Lorraine Pettit - Costume Shop Manager, Cutter, Stitcher 

Professional Experience 

Costume Shop Manager University of Alaska Fairbanks      1998 --Present   

Drafting or adapting patterns. Cutting costumes, & supervising student construction of same.  Construction of soft armor and mascot type costumes. Ordering supplies.  Maintain wardrobe inventory.  Track costume loans to various community theatres. Assist Faculty designer in teaching costume courses. Supervise work study assistants. See my online portfolio of this work.

Assistant Manager Alterations to Go Greenbrae, California      1993--1998   

Fitting customers.  Balancing daily work in and out with cash drawer. Building custom garments.  Altering suits, wedding dresses, and other ready-made clothing.  Supervising five other seamstresses to do the same.

Sample Seamstress & Pattern Maker Folkwear Patterns, San Rafael, California      1986--1989   

Taking patterns from existing garments and making paper patterns. Sewing sample garments. Testing instructions. Writing pattern instructions and the “Measure Up” column for Networking Folkwear newsletter.

Seamstress Vogue Cleaners, Frank’s  Cleaners, Sudsette Laundry, San Rafael Laundry 1990--1993   

Repairs and alterations of garments, including darning.  Plus odd requests, such as making a new set of monkey fist cuff links, when one of the originals had been destroyed by cleaning. 

Costume Shop Manager, Drama Dept, College of Marin, Kentfield CA, 1974-1978

Sewing and craft work to build, or supervise building, of all costumes for year round 7-8 show season including one opera and 2-3 musicals per year.

Education 

University of Alaska Fairbanks 1998-2000 classes taken in  costume history, theatrical makeup.  advanced costume design and construction , beginning through intermediate metal-smithing, Alaskan native arts. 

College of Marin  1972 thru 1978  classes : intro costuming,  theatrical makeup,  theatre history  theatrical lighting,  art history ancient world, art history renaissance 

Costume Designs 

"Athena"  Fairbanks Drama Association  (community theatre) River Front Theatre   May 2003 Fairbanks Drama Association, Director : Thomas Riccio           

"Palace Late Night Cabaret" Palace Theatre and  Saloon  (professional theatre)   July 2003      Palace Theatre, Director :  Rafaella Stimmelmeyer

 Other Skills

I have years of experience with dyeing in an industrial dye vat, period millinery, and building many foam sculpture costumes. In 1999 I taught a summer school class in paper mache to third graders, so I can easily teach more complex subjects to college undergraduates, (which I’ve also done).    I can knit, crochet, and tat. I’ve crocheted garments out of unlikely materials like videotape.   I also do various forms of bead work and origami. I have found with a good set of instructions, or even just a sample or picture, I can teach myself almost any type of hand work. 

References 

Tara Maginnis, Ph. D. Costume Designer  Asso. Professor (My present boss) University of Alaska Fairbanks (907)  474-7630 tara@costumes.org 

Kade Mendelowitz Chair, Dept of Theatre (Where I work) University of Alaska Fairbanks  (907) 474-7638 ffkm1@uaf.edu

Jesse Pinnow Costume and Lighting Designer (former UAF student, and designer of a show I built) 2556 Second Ave South, Seattle, WA, 98119  (206) 491-9362 cell swamidesignsltd@hotmail.com

Rafaella Stimmelmeyer, stage director of "Palace Late Night Cabaret" Palace Theatre and  Saloon  which I designed costumes for in July 2003, gogoshire@yahoo.com