A CLOTHES alternation service in Basingstoke has been working flat out since Boxing Day.

Seamstresses at The ZipYard, in Church Street, have been going at full pelt doing repairs and alterations to customers’ Christmas presents and sale bargains.

Instead of taking presents back or banishing them to the back of the wardrobe, people have been taking their clothing gifts to ZipYard to be taken in, let out, shortened or lengthened.

“If it can go under our sewing machines the seamstresses can sew it,” said owner Jill Phillips.

“Popular sizes sell out quickly and often only larger sizes are left on the sale rails. Customers have been bringing in clothes to be made a size or two smaller and showing off real bargains where huge reductions have been made by the stores because of minor damage or broken zips.

“The cost of alterations or repair is always far less than the amount of money saved in the sale.

“I would estimate that in total our customers have saved several thousand pounds in the sales this year by snapping up big bargains because they had the confidence that we could fix or alter almost anything for them.”