“The day before opening night, I got to campus for my morning class, had lunch and went to the costume shop to work on outfits for the next night’s performance and only slept for one hour that evening. Thankfully, friends brought me food and drinks throughout. My professors made an arrangement for me to miss class opening day and so I sewed throughout the day. The show started at 7:30 p.m. and I finished the last costume piece a little after 7 p.m. I went home to shower and change and came back to watch the show end, then moved to the computer lab to work on homework,” said Della Jahnke, Bradley Theatre costume designer, as she described her first show at Lakeland, “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Jahnke learned to sew when she was only nine years old. She loved anything craft-like, from knitting to leather work. She and her three siblings spent a lot of time together, whether it be working on craft projects with her sisters or playing in the woods with her brother.

When her sister got polio, life got tough, but Jahnke and her family pushed through the dark times. As Jahnke got older, she really started getting involved.

“In high school, I got involved with a youth group and did musicals. I did a lot of singing at school in choir and played a couple musical instruments, as well,” stated Jahnke. “Music has always been in my soul.”

After high school, Jahnke worked for a few years before attending Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa for art design. While there, she had work study, during which she worked in the theatre department, helping with everything from costumes to makeup to set design.

Jahnke stayed in college for a year and loved it, but she met a man, fell in love and got married. She then had kids, causing her to put her college career on hold.

She had six kids while married to her husband. Jahnke’s parents wanted off their farm, so she ended up moving onto her parents’ farm, which was a lot of work. Then in 1995, she went to Southwest Wisconsin Technical College for an accounting degree, graduating in 1998.

With school added into the mix, there was even more work to be done: keeping the children on track with their studies and extracurricular activities, work on the farm, college, canning, butchering meat, growing wheat and making flour, etc.

“The first night I came home from college, I was sitting at the kitchen table working on my homework and when my children walked in and saw [me] doing homework, they just roared in laughter,” Jahnke shared, laughing.

In 2000, Jahnke and her husband parted ways and ended up selling the farm. She and her kids moved to the Sheboygan area to be closer to her sister. After finding a home and getting her feet on the ground, Jahnke worked at Pentair for six years but then the business shut down. Because it shut down, the company worked it out with the state that if any employees wanted, they could attend two years of school for free.

Thus, Jahnke came to Lakeland in 2010.

At Lakeland, she majored in graphic arts. Through her two years at Lakeland, Jahnke had interest in the stagecraft class, which was taught by Charlie Krebs, associate professor of theatre and communication. She had expressed interest to Krebs a couple of times before she was finally able to get the class to fit into her schedule during her final semester at Lakeland.

On the first day of class, Krebs was explaining what the class entailed when he asked if anyone knew how to sew. Jahnke, of course, did and offered her services, making her in charge of costuming for “Fiddler on the Roof.” She had to design and put together costumes for 40 people.

“During one of the performances, an actor was wearing a suit from the costume shop and he was on stage performing when suddenly his pants split! His butt was facing the audience and I was in the front row, watched him finish the scene and during intermission, I went upstairs to the shop to sew up his pants,” Jahnke laughed, explaining a fond memory of a performance night for “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Krebs needed someone for a full-time basis. After Jahnke graduated, he asked her if she would be interested in doing so and she agreed.

“I love doing [costumes]. I really do. I’ll do this for a lifetime. If I could, I’d do this as a full-time job,” Jahnke expanded.

Krebs stated, “[Jahnke] has become the face of Lakeland costumes and is really in her stride. She started out in stagecraft class doing the costumes for “Fiddler on the Roof” and now I can’t imagine having anyone else do costumes. She’s inventive and comes up with such creative solutions. The thing I admire most about her is how she takes care of the students. She does everything she can to make them shine.”

“Nunsense” will be the 11th show that Jahnke has made costumes for. Jahnke said, “I love to sew. I love to be creative. I love working with the students—they’re like my family, too.”