I learned to love the art of sewing as a young child. My mom would sew clothes for my sister and me while I stood next to her at her machine (not so patiently) waiting for her to tell me when I could press the reverse lever. I learned that clothes didn’t just come from stores and MY mom could make them (just one of the super powers I was sure she possessed).

After years of needle point, counted cross-stitch, crewel & embroidery, I finally took the plunge and learned to sew at a machine. I took to it like a duck to water and was assisting my sewing teacher help the other students as I was completing my projects with weeks to spare. I couldn’t get enough and could never complete a pattern without changing it in some way to make it my own. In high school I’d sew at lunch in the home ec. room and then sew again after school at home.

I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in Apparel Manufacturing and Merchandising with a specialized focus on theater and costuming. Since childhood I’ve had affinity for period clothes (I was the only third grader I knew that loved Fred Astaire movies) so theatrical costuming was a perfect fit.

Since college I have worked professionally as a costumer in many capacities including: wardrobe manager, stitcher, designer, first hand (assistant to the cutter/draper) and cutter/draper (pattern maker). I’ve worked in several different theatrical settings including: education, community theater, Shakespeare festivals, opera, regional theater, and large road houses.

For the last 12 years I have almost exclusively been employed as a cutter/draper, using designers’ renderings, the performers’ measurements and fabrics to make designers’ drawn ideas tangible, functional items, to help bring a story to life in a wide variety styles, social classes and time periods.

In 2007 I started Lucky Zelda, my own little creative side venture, as an avenue to create the items that I felt inspired to make, not just what I was told to make at work. Since then, custom Lucky Zelda pieces have found their way in to people’s weddings, vacations, graduations and other special occasions as well as dozens of dozens of Lucky Zelda purses being sold around the globe.