The Process of Costuming

In order to design and construct a costume a certain amount of steps are taken. First, a dance teacher will bring a sketch to Cindy Guthrie, the Costume Shop Manager. Cindy will look over the design and decide with fabric to use.

Cindy will then make a sample costume using exiting fabric in the fabric closet. This is called a prototype. The prototype is completed and shown to the dance teacher for approval. Once the design is approved the costume shop gets to work on creating duplicates of the prototype.

The next step is a little complex. Since fabric supply in all of Idaho is low, the costume shop gets all the fabric shipped from the Garment District in Los Angeles, Ca. Cindy will take a trip to Los Angeles and personally pick out the needed fabric. The fabric is them shipped to the costume shop within one week.

When the costume shop gets the fabric they immediately go to work. They mostly use existing patterns to construct the garment, but sometimes Cindy and the other employees custom create a new pattern for the specific costume.

The fabric is laid on the cutting table and cut out to fit individual sizes. After all the pieces are cut out the employees get to work sewing the pieces together.

Once the costumes are put together a dance team will come in for a fitting. Additional alterations are made to ensure the costume fits just right. The dancers place a name tag in their costume and the process is complete.