Deborah J. Nelson founded Satin Stitches® in early 1978, as a one-woman venture after working as a Fashion Designer/Patternmaker for a 'high-end' woman's apparel company for nearly five years in Minneapolis. By 1979, we added a team of professionals to do help create the very best, custom performance costuming available. Satin Stitches moved to our current location in 1989 and we expanded to double our space in 1994. Many changes have occurred at Satin Stitches over the nearly thirty years as a “couture” quality costume manufacturer. But our company still remains true to our beginnings – of not being a producer of mass produced designs, but specializing in creating truly original and custom costuming for all types of performances, for soloist or for groups of any size.

Deborah's more than thirty-six years of professional design, fitting, alterations, and patternmaking experience hails her as a leader in the industry. A Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate and former instructor at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Deborah continues sharing her knowledge and experience as both a speaker and writer on topics related to the design, selection, and care of performance costumes and uniforms. Her articles and designs, have been featured in Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher, Survival Guide, Cheerleading/Dance & Drill, Synchronized Skating, and other national publications. Deborah presents seminars at dance, skating and music educator clinics across the country, is a member of United Dance Merchants of America and served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Dance Spirit Magazine for it's first five years.

New to our staff, is Tracy Oliver, as our traveling Custom Performance Apparel Sales Representative. Tracy Oliver is an award-winning coach of the Eden Prairie HS Dance Team, here in Minnesota. She is entering her thirteen year as head coach, with her team winning many state, section and conference championships over the years. In addition, Tracy has worked in Retail Sales and Customer Service for Dayton’s, Marshall Fields, Banana Republic, Northwest Airlines, and Christian Dior Cosmetics.

Tracy has been a customer of Satin Stitches since 1998, noting that Eden Prairie’s first Satin Stitches costume has been used for five different jazz routines in the past 10 years! She states: “My experience costuming my team prior to Satin Stitches was awful, and included poor customer service, inconsistent sizing, poor quality and fit, and missed deadlines.” Tracy’s goal, as our new sales representative is to insure that each team or individual receives a valuable and personable experience with Satin Stitches’ custom performance apparel, including superior design and fit, quality materials and craftsmanship, and the opportunity to look and feel good at each and every performance. Welcome Tracy!

Sarah Ahmed is your Customer Service contact at Satin Stitches. Sarah will get you answers to any questions that you may have before, during and after you place your order and even after you have received your costumes. Never hesitate to send her an email or give her a call. We love questions! If you don’t ask – you may miss out on some great information. But please call during our regular office hours of 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday, Central Time Zone!

Sarah has a BS degree in Retail Merchandising and Management with a concentration in Fashion Marketing from UW-Stout. With twelve years in studio dance, including two years on a competitive line, plus two additional years on her high school dance team, Sarah has participated in concert choir, show choir and musicals and understands performance costumes from both sides of the stage!

Pao Yang has been our quiet apparel designer behind the scenes – working magic with our CAD patternmaking program since 2004. Pao has a BS degree with Apparel Design/Manufacturing. Pao is no stranger to performing either – with four years of concert choir and six years of orchestra. Besides heading up our CAD patternmaking department, Pao also is working directly with Satin Stitches clients as one of our designers.

Michael Arthurs has been added to our team in 2007. Michael graduated with a BS degree in Apparel Design from UW-Stout, after achieving the highly acclaimed awards of "Best in Show" and "Trendsetter" from the UW-Stout Spring 2007 Fashion Show. Show Choir was in Michael’s high school background. His duties at Satin Stitches include designing and patternmaking, along with Deborah and Pao.

Danna Marie is our Production Supervisor. She oversees all phases of our sewing and finishing departments. Danna joined our Satin Stitches team in 2005, after many years of owning her own custom bridal sewing business and many years of apparel production work. Her daughter was in dance for many years.

Our cutting department continues to run very smoothly with our cutter – Jan Hickle. Jan has been a Satin Stitches team member since 1999, doing a wonderful job with our Lectra CAD cutting system.

Our sewing and embellishing staff has been trained under Deborah to maintain our high standards, to create the very best in custom performance costuming.

We offer the latest in "cutting edge" patternmaking and cutting in order for you, our customers to get thoroughly tested styling, proportioned fit and incredibly precise quality from start to finish, with all of your custom designed Satin Stitches costuming. Additionally, we have the latest in rhinestone attaching equipment so your high-quality Swarovski® rhinestones apply quickly and stay on!

When you purchase the services of Satin Stitches Ltd. you purchase THE BEST in the design and production of performance apparel.