Why you need to plan so much in advance

When you are making costumes for so many people (mine average out to around 30 a year), it pays to plan in advance.  I have been in the situation of three weeks to go and not all principal players’ costumes made and it is not good.  That is when the stress sets in and enjoyment of the project goes flying out of the window.

Christmas is spent chained to the sewing machine and, as is often the case with me, if you get ill on top of that the whole thing becomes a weight around your neck.

As I like to spend my summer holidays making as many of the costumes as possible it stands to reason that planning needs to be in place before that period arrives.  Unfortunately, as I have said before, there is one thing that often gets in the way...money.

So here is my annual plan of how it should go (although there are often out of control events that make this plan unworkable which is how I got so behind before, this year I intend it to be different).

• ·         Get all the odd jobs out of the way a soon as possible.  Cleaning, mending and altering should be finished before anything else happens.
• ·         Are there any gaps in your costume wardrobe?  For me this year it was the chorus so I have put some time aside to get that up and running
• ·         Make sure you have your budget beforehand and preferably cash in hand so you can get those bits when you need them and not waiting for your local treasurer to have the time to get it to you.  This is really important as one year I found myself waiting nearly 6 months to be reimbursed £150 due to the treasurers personal problems, if you can afford to wait then don’t worry about this but if you can’t be aware that getting money to you may not be top of their list in importance. 
• ·         Once you know what your panto will be, start looking at possible costumes and make sure you have your budget available to you (am I pushing this point? I do hope so!).  We have our announcement end March/beginning April so there is plenty of time for designs to be drafted and put to the producer and actors if this is necessary.  You may not have as long but ensure that you know, more or less, what you are doing before you start
• ·         Get your fabrics and trims decided on, bought, washed and ironed.
• ·         Make sure you have all your casts measurements, I keep mine in a book so I always know where they are
• ·         Get sewing, this may include fittings as you sew
• ·         As soon as I have a costume made I do a final fitting on the cast member, as long as it fits it then gets put away
• ·         We have a photo call for the local newspaper  end November/early December, you really need main characters in full costume for this if possible
• ·         Full dress rehearsals should have everything made and ready to go, at this point you may find some tweaking or repairs are necessary
• ·         The week before performances we have a full dress rehearsal, when  the costumes are finished with see what needs cleaning and then iron it all, hang it up and look on in amazement at all you have achieved
• ·         Be prepared during the performance with some safety pins, needle and thread and any other quick fix repair elements!
• ·         Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour