rights. You can ask me for a copy of everything I hold about you, ask me to correct it, or ask me to delete it. Email me and I will respond within one month. I can delete your contact details, measurements and images on request; I cannot delete invoices inside the 6-year HMRC period. If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Cookies. This site uses only the cookies it needs to work. They keep you signed in to your portal, keep your booking form secure, and remember nothing else. There is no advertising, no tracking and no third-party analytics on this site, so there is nothing to opt out of.

If that changes, I will update this page and ask for your consent before setting any cookie that is not strictly necessary. You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings at any time, though the portal will not be able to keep you signed in if you do.