This question seems to come up all the time, so it’s no surprise that it popped up in our Dear Penny mailbox too (that’s the place where you can send your stumpers about saving money in Brooklyn and we’ll either answer them ourselves or ask our readers to). Rachel writes:

Like many fans of Stacy and Clinton [you are not not the only one, sistah!], I lust after a well-tailored wardrobe, but don’t have a lot of cash, and don’t know my way around getting alteration services in NYC. Growing up, my mom hemmed all my skirts (d’oh!!) Can you help?

Glad you ask, Rachel, because we could use a great tailor too. We could also use one of those seamstresses that all of our fashion-y friends seem to know, the kind who can duplicate a favorite shirt in seven different fabrics in an afternoon. Readers, let ‘er rip, so to speak.