Teri’s Unique Stitching, LLC
Freelance Costume Stitcher, Costumes, Custom Dressmaking, Alterations, General Sewing, and Instruction

I started sewing at the age of eight using my great grandma’s treadle sewing machine. Living on a dairy farm I belonged to the 4H club and we were to submit something we sewed for the county fair in Wisconsin. My mother decided that my first project would be a plaid lined jumper. Oh, did I cry over that and I didn’t sew again with plaid fabric till 2011 when I started stitching as a Costume Shop Assistant for a local dinner theatre. But the good news is I got a blue ribbon that I treasure to this day.

During the late 80’s and early 90’s I was a sewing assistant for L. Karen Odam, Dos De Tejas where I tested her patterns, proof read and edited the instructions, created samples for shows and pattern photos. In 1996, Karen and Dos De Tejas patterns were selected for the National New Home Institute Fashion Show and I got to sew all the clothes for this using their machines. Also in the 80’s and 90’s I was a DecoArt Helping Artist, teaching decorative painters how to use DecoArt products as well as teaching silk painting classes including a basic one-time class on TV.

In 1995 after moving from Texas to PA I started a home-based alterations and custom dressmaking. In 2010, I moved back to my home town in WI started my business there and then my life changed.

Welcome to my crazy life. Really, it’s crazy as a Freelance Costume Stitcher, I usually work away from home 6 days a week, 10 hours a day minimum and anywhere from two days to weeks/months. I get to travel around the United States and internationally having sewn in Canada, Poland and China. I am blessed to have sewn costumes for Disney On Ice, Disney Live, Marvel Universe Live, Sesame Street, Radio City Rockettes, Hamilton the Broadway Musical and the very last Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus, to name a few. In 2015, I spent time in NYC sewing costumes for Madonna’s Living for Love Music Video, her costumes for her Rebel Heart tour as the head seamstress and went on tour with her for three cities.

When I am at home I sew costumes for the Fireside Theatre, work at a local quilt shop teaching classes and make cosplay costumes for Comic Con (this picture is my Bioshock Infinite cosplay costumes on stage for judging at the 2016 Wizard World Chicago Comic Con).

I have been a member of ASDP since 2008 though I had one year off. I came back because I missed the comradery of the members and all the information that is shared to help us become better in our field