Every year, “The Nutcracker” brings visions of sugar plums dancing through many people’s heads, but for the costume mistresses of Whidbey Dance Theatre, it’s fabric colors, textures, trimmings, fittings and danceability that fills their minds day and night.

Inside and outside the dance company’s costume shop, random threads and fabric samples sprout up everywhere — in the car and even in the kitchen. Collette Riggs — who is bowing out of her decade-long role as costume mistress for the South Whidbey production of the Tchaikovsky ballet — recently found a box of costume fixings hidden in her garage. She quickly brought it to her protege and successor, Gretchen Jacobsen Lee, who is currently knee-deep in tutus in preparation for this year’s production of “The Nutcracker,” which starts Dec. 5.

There’s no free time for Jacobsen Lee, who said some of the more than 150 costumes for this year’s performance sometimes even follow her to bed.

“I go to sleep thinking about them and wake up with ideas in the morning,” she said.

That’s a lot to think about. Costumes for this show include dresses, mens’ suits, bumble bee outfits, soldiers’ uniforms, mouse outfits, clothing for gnomes, a dragon suit sewn to fit a dozen people and a dress big enough for a 10-foot-tall woman with a skirt full of forest creatures.

Last week, Jacobsen Lee had to trek through snow to a store in Seattle where she spent half the afternoon looking for just the right fabrics for the show’s underwater dream scene.

“I kept wrapping it around people’s legs and asking them if it seemed mermaid-like,” she said.

All the while, she knew her shopping trip might wind up being in vain.

“You can spend all night on a costume and think it’s just the greatest thing, but at rehearsals you see it doesn’t work,” she said. “Or it’s beautiful but just doesn’t show the choreographer’s vision for that character.”

Jacobsen Lee is a mother to 10- and 6-year-old dancers, and is a full-time real estate agent, so making costumes for “The Nutcracker” could easily become an unreasonable burden. The costume shop for Whidbey Dance Theatre, located in the Island Dance space at Ken’s Korner Mall in Clinton, is packed floor to ceiling with racks of costumes, boxes of fabric and tiny workspaces. This is where a handful of costuming volunteers come in hand — to keep the work and the inventory well distributed.

Still, it’s a big commitment for Jacobsen Lee as a new costume mistress.

“I can easily spend 2-3 hours per day, at least three days a week on costumes,” she said. “You have to have a really understanding family and lots of help to take this job.”

Since the August auditions for the show, costumes have been just one production element that has consumed the 100-plus member crew of dancers, stage hands, choreographers, artists and seamstresses who will bring this, the 11th season of “The Nutcracker,” to life. For the past decade, Riggs headed up the handful of mothers who spent late hours fiddling with fabric and stitching sequins. In the first Nutcracker in 1991 and the second in 1992, many dancers made or found their own costumes. In those early years, volunteers Jean Thomas, Sue Hanson and Gloria Brewster — women Riggs and Jacobsen Lee consider Whidbey Dance Theatre costuming pioneers — made and modified the costumes that went on stage.

It also helped that South Whidbey was generous. Riggs said local arts groups such as Whidbey Children’s Theatre, Whidbey Playhouse, the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and Island Theatre helped round up costumes, and local dry cleaners volunteered services. Many of these organizations still help the show today.

Whidbey Dance Theatre puts an original twist on it’s “Nutcracker,” which is both something fresh for audiences and a challenge to the costume department. Act I is the traditional Christmas celebration with family and friends and a gift-giving visit from a mysterious uncle, Herr Drosselmeyer. At night, a flurry of mice and their rat king fight tiny toy soldiers, then transport Clara, the show’s main character, into the dreamlike world of the Nutcracker Prince. In that world in Act II, there is an enchanted forest wonderland complete with sprites, dragons, mermaids, firebirds, flower fairies and enchanted creatures.

Every year, the production is further elaborated and detailed. This year, more characters have been written in, scenes have been expanded and more costumes been added. Which, of course, means there will be more work to do in the costume shop.

Jacobsen Lee will be creating about 30 new costumes for this year’s production. In the living room scene, many of the dancers will be wearing new costumes, while existing dresses will be backdated with added bustles. In the ever-evolving underwater mermaid scene, the merladies will have new threads to flap their fins about.

Kate Yates, a South Whidbey High School senior who will play Clara in the new production, does appreciate all the work that goes into the costumes.

“Our version of Nutcracker is so different, and allows us to be so much more creative,” she said. “The magic that’s created really draws you in.”

It’s a not-so-traditional take on the second act that allows the Dance Theatre to utilize some of its best non-ballet dancers in the multi-discipline company. Even gymnastic tumblers will fill some of the roles of the characters of the forest.

“We’re a fairly small company, so we really have to look at how to make these girls look and perform their best and build roles on that,” said Susan Campbell-Sandri, the artistic director for Whidbey Dance Theatre.

It is crucial that all these performers look the part when they take the stage. If a costume seems out of place stylistically, it can detract from the fantasy that “The Nutcracker” creates for its audiences.

After more than a decade on stage, the popularity of the “The Nutcracker” has not flagged. The production sold out five of eight shows last year.

And when it finishes its run for this year, the work will not be over for the costumers. Starting after the final show, they’ll be looking for space big enough to hang up the costumes to wait for next year’s production.