Homewood Show Choirs is a nationally recognized program that has accepted numerous awards and championship titles, but their success wouldn’t be possible without the help of the Sewing Circle.
The Sewing Circle is comprised of moms that assist in all things costuming related. Each mom has a different level of experience and different skill sets, which has proven to be very helpful when working on the numerous tasks given to them.
When the moms meet, they conference with Byron Mosquera, Homewood’s head show choir director, who has a passion for sewing. There they discuss the tasks that need to be done, as well as which ones to prioritize.
This year, Alisa Foley took charge as the head sewing mom. One of the most important tasks she was given was recruiting and organizing tasks for the volunteers based on their individual skills.
“We have moms that have a lot of different types of experience” Foley said.
Those with less sewing experience were taught to bedazzle, sew straps onto dresses and buttons onto jackets and make minor repairs to costumes, while those with more experience helped tailor and make alterations to dresses. Some moms even assisted Mosquera in making dresses from scratch.
This year, the volunteers dedicated much of their time to Homewood’s girls group Nexus’ costumes, which were inspired by the creations of iconic fashion designer Donatella Versace.
One costume in particular stood out: hand-made dresses designed by Mosquera, which were inspired by Blake Lively’s 2022 Met Gala gown.
“I tried to bring as many elements from that original dress into the one that we had,” Mosquera said.
The moms assisted in making this creation come to life by tracing and cutting out patterns, sewing and hand-painting the dresses with metallic paint to mimic the metallic details in Lively’s dress.
“They were a lot of help this year because we made 52 dresses,” said Foley.
In years prior to the Sewing Circle’s help, Mosquera did much of the costuming work by himself.
“I was doing probably 90% of the sewing myself. The mommas have just really taken a lot of that off my plate, and it’s been awesome,” Mosquera said.
As Homewood’s show choir program, which is now made up of 165 members, continues to grow, the Sewing Circle is as essential as ever.
Luckily, as the number of kids in the program grows, so does the number of volunteers willing to help out.
“I think that ultimately the moms buy in because when they see the final product on stage, they have a sense of pride. It’s a community effort, and I love the fact that the mommas help out,” Mosquera said.
