Whether you're a high-school drama teacher or in charge of sewing for a large opera house, chances are good that you sometimes have to outsource to off-site seamstresses. Communicating clearly and keeping everyone on schedule can be a challenge, especially when dealing with directors and actors who may only show their faces in your shop once before the first dress rehearsal. Here are a few ideas for organizing everything and keeping your sanity at the same time.

Start a costume blog

A simple Wordpress blog can make this job a whole lot easier. You can keep everyone on the same page, assign tasks, check up on people, and show photos of costumes in progress to your director on his schedule (even if that's 3am.) The cost is minimal. All you need is a domain name, which costs about $10 a year (even less if you use an online coupon.) You'll also need a hosting account, but if your organization has a website of any kind, you can probably just designate your domain as an "add-on domain" to their account. If you go this route, the hosting is free.

Most hosting companies use Simple Scripts, so installing the free WordPress platform takes just a couple of clicks and you're ready to go.

Decide who can contribute

You'll want to decide if you want the other costumers to be able to post and add photos or video. They will always be able to comment, but adding them as contributors will give them more freedom to show you what's going on and where they are in the schedule. The director will want access, too.

People outside the costume department like actors, marketing, and even the media will always be able to communicate through the comment feature, if you don't want to add everyone as a user.

Grab some plugins

You'll definitely want to add a few specialty plugins to your blog. That's the beautiful thing about WordPress, there are lots of plugins and they're easy to install and use. A calendar is a must, as is a contact form, so people can email you urgent messages. You can add some sidebar plugins, too, to let your sewers know what fabrics, patterns or trims you need them to purchase.

A photo gallery or image slider plugin will allow you to show off your creations before, during and after a show. You can invite the media to come and check out the costumes (they love a good photograph that they don't have to take themselves.) And because you get to choose whether an individual post or page is public or private, you can use the site as a publicity vehicle as well.


Costumes can be some of the most fun parts of a show. Everyone wants to see the progress you're making, and you want to know whether your outsourced projects are on schedule. So, setting up a quick blog can be a real asset to future productions, a powerful tool for shows in progress, and an archive of past shows. They're cheap, easy to setup and a breeze to use. What's not to love?

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