Costume maker Isabelle King has had the pedal to the metal for the past three weeks.
"My husband [Len] reckons I sew like I drive - with my foot flat down," the 75-year-old ("I'm knocking on the door of 76") said yesterday.
The grandmother of 15 has been flat tack making eight full costumes for next Saturday's concert at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"I've spent a few hours on them already and I've got a few more to go."
More than 6m of sequined material and 10m of white satin is being used in the costumes.
"The sparkly stuff is for the hot pants, but it's a pain because it blunts the blades in the overlocker," she said.
"They have to be flexible, because the girls do the splits in them, and the waistcoats are white because the lighting is going to be pretty spectacular for this show, they tell me."
Mrs King started work as a dressmaker at the former Silk and Frock House, which was located in Princes St above what is now the Disk Den music shop.
"It was awful. I started work at 15 on 1 a week. It was a horrible, grotty place. When they turned on the power each morning, the whole place throbbed. Nobody would work there these days," she said.
"I've always made clothes at home. With eight sons, it was nice to be able to do something creative.
"We made the costumes for Perchance to Dream at His Majesty's Theatre [now Sammy's] in 1954 or '55," she recalled.
"All the show people used to love that theatre. There's nothing like that old theatre in Dunedin any more.
"People don't dress with the same style, either, as we did then. The girls would all wear beautiful evening dresses.
You'd make your dress on Saturday afternoon and wear it out on Saturday night."
However, true style would never go out of fashion, Mrs King said.
"I got the Big Night In girls around here for a fitting and they were talking their heads off. They were all saying they like dresses with things done at the waist, like the princess [Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge] was wearing at the Royal Wedding.
"That's like the dresses we were making back in the 1950s."
