In our ongoing A Day in My Life series, Anneliese Mowbray, the wardrobe mistress at Theatr Felinfach, explains what her job entails.

WHAT other job can boast that it created the biggest and fattest gypsy wedding dress in west Wales?

This was my challenge four Christmases ago when I was asked to create the dame dress for Theatr Felinfach’s Christmas pantomime.

The wedding dress had a circumference of 18-foot, a mixture of cerise pink and bright orange satin, a holographic apron, covered in sequins and fairy lights, with a steel boned crinoline and petticoat of ink and orange net underneath. It had to be big enough to hide two people underneath the skirt, and took me three months to make. Three months, and worn on stage for five minutes!

You could say that it was inevitable that I would lead a career in the creative arts of some sort; my father is a retired potter, my mother was interested in fine art and my gran was a tailor. I spent a lot of time with my gran sewing clothes and toys. From a young age, I enjoyed designing, and would make clothes and dolls for my siblings from my gran’s hoard of scraps.

I’m originally from Bwlchllan, finished attending Ysgol Aberaeron secondary school in 1983, and went on to Carmarthen College of Art until 1985. I then went to the London College of Fashion until 1987 where I got a HND in Fashion.

After finishing, I started working in London as a designer at a wholesaler, designing ladies wear for mass production, then got a job as an embroiderer for a textile designer, producing top of the range jackets and knitwear.

In 1990, I decided to come home to Ceredigion, met my husband, and we now live in New Quay with our 18-year-old daughter.

After returning home from London, it made sense to set up my own embroidery business. For the majority of the year I would embroider wedding dresses for a shop in Carmarthen. Then, every summer, my husband and I would travel to motorcycle shows with the machine where I would produce patches on site and take orders to keep the money coming in.

After a few years, I decided to try something different and went to work as a play worker in the holiday club for a private nursery.

I always thought I’d be an artist of some sort, but I never thought I’d have a career in costume design, even though I’ve always had an interest. However, in 2007 I saw this job advertised at Theatr Felinfach, and 10 years on I’m still here and enjoying the job.

As wardrobe mistress, I am responsible for supervising all wardrobe related activities. The role is varied to say the least, which can involve being present at production meetings doing fittings, working with visiting production teams and stage management teams, as well as working with the theatre crew on our own productions. One recent costume was a six-foot German Shepherd dog made from scraps of fun fur and a couple of ping pong balls for eyes. I’ve also made a listeria costume… don’t ask!

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now