Joan Clauss began the New Year by making her first career her third career.
Before employment as Philipstown deputy town clerk, a post from which she retired Dec. 31 after 10 years, Clauss had crafted elegant wedding gowns. Returning to this vocation, she is already engrossed in fashioning gowns for two brides”™ special days.
The new gowns will be a far cry from the high-necked, long-sleeved gowns of a bygone era. But Clauss is adept at making brides”™ dreams come true, sometimes working from a picture in a bridal magazine with adaptations suggested by the brides.
The Clauss home in Cold Spring is a treasure chest of elegant materials, laces, buttons, appliques and beadings, all crying out to be included in one of her creations.
After their initial wearing, bridal gowns don”™t die; they get put away to be reborn another day. Clauss advises simply storing them in tissue and putting them in a chest. Some will come out years later to be refashioned, perhaps taken in for a thinner bride or having inserts added for one who is heavier.
“Some become christening gowns,” Clauss reports. “When making gowns for christenings, there is always leftover material, so I can make booties and caps.”
“Can you?” is a frequently asked question to which Clauss never answers no. One major challenge involved a bridal gown for her daughter Cheryl, who craved a pleated bodice and edging. ”It took three yards of material to come up with one yard of finished product,” Clauss relates. “I had to lay my body across the pleats when working on it.”
Clauss is an expert at dealing with crises. Called when some makeup spilled on a bridesmaid”™s gown, she recalls advising use of plain dishwashing detergent, then sticking the gown in the shower and using a blow drier.
Clauss grew up in Peekskill as one of five children. “Our father was in the Army, so my mother sewed to make ends meet,” she recalls. “She made aprons and pot holders, and my brother would sell them.” As a Brownie project she bought feedbags from a feed store for pennies and washed them prior to converting them into placemats, even creating fringes on the ends. “With fringes today I sew along the edge so the fabric won”™t fringe any further,” she explains.
Clauss took pity on a family friend who could not afford a bridal gown. “I had materials on hand, so I fashioned a simple gown,” Clauss reports modestly of her gift.
Clauss temporarily abandoned her sewing avocation upon moving from Peekskill in time to enter Haldane High School.
“I didn”™t get back to sewing until I got married and had my four children,” she explains. Her talents were at first directed toward outfitting her children.
She also made clothes for Barbie dolls, marketing them as sets of seven or eight pieces ”” including, perhaps, pajamas, or coats and hats.
Visitors to the Depot Theater in Garrison are likely to see the Clauss handiwork in costumes worn by actors. She is currently working on costumes for the children”™s theatrical program”™s performance of “Cinderella” at the Philipstown Recreation Department.
Clauss holds the designation of a marriage officer and has performed as many as three ceremonies in a single day. “I should bring a needle and white thread with me,” she reflects.
With eight grandchildren, it looks like Clauss will have many future brides in the family or brides coming into the family for whom to fashion wedding gowns.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
