Fiona’s Top Tips: Surviving (and thriving!) When Sewing Group Costumes
By FunkiFabrics, 26 August 2025
Let’s be honest agreeing to sew a full set of costumes for a team might sound like a good idea at first. Then you sit down, look at the numbers, and think... what have I just signed up for?! Whether it’s six outfits or a full-blown squad of 100, making group costumes can feel overwhelming but fear not! Fiona, one of our fab Funki customers, has been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale. Here’s her go-to guide to keep the stress low and the sparkle high.
1. Keep the Design Simple (But Stylish!)
Resist the urge to go full couture. Choose a design that looks great but won’t drive you mad replicating it 20+ times. The easier it is to recreate, the happier your sewing machine (and your sanity) will be.
2. Think Ahead with Sizing
Group costumes don’t need to be perfectly tailored. Why? Because next season, there’ll be a different crew or growth spurts will strike. Fiona’s pro tip: split your group into size brackets (XS, S, M, L, XL) instead of making individual patterns. It saves serious time and still gives a fab fit especially with the stretch and flexibility of our Lycra fabrics!
3. Stock Up on Fabric (And Then Add a Bit More)
Always order more fabric than you think you need. You never know when you’ll need to whip up a couple of extra costumes and it’s a total pain trying to colour-match or reorder last minute.
4. Take Control of Measurements
If you can, measure the team yourself. It’s a two-person job: one to measure, one to jot it all down. Bring printed sheets with bust, waist, hip, torso, and skirt length fields. And if there’s a skirt involved, always double-check the length with the coach. Better yet, bring fabric with you to show how it’ll look it can save hours of back-and-forth later.
5. Line Them Up (Literally)
Lining up the team in height order is super helpful especially when sorting out skirt lengths. Just watch out for torso lengths; two people might be the same height but have completely different body proportions. For Lycra fits, torso length is everything and sometimes, a custom pattern for an outlier is worth it.
6. Batch It Like a Boss
Organisation is everything. Whether you’re cutting one size at a time or going all in on a mega cut-day, label everything. Use baskets, bags, labels whatever it takes to keep each size separate. There’s nothing worse than finding a mix-up after the costumes are already on ice!
7. Club Stock? Plan Ahead
If the costumes are club-owned (not bought by the performers), it’s smart to make a couple of extras in the most common sizes. Trust Fiona: it’s way cheaper to make them all at once than to sew a random one-off next year.
8. The Payoff is Worth It
Yes, it’s a bit of a mission. But there’s nothing like seeing your costumes come to life on stage all that hard work, glitz, and Funki fabric in full flow. Pure joy!
Want to recreate Fiona’s look? Two of her faves from last season featured our custom print ombré Alicante dreamy, bold, and so performance ready. Got a group project coming up? Stock up on stretch, go big on baskets, and keep Fiona’s tips close. You’ve got this 💪✨
