Dawna Green of Cumberland hunches over a sewing machine facing a wall lined with belts of all colors and sizes. At her back, hats of all styles adorn the wall, and row upon row of dresses hang neatly in a former classroom of the Great Falls School in Auburn.

Her young daughter, Erica, 15, dances into the room with a string of pearlescent beads in her hands and quickly starts dismantling the strand.

"Are you going to have ribbons on the back?" Dawna questions, as she runs burgundy satin through the sewing machine.

"You'll just have to wait and see," quips Erica.

Erica has always had clothing designs dancing around in her head, and Dawna is an experienced seamstress, having made costumes for Erica's dance classes.

So when the pair saw a six-week course offered at the Community Little Theater to design and make Renaissance dresses to boost the small theater's collection, they jumped at the chance.

And they were shocked when Suzanne Carbonneau, CLT's costume chairwoman, opened a room of dresses housed on the third floor of the Great Falls School in Auburn and said, "You can cut these up."

That ended up being Erica's favorite part of the entire experience, along with creating a design and seeing it realized. Plus, her dress could be voted as crowd favorite during CLT's performances of "Kiss Me Kate," which start Oct. 10.

She started the process with a little bit of Internet research, checking out other Renaissance garb, and incorporating that into her work.

"With the design, it was hard at times because (Erica) has all of these amazing ideas in her head and I don't necessarily have the ability to make them c ome out," chuckles Dawna. "I wish MY mother was here! She's a much better sewer than I am!"

There have been a few trying times with the mother/daughter team, but they don't take it home with them.

"The colors first, and then the top. But I decided the top was all hers and she could do what ever she wanted with it," admits Dawna. "I think she just wants me to shut up and sew."

Erica corrects her mother, saying that's not the case.

"This is the first time I got to make a design all my own, and I really wanted it to be all my own," smiles Erica.

But the joys of being able to work one-on-one with her youngest child has made it all worthwhile to Dawna.

"I wouldn't have done this alone," said Dawna, as she beams proudly at Erica.