Susan Danford

Susan Danford has been employed with Bay High since 1989 as a social studies teacher. She has been the Costume and Fashion design instructor since the beginning of the academy at Bay High in 2001.

Her training began at the age of 9. She was taught by her great-grandmother, who was a tailor with her own shop; and her grandmother and mother who were both seamstresses. Her love for designing and making fashions continued throughout school. While attending college, she traveled throughout the southeastern United States competing in shows winning numerous awards. Since then she has owned a leather shop in Stone Mountain making garments and handbags, designed and constructed the interiors of ships for Windjammer Cruises in Hawaii, and helped design and construct costumes for the history fairs while teaching in Texas. When she moved back to Panama City , she gained professional hands-on experience working backstage in wardrobe and repairing costumes for the Civic Center . Some of these shows included Cats, Seussical, Follies, Kiss Me Kate and Oklahoma. As the costume director at Bay High School , she has costumed Miracle Worker, Sound of Music, Cinderella, Music Man, Guys and Dolls, Seussical, Lil Abner, Dracula, and Into the Woods.

The costume/fashion shop has new computerized sewing/embroidery machines, sergers, tools, and patterns. The shop facility and equipment has been highly rated by visiting professors from both FSU and UF, and we are the only school in District One with a costume lab and program. Former graduates of the program are attending FSU, UF, UCF, and Savannah College of Art and Design to further pursue their studies in Theatre Costume or Fashion Design, and many have had the opportunity to travel Russia with their costumed production and to help design/construct costumes for Disney in Los Angeles. Many students have gone off to college on scholarships to pursue a career in fashion and costume design. Mrs. Danford has had students receive Superior and the Critics Choice award in costuming at the State Festival in Tampa every year since 2002.

Mrs. Danford is a member of the American Sewing Guild and has over 30 years of experience as a seamstress.

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