FALMOUTH — The Sugar Plum Fairy might rule the Land of Sweets, but a sign on the door of the sewing studio at Maine State Ballet lets everyone know who’s in charge here.

The scripted letters say: “Madame.”

That’s how the dancers address Gail Csoboth, their longtime scenic and costume designer.

Csoboth, 87, first became enamored with ballet as a little girl living on Peaks Island when she saw the 1948 movie “The Red Shoes,” starring Moira Shearer as an aspiring dancer. Csoboth later studied and danced in New York City, but since 1990, she has made just about every costume for Maine State Ballet.

And even the most complex designs aren’t quite as demanding as the volume of “The Nutcracker,” which involves 300 dancers this year.

Linda Miele, the resident choreographer and co-founder of Maine State Ballet, said the professional company has been doing “The Nutcracker” since its first winter in 1975. At first, she ordered costumes or got parent volunteers to make outfits. But Csoboth took the company to a new level.

“It’s made our production what it is today,” Miele said.

COSTUMES AND CONFIDENCE

Csoboth trained at the Dorothy Mason School of Dance in Portland, which Miele and her husband later purchased and is now Maine State Ballet. She was maybe just 15 when she moved to New York and got an apartment with girls her age. After school, she went straight to ballet class.

She stayed in New York for several years. Eventually, she met her husband on a night out with her girlfriends at a Hungarian tavern where they danced to the music of violins and cymbals. A few years later, they married and moved back to Portland. When her daughters were small, Csoboth built a little theater for them, making costumes for their dolls and staging miniature productions.

“They never complained when you stuck a pin in them,” she quipped.

So when the girls got interested in ballet, Csoboth started making life-sized costumes instead. Miele had danced in the New York City Ballet Company, which leaned toward contemporary works and minimalist leotards. But Csoboth has introduced elaborate designs and characters. (One of their favorites was “Beauty and the Beast,” when Csoboth turned dancers into armoires and harpsichords and teacups.)

“She pushed me into doing story ballets that I would not necessarily have thought I would accomplish,” Miele said. “But knowing that she could do the design work and the costuming, I was confident doing the choreography and the staging. When you start to do something like ‘Sleeping Beauty’ or ‘Swan Lake,’ you can’t do that unless you’ve got the right costumes.”

Csoboth also empowers the dancers she dresses.

“They feel very important and respected and confident,” Miele said. “A dancer with confidence performs better.”

A RARE ARTIST

How long does it take to make the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu? If you ask Csoboth that question, she’ll call you “a silly, silly person.”

“You just work on it every day,” she said. “Then you go home at night, and you think, ‘Oh, no, I like pink on that better.’ So you come back the next day, and you put pink on it.”

Csoboth starts each costume with a painted rendering — a work of art itself. She also designs the sets, starting again with doll-size models. She used to make regular trips to New York’s Garment District to get the best deals on bolts of fabric and piles of trims.

The Maine State Ballet has annual operating expenses of $1.5 million. “The Nutcracker” is a large portion of the budget, but Miele said most goes to rent Merrill Auditorium for two weeks and to pay musicians and stagehands and dancers.

“Gail will spin straw into gold,” Miele said.

Kimberly Williams, of Buxton, was looking for a creative outlet when she first volunteered in the sewing room at Maine State Ballet seven years ago. Now, she works part time with Csoboth as a seamstress.

“Gail is one of those rare artists who can envision the entire world of a production,” Williams said. “I just love the way she makes everything sparkle — and it’s not good enough unless it sparkles.”

Csoboth still designs and trims and paints costumes, although Williams now does some of the other tasks. During “The Nutcracker,” Williams will spend particularly long hours washing and altering and repairing and changing costumes. Csoboth always sits in the wings to watch the performance. In one dress rehearsal last week, she said to Williams, “There’s a hole in his costume.” When the dancer came off stage, Williams searched for the damage.

“It was the size of a pinky,” Williams said.

Csoboth doesn’t remake every costume every year, but she does update them when she has a new idea or the garment is ready for retirement. She’ll add more sparkle to the Sugar Plum Fairy or new trimmings for Mother Ginger.

But the Snowflakes, twirling in their crystal headdresses and white flowy skirts, have finally reached perfection.

“I refuse to make another version,” Csoboth said. “Because I can’t top it.”

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IF YOU GO

Maine State Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St., Portland. Dec. 6 and 7. Tickets $27 to $101 at porttix.com or the box office at 207-842-0800. For more, visit mainestateballet.org.