Hi-Line Living: Costumes for kids

For the past five years, Kim O'Leary, junior high school teacher at St. Jude Thaddeus School, has been making costumes for the school's theatrical productions - right in her own home.

O'Leary was 8 years old when she first got involved with the sewing world.

"My mom got me started and then I really liked it so she had me take classes," she said.

O'Leary's favorite part about the costume-making process is taking a pattern and then having it come alive on stage.

"I'm involved in helping with the practices," she said. "It's a big production."

O'Leary said she partners with Jeff Ralph, the director of St. Jude Thaddeus School plays.

"He picks the production and then we collaborate and figure out what all we're going to do," she said. "I pick what I like based on what he gives me for ideas and then I take the pattern and make it fit what we're doing."

Ralph said it is a pleasure working with O'Leary and that he has been working with her for the five years she's been the costumer.

"We've gotten really used to each other over the years," he said. "Basically I give her a general idea of what I'm looking for in the play and what sort of theme I'm trying to set up and then she goes online and she finds some different pictures of different characters and costumes and dresses and puts together a mini storybook, and then we go through them and approve them - and go from there."

Most of the time O'Leary gets her supplies locally; however, sometimes she has to travel to Great Falls to purchase certain materials.

O'Leary added that it takes her roughly three to four days to complete each costume.

This year, the production O'Leary and Ralph are working on is "El Phantismo." The show centers around Sierra, a bored young woman. Three women tell her a magical story about a pirate, El Phantismo. When Santiago, the young man who loves Sierra cannot get her attention, he decides to dress up as her fantasy pirate and romantic complications occur.

"El Phantismo" opens April 24 at 7 p.m., with repeat performances April 25 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 6 p.m.

"It is a romantic comedy," O'Leary said. "It is a story that can only be told once."