Junior Maeve Jensen is a designer in costume crew at school, and when back home flips skirts into tops, makes her clothes fit perfectly, and hand-stitches wallets, all skills she learned while in costume crew.
For Jensen, her creativity doesn’t end when she leaves the costume room after designing for the school plays. She continues her work at home, where she develops her skills into a passion for designing her own clothes. Costume crew sparked Jensen’s interest in design and prompted her to dive deeper into its creative world.
“Joining costume crew at Jesuit, and then learning how to sew, I realized that it was a really good creative outlet for me,” Jensen said.
Jensen has now been a part of four productions since joining costume crew sophomore year and has really enjoyed her time in theater, whether that’s designing costumes for plays like Rumors and Sense and Sensibility, or participating in the on stage production and acting in Play Fest.
Theater cultivates Jensen’s love for design, inspiring her to bring her passion into her outside life.
“I learn my skills from costume crew and then I am able to put that into what I do by myself,” she said.
When sewing, Jensen shares her creative process, “I like to draw inspiration from a lot of different sources like Pinterest, TikTok, or social media. I like to find a skirt I think would look good as a top, then I take it home and stitch it up, measure it to my body, and then I make a piece I really like out of it.”
As Jensen continues to live out her life creatively she wants to continue expressing herself.
“I definitely see myself working in costume design and theater costume design and specifically fashion of course,” Jensen said.
The world of design has really impacted Maeve’s life, for students looking to join-behind-the scene roles or trying a new creative skill, Maeve looks to share encouragement: “It’s okay to make mistakes and you’re only going to learn from them and it is just part of the process, and the final piece will be so much more rewarding once you have overcome all your mistakes,” Jensen said.
