"I ain't able," Rosalind Gabriel declares, staring helplessly at the bolt of cloth.
The bandleader is at Yufe's in Maraval cradling the book for this year's production, a huge white binder with illustrations of each section, and the material she's being offered doesn't match the weight and colour she's looking for.
In her estimation, the materials available to designers and costume creators for Carnival has dropped by as much as 50 per cent in this decade and matching existing material to costume needs is becoming more of a challenge every year.
Gabriel also has a problem that few of her colleagues producing large adult bands generally don't have. She wants to dress children in the elaborate costumes she recalls so fondly from her childhood, and making sure they are comfortable is a big part of the decision-making process.
This year's band, Play One for Cito, recalls the bold and determinedly top-heavy signature style of Cito Velasquez in designs by Follette Eustace, so the weight of cloth stretched across large wire frames rests heavy on Gabriel's mind.
It all began in 1989 with the band Court of the Mythical Fire Opal, the end of a long flirtation with mas that included making costumes with Wayne Berkeley, the Harts and creating costumes for her children.
"I wasn't allowed to play mas when I was a child," Gabriel says, wistfully. "So I designed and created costumes for my children."
It was the late Lil Hart who encouraged her to take it to the next level.
"Why don't you bring a band," the legendary masmaker told Gabriel. "Bring it and I will help you."
Over the 26 years since, many people have stepped in to help.
"My two daughters keep asking me every year, "Mom, don't you think you've had enough of this?"
"It's like having a baby, you know. Every single year at one point I say to myself, there's no way I'm doing this again."
"But then I see a person looking at the band with a smile, I see a photo of children in the band having fun...those sights are priceless."
"I think of the children from the home (Gabriel has offered a free section for orphans from the start), and it's huge. It's big, bigger than me."
"Almost all of Michael Padia's family work with me. So many people pitch in to make it happen."
"I just want to put on a show that makes people happy."
Most Carnival bands are produced at a sprint, with Carnival Sunday as the breathless finish line. Children's Carnival is both a marathon and a relay. Bandleaders face three weekends of competition, with the number of competitive appearances in a single day multiplying as the climax of the festival grows closer.
On Carnival Sunday, Play One for Cito has three parades scheduled before appearing on the road on Monday and Tuesday.
To make that level of production happen, she depends on solid collaborators in the creation of the costumes.
Marlene Greaves' seamstressing is at the heart of Gabriel's well regarded costumes.
Greaves has been with the band from its very beginnings.
UK-trained, she is precise in conversation and in her expectations of the work she produces. Apart from her work with Gabriel, she sews for large groups like the UWI Choir, but takes a very special joy in the work she does for the children's band.
Richard Leera has been wirebending for Carnival for the last 27 years, starting with Wayne Berkeley's Titanic and continuing with the designer until his passing.
Like Greaves, he likes Gabriel's certainty about her band's designs.
"She knows what she wants," he says with a smile.
"The key is to build something that will last for six days," he explains.
"The biggest problem is getting materials."
The half-inch RHS metal piping that he uses for the backpacks is getting hard to find, and without it the backpack and design would have to be made as one unwieldy.
"There are more people in the business now," Leera says, "but there are people trying to do it who might know how to weld, but they don't know the materials."
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