All the World’s a Sewing Machine The IRT’s costume shop makes magic out of muslin. Strong acting? Believable characters? No. on opening night of Indiana Repertory Theatre productions, Lynae Vandermeulen often looks for something else: good sewing. Tm sitting there in the audience thinking, ‘That hem looks funny,"’ says Vandermeulen, one of the 10 people who make costumes for IRT.
Vandermeulen and colleagues—six sewing, two office and two wardrobe people—work in the well-lit costume shop on the theater’s third floor. Sewing machines, bolts of material and dress forms compete for space with the costumers, who work at long tables where they can spread out their creations. For each production, they make some costumes, rent some from other theaters and buy others online.
While the shop has some costumes on hand that can be altered. "they might not be appropriate for the character, the time period or the actor," says costume-shop manager Christy Martin, "Actors come in the same wide range of sizes as everyone else." Six months before each IRT production opens, the director meets with a designer, sometimes from Newr York, Chicago or Los Angeles, to brainstorm the look of the costumes. The designer sends detailed drawings and notes for each character, which are then interpreted by the costume shop.
Six months before each IRT production opens, the director meets with a designer, sometimes from New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, to brainstorm the look of the costumes. The designer sends detailed drawings and notes for each character, which are then interpreted by the costume shop. The ideas become patterns, and from those, the costumers mock up the garments in muslin. "This way you see if the shape and design of the costume will work without being distracted by patterns or colors," Martin says. Then work be-gins on the actual costumes, which arc made as much as possible with natural fabrics such as wool, cotton and silk.
Vandermeulen or another cutter/draper cuts the fabric into pieces that are sent to stitching. S "It’s like a puzzle: I get all these little pieces ~~ and put them together to make a costume," says lead stitcher Brenda Taylor, who, by the way, flunked home ec in high school. Even when the costume is complete, it might require extra work, such as "distressing" it to make it look old and worn: workers have used sandpaper, files, repeated washings and even a belt sander.
If a costume doesn’t work at dress rehearsal, the pressure is on, "We do a lot of overnight work, shopping, frantically calling other theaters," says Martin. Even during performances, costumes can imalfunction. Wardrobe mistress Liz Sanders has sewn the seat back into several pairs of pants—while the actors were wearing them. And then there’s the challenge of helping actors in and out of costumes as fast as possible. Sanders says, "Somebody |l timed one of my quick changes in a production once. My mom was quite surprised when I called home and said, ‘Mom, I took I a man’s pants off in three seconds!’"
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