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

Being determined does help!

I put my foot down with a firm hand!

After a telephone call with the director I am now getting the money I requested up front.  She did ask if I could get it in installments...I said no!  You have no idea how proud I am of myself for being firm, I usually cave in but I was determined it would not happen this time and it didn't.  I will be getting the money at the cast meal when the pantomime is announced and scripts go out.

I do know what we are doing but I'm not supposed to say anything until it is officially announced so I will be good and say nothing.

But what is happening now is I am thinking of what costumes will be needed, lets just say my peasant costumes were not a waste of time lol

I have just finished off the green version of the bodice which has a bit of trim on the front to offset the pale colours of the other two.  This one is bigger and goes from a size 20 down, it is on the size 10 dummy and not laced up tight.

I have a patterned blouse to go under the pink and think the green needs a plain white blouse to lift the colouring.  I'm not sure about the blue but I will find something suitable in time.

This means I have four peasant lady costumes as I already had the Snow White costume to reuse.

I am now planning a shopping trip to get the fabric as Norfolk really doesn't have that choice.  I am lucky my husband hails from Bolton so we tend to combine a family visit with a fabric shopping session.  I also plan to order some trims from America. They are so much cheaper there it pays to get the bulk orders and pay the duties and postage!  It is a shame that I have to pay the vat as they are not donated even though it is for a charity, but that is the government for you lol

Sigh, here we go again

I said didn't I?  

So yet again I find myself in the budget quandry that hits every year and makes me mad at myself and everybody else that the situation is never settled.

At the end of our performances this year I spoke to the director and told her that I HAD to have funds up front to do the costumes as the way it was just did not work.

There are two versions of how the funding has been dealt with over the years;

• I pay for everything I use then put in a reciept for what is owed me and wait up to six months for it to be paid back
• I pay for nothing, put in a reciept and wait up to six months to get any money for anything

So when I went for the first option I found myself spending up to £150 and waiting too long to get it back.

The following year I went with the second method and found myself playing catch up over Christmas as I had waited so long to get any money to pay for things.

Therefore this year was going to be a new method.  I spoke to the director as I said and she assured me that I could have at least some money up front to pay for fabrics, trims etc in good time to not have to rush through as performance time approached.

Happy with this conversation I felt comfortable with using fabrics that I already had to start on the costumes as you have seen.

Last weekend I spoke to the treasurer and asked for the funds promised.  'Oh no,' she said.  'I wish you had asked before, director has allocated all the money and now there is none left to give you!'

To say I am peeved is to put it mildly.

It is now a week and I have still not recieved any reply about this from director person!

So, you have been warned, I have warned you a lot about this haven't I?

Of course I have returned to work and been too tired to do much on my return home, I have however been working on my own little project which involves embroidery on the front panel of a dress and here is where I am at;

I have never attempted this kind of embroidery before so it's all new ground and I am pretty pleased with the result.  It is mainly bullion stitch with a bit of satin stitch on smaller areas and pearl seeds in the largest areas.  I'm not sure at this point how far I will take this onto the front panel but it makes a change sitting with a needle and thread and not hammering away on the sewing machine :D