The key to fabulous group costumes? Great fit for everyone!

Satin Stitches | Jan 14, 2008 | 2

Spring Lake Park HS Dance Team wearing Satin Stitches costumes

I LOVE glitzy costumes. My PASSION is creating these fabulous costumes so that they look good on EVERYONE...especially those with less than perfect bodies! Being a plus-sized person all of my life, I am very sensitive to fit issues.

One of the most disheartening things for me, is to see a group of dancers performing, and because a smaller or larger girl has an ill-fitting costume, your eyes are drawn to her. If she would be wearing a costume that fits her body well...not only will she blend into the group much better, but also her self esteem will surely improve, which will also help her to be less self conscience, and to dance better. It is a win-win situation!

With a myriad of extensive experience with working with attaining good fit, I have excelled with my PASSION. Not only have I always needed to fit my hard-to-fit body, I have worked with clients to create custom garments that fit-for nearly 40 years now (yes, I have been creating custom outfits for others since I was in my teens!). So think of your dance group or a performance group that you know. Does everyone look good in his or her costume? Does everyone’s costume fit? If they do not, keep in mind that this may adversely affect the group's performance. DEMAND that all costumes fit each performer well.

If you cannot get the correct sizes...make sure that you have access to a talented sewing professional (or amateur with professional skills) that will be able to alter costumes so that they fit properly. Sometimes an extra costume needs to be purchased in order to cannibalize it for the matching fabrics and trims, to expand a costume to a bigger size. This is well worth the price!

A dancer in a performance group should stand out for his or her exceptional dance skills, NOT because there is something wrong with the fit of his or her costume! Everyone looks and feels better in a costume that fits well. I think they dance better too!

In addition to my freelance projects before I started Satin Stitches, and with my college fashion design degree training, I learned grading (which is the art of creating proportioned sizes from a sample size) at my first job in the womens garment industry. This knowledge was fine tuned at my second job, and redefined when I started Satin Stitches.

Before Satin Stitches, and besides my full-time design and patternmaking jobs, I worked part time in the alterations department of a major department store learning additional sewing techniques to fit a garment after the garment had been manufactured. Also, one of my free-lance patternmaking projects when I first started my business was to do the grading (sizing) for a line of childrens apparel. This is when I expanded my knowledge of sizing to include sizing for children.

At Satin Stitches, we initially cut each and every garment by hand...to the measurements of each client, including for all of our groups. Once we transitioned to our CAD patternmaking and computerized cutting equipment, we needed to come up with measurements that would allow us to continue to fit EVERY client of ours, not the standard S M L sizes offered by others!

In our quest to offer sizing for ALL, we have developed 33 adult womens sizes...27 childrens sizes...and 30 mens sizes, besides our 42 concert dress sizes! How many sizes are you used to seeing offered by a costume company? Maybe just XS to XL? What we offer is Short Medium and Long (torso, sleeve and leg lengths) in EVERY SINGLE SIZE, in addition to the very small and very large.

I am very pleased that we are able to offer all of these sizes to our clients!

Additionally...proportion is important! All costumes should look identical, whether it is a size XS Short or a 6X Long! I have personally trained our Satin Stitches design and patternmaking staff as to what to watch for in creating all sizes to look properly proportioned. It is an art, it is NOT an exact science to understand how a body expands when it gets larger. We start the design process with our size M Medium and work up and down, from this size. Under my guidance, we create costumes that WILL look good on someone of ANY size!

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Teacher, Parent, Studio, Competitions & Conventions, Performance, Correctly Fitting Costumes, Costumes (all tags)