Blood, Sweat, and Shears

I was given my first pair of Fiskar scissors in the early 1970's. I was a budding seamstress and I loved the way that they sliced neatly through the doubled layer of carefully chosen fabric and felt so light and manageable in my small hands.. A good pair of scissors is the most critical tool for a seamstress. They have to take the fabric as it sits, not displace it forward like a wave.

Initially, I sewed so that I could mold my identity. I wanted to wear the most beautiful hippy-girl chic. My petite frame made it difficult to find store bought clothing that fit, yet I was desperate to be able to express myself thought the clothing that I adored. I still am.

Now I am sixty, and I have turned my creative endeavor into a career. It will never make me financially rich, but being a theatrical costumer is rewarding in so many other ways.

It starts with the script and the production meetings with the director, set designer, and lighting designer. Every step of the way is collaborative, a hashing-out of disparate visions coalesced into harmony by the director.

I arrive at the first meeting with visual concepts, some sketches, a color palette, a feeling, and swatches of fabric, my medium. Over the course of a couple of months of blood, sweat, and shears, a kind of magic appears on stage. Everything and everyone comes together: The amalgamation of the performances, the direction, the set-design, the lighting design, and the costumes always melds into something beautiful. Not always flawless, but always beautiful. A transient but deeply affecting affiliation between artists.

I suppose that my favorite part about costuming is the process of taking something from a sketch (I am not a good at rendering, my drawings are always far cruder than my finished costumes) to creating it for an actor or dancer to wear. It is almost unbelievable, time and time again, that my conceptualization comes to life.

Each of these 3-D ‘fur’ pieces are elongated triangular felt pieces cut out and individually hand-sewn onto the white velour base costume, upon which I had painted some similar black cross-hatches. This allowed me to create a sense of movement in the costume that translated well on stage. It took weeks to create.

These striped costumes for Joe Goode Performance Group were created by cutting and sewing stripes of gold and red stretch velour in a pattern that accentuated the curves of the dancers bodies. All garments were made by me except for the black trousers.

These were the ‘Nools’ for Seussical. I created all of the costumes out of fleece and made all of the headpieces. The two costumes with horizontal stripes were also hand cut and pieced striping. Oftentimes, a commercially purchased striped fabric just does not have enough impact on stage because the scale is too small and I have to create the stripes (or polka dots, or whatever) myself. Notice that I also created shoes to match each costume.

In this case I made faux fur trousers with a tail, headpieces, and vests with a matching fur collar. This time I hand painted the stripes on the vests.

I have sewn thousands of costumes and hundreds of hats and costume props, always reaching for the orange handled scissors.

Now I teach sewing and crafting to children in my community. They learn the discipline of slow handwork, embroidery, fashion design, millinery and machine sewing in my studio. They experience the satisfaction of creating something they can wear that they themselves conceptualized, planned, pinned, cut, sewed, painted and embellished.

Cut. Every creative endeavor I do includes cutting, as it has since 1973 when I received my first pair of Fiskars as a gift. May they serve the next generation of hand-crafters as they have served me.