Meet Your Board: Kathe Gust, Membership Secretary

Why costuming?  What brought you here?

I started seriously costuming in college for the SCA because my sweetie was pretty deeply involved in it. Part of my undergraduate degree was theater and I did costume design and construction instead of on-stage work.  Then we moved and I stopped.  Lord of the Rings got me back into it because Phil looked quite a lot like Bernard Hill.

What’s your costuming focus?

We’ve done a bit of everything.  Used to do SCA, at the start of the re-boot it was all fantasy and then went into sci-fi and finally historical.  I avoided the historical for a long time because I resisted the whole “from the underwear out” thing.

Do you do anything else crafty or artistic?

I used to paint (pictures not houses – I still paint houses) and play the flute. I also used to knit (until I blew out my elbow shelving books) and still embroider.  Tried quilting, but was defeated by applique, so I only do pieced ones. I make jewelry from time to time and also do some prop making with Phil.

What’s your day job?

Librarian, currently looking for work. 

What was the first costume you made?  Is there a picture?

Probably some Hallowe’en thing.  The earliest photo is the gown I made for the SCA version of our wedding in the 1970’s.

What’s on the sewing table now?

Wool Regency Greatcoat and relining a tweed sport coat for him, 1880’s dress for me.

What was your first/most memorable costuming disaster/ learning moment?

I haven’t really had one beyond some fitting issues here and there.  My Mom sewed, I took sewing in Home Economics back when they still taught it and I spent a summer doing a sewing class at Singer.  I did rather hate hand sewing the sequins on Phil’s really looonng Phantom of the Opera Red Death cape though.

Costume you’re most proud of?

It’s a toss-up between Cleopatra’s cape and the LOTR armor.  The cape is definitely the sturdier of the two.

What’s your holy grail costuming project?  The one you dream of doing?

Amanda Grayson’s yellow gown from Star Trek TOS “Journey to Babel” episode and Howl’s Moving Castle – the CASTLE not the characters! 

What’s your costuming Kryptonite, the one thing you just can’t master?

My costume failing is fitting.  I finally figured out zippers, rolled hems and even flapped pockets, but getting the fit right is always very frustrating and frequently a failure.

Tell us one (or two or three) things about you that others might not know.

I hate making corsets (so I avoid it like the plague).  I sew in zippers by hand, only Phil can do them by machine successfully.  I enjoy the research as much as the costume making.