Designing, Sewing, and Making Costumes

Costume Design Photo Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

What do you make your daughter for Halloween who just got her bar-tending certificate?  Why a renaissance German Bar Maid outfit of course...Don't worry... that's diluted coffee in the mugs, and it's an empty beer bottle that she borrowed from her Uncle for the photo!

Jamie made this Jedi costume from Star Wars for the Director of Vocal Music in her high school.  She made the hooded Jedi coat, the belt and the under vest.

Kate made this gown which is similar to a gown on. "Lord of the Ring" set. She used gold satin cotton in the inside and teal ultra suede on the outside.  Kate made and used this gown for Halloween but also donated it for a month to the Wilmington Drama League in Delaware to use on the set of "Once Upon a Mattress."

Jamie is modeling a queen's gown for the play, "Once Upon a Mattress" that she made for one of  the main characters, the queen. This gown was a lot of fun to make and required lots of fabric and trim as you can see.

A Costume Designers job:

When an original costume is being made, a sketch is drawn first, some times on the computer.  Then a professional costume illustrator does the finished sketch. Then ideas must be approved. The final choices of fabric and trim are made, and then the workroom gets ready to make the costume.

Heather was headed to the Pennsylvania  renaissance fair and wanted to make an outfit for it.  She made a peasant blouse, paisley belt also known as a waist cincher, and a green skirt of ultra suede fabric.

In this photo my son, John, in the middle, and daughter, Jamie, on the right, were in their high school play, "Beauty and the Beast." Gaston is to the left of John, Lumiere, to the right, both wearing costumes that were rented.  In a couple of scenes the actors had to dress as peasant folk/town folk. With only minutes to spare, (one of the times the kids tell me just before dress rehearsal that I needed to make some costumes) I whipped up John's vest in a matter of 3 minutes.  I didn't line it, nor did I add buttons. I just cut it out, sewed the side seams, sewed the shoulder seams, and zigzagged around the edges so it wouldn't fray to bad.  Jamie made her peasant blouse she is wearing, and I whipped up her apron.  The great thing about sewing costumes for theatre, especially if it is for a peasant or poor looking actors, your sewing doesn't have to be perfect.

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