I think that personal projects are not out of place in a portfolio--i'm thinking of an applicant we had with a lovely array of knitwear designs she had created--but it would be a bit odd for there to be no practical examples of work for stage.
My first thought is, do you teach at a high school that gives you summers off, or is it a year-round school?
If you do have summers off, you could get a good chunk of stuff for a portfolio out of doing a summer gig somewhere like Utah Shakespeare Festival, Santa Fe Opera, American Players Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, any of the big ones with crafts teams and enough draping teams to need several stitchers and interns. These kinds of summer theatres are great for those of us in academic "day jobs," since the seasons are compressed into usually about 2 months of the summer, and result in large scale work with tons of cool clothes. For example, in one summer at Utah, you could get up to six shows worth of portfolio projects depending on what area of the craft department you worked in.
Or, if you don't have summers off, do you have sections of time off (3 weeks between trimesters for example) in which you might volunteer your time at a local theatre? You might not have the time to seek secondary employment, but i don't know any costume shop at ANY level from community theatre up to Broadway who would turn away volunteers in times of heavy production. If you live near some regional theatres, look at when you have some downtime and call up their costume shops, see if they can use some extra hands in those windows.
Heck, if a volunteer shows up on my door this afternoon and said "I can help you three hours a day from now until January 8th," I'd have enough jobs for them that by the 8th, they could put some hats and boots and armor in a portfolio. Granted, that's because we're doing two Shakespeares in repertory right now, and that's not always the case for sure, but if you get to know your local theatre folks and inform them of your interest, you can soon enough be on the "call list" when these kinds of slams happen.
If you are pretty sure that you want to focus in crafts, you could look into doing some production work in related commercial fields--picking up some piecework from a local milliner or leatherworker or jewelry artist. Those things make great inclusions in a portfolio. We had an applicant once who had worked in a shop making high-end jewelry for a summer, with some beautiful images of that.
And, if you are researching programs and putting together a list of MFA programs you'd potentially be interested in, it couldn't hurt to contact the heads of those programs and explain your situation, and ask their advice on what sorts of things they would like to see in a portfolio.
Good luck with your goal! I am glad to answer any questions of this sort, which my responses have spawned, so please feel free to keep asking if need be.
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I think that personal projects are not out of place in a portfolio--i'm thinking of an applicant we had with a lovely array of knitwear designs she had created--but it would be a bit odd for there to be no practical examples of work for stage.
My first thought is, do you teach at a high school that gives you summers off, or is it a year-round school?
If you do have summers off, you could get a good chunk of stuff for a portfolio out of doing a summer gig somewhere like Utah Shakespeare Festival, Santa Fe Opera, American Players Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, any of the big ones with crafts teams and enough draping teams to need several stitchers and interns. These kinds of summer theatres are great for those of us in academic "day jobs," since the seasons are compressed into usually about 2 months of the summer, and result in large scale work with tons of cool clothes. For example, in one summer at Utah, you could get up to six shows worth of portfolio projects depending on what area of the craft department you worked in.
Or, if you don't have summers off, do you have sections of time off (3 weeks between trimesters for example) in which you might volunteer your time at a local theatre? You might not have the time to seek secondary employment, but i don't know any costume shop at ANY level from community theatre up to Broadway who would turn away volunteers in times of heavy production. If you live near some regional theatres, look at when you have some downtime and call up their costume shops, see if they can use some extra hands in those windows.
Heck, if a volunteer shows up on my door this afternoon and said "I can help you three hours a day from now until January 8th," I'd have enough jobs for them that by the 8th, they could put some hats and boots and armor in a portfolio. Granted, that's because we're doing two Shakespeares in repertory right now, and that's not always the case for sure, but if you get to know your local theatre folks and inform them of your interest, you can soon enough be on the "call list" when these kinds of slams happen.
If you are pretty sure that you want to focus in crafts, you could look into doing some production work in related commercial fields--picking up some piecework from a local milliner or leatherworker or jewelry artist. Those things make great inclusions in a portfolio. We had an applicant once who had worked in a shop making high-end jewelry for a summer, with some beautiful images of that.
And, if you are researching programs and putting together a list of MFA programs you'd potentially be interested in, it couldn't hurt to contact the heads of those programs and explain your situation, and ask their advice on what sorts of things they would like to see in a portfolio.
Good luck with your goal! I am glad to answer any questions of this sort, which my responses have spawned, so please feel free to keep asking if need be.