Alteration specialist helps prepare Colony Days costumes

Photo by Nancy Forrest Alteration specialist Marla Hill displays two examples of her costumes before and after they have been restored and given a new lease on life as vintage apparel during Colony Days. The annual heritage event begins Saturday, Oct. 18 in the area south of Sunken Gardens.

Colony Days will celebrate the history of Atascadero before it became a city and right at the center of the celebration will be Atascadero master alteration specialist Marla Hill, helping to restore or recreate the fashions of the era.

Hill, an Atascadero resident since 1977, said she has been sewing since she was 13 years old and enjoys the creativity and artistry that sewing provides. She said her custom bridal gown designs and costumes enable her to make alterations that accommodate a myriad of body types, usually by adding additional fabric or lace-up closures in the back of the garments.

In order to maintain the desired effect, Hill employs different strategies for restoring costumes by replacing the inner lining, removing portions of the costume and reintroducing them elsewhere on the garment.

Hill said she had made costumes for her three sons and one daughter as well as herself, turning ordinary apparel into vintage clothing by adding lace adornments and changing the sleeves and hemlines to fit with a specific era. She said she transformed an ordinary dress into a vintage-style dress by adding lace, mutton or bishop-style sleeves and combined it with a hat with matching lace and white, high-button shoes to complete the entire effect of the costume.

For this year’s Colony Days celebration, Hill has helped local community members recast clothing from their own closets into vintage fashions that reflect the styles of 1916, the year selected by the Colony Days Committee as a point of reference for this year’s event. Community members will appear as suffragettes and ordinary townspeople in Tent City, while others wear an engineer’s costume complete with boots, britches, suspenders, garters across the arm, a Ranger Smith hat and shirt with rolled up sleeves.

“The best possible situation is if someone requests a costume or alterations six or seven months ahead of time, instead of one week before Colony Days,” Hill said. “They know it’s coming and they should prepare for it. A costume can be created by adding a good waistband, adjusting the length of a garment, adding lace and changing the sleeves to reflect the fashion and style of that era. If they come to me early enough, I can also show them how to sew. I am willing to do that as well.”

The colony was founded in 1913, but Hill said the fashions of the time were influenced by the fact that people kept their clothes from the previous 5 to 15 years. As a result, the fashions of 1913 were influenced by the years leading up to the turn of the century. She said actress Sarah Bernhardt wore the fashions of 1890 well into the following century and Mabel Lewis, the wife of the colony founder, E.G. Lewis, wore dark and heavily beaded dresses in keeping with the era. Many people wore dark colors because they showed less wear and stains and, therefore, lasted longer and clothing was worn until it rotted.

Hill said men’s suits have not changed much since 1913, except small changes in jacket lapels and ties, as well as the alternate changes of pleats or no pleats and cuffs or no cuffs in pants. As a seamstress, she said she is busiest during prom season and graduation for dress design or alteration, but has bridal clients fairly evenly dispersed throughout the year. She recently helped with alterations of costumes for the Atascadero High School spring production of the musical, “Anything Goes,” which she said inspired even greater love of the creativity and artistry of sewing.

When her children were younger, Hill said, she made cheerleading, Hawaiian-style surfer and camp costumes for them for the talent show at what is now Santa Rosa Academic Academy, where they performed the Beach Boys’ songs, “Be True to Your School” and “Surfing USA,” as well as the song, “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” by Allan Sherman. She said she has also designed and created costumes ranging from King Tut and Mrs. Tut and a variety of clowns to those of Marilyn Monroe, a baseball player, Dracula as an adult or child and even a Fred Astaire-inspired top hat and tails.

“Everybody comes before me,” Hill said of her costume designs. “It’s one of those things where ‘the shoemaker’s children go shoeless.’ I am so busy doing alterations for other people that my family members have to make an appointment, usually under a fictitious name that I wouldn’t recognize. I’ve worked from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. for three weeks straight sometimes. I don’t sit still very well. I love what I’m doing and I love being able to give back to other people and be creative at the same time. That’s what keeps me going.”

Hill said with any costume, the seamstress must have a plan of attack before she begins. She said alterations can be made to a costume to give it a new lease on life, perhaps by making long pants into knickers as a child grows taller and using the remaining fabric for accents elsewhere on the costume. Adjustments can be made to dresses and other clothing that are too big or too small or too long or too short, and Hill offers a variety of solutions by reconstructing hard-to-fit fashions.

From 1985 through 1996, Hill owned and operated her own full-service bridal shop, which was located at El Camino Real and Junipero Avenue, and now does sewing and alterations by appointment out of her home. During her career in custom bridal designs, Hill has provided services for whole families, sometimes serving three generations of customers within the same family.

After closing her bridal shop, Hill commuted from Atascadero and did alterations for costumes at the MGM in Las Vegas from 1996 to 1999 and cultivated ample sewing work on the side, based solely on word of mouth from satisfied clients. She provided alterations for all the costumes for Coast Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, as well as for male and female exotic dancers and even for one of the principal performers in the flamboyant review, La Cage Aux Folles.

The casino job required her to create 10 of the same outfit in three days, a task Hill said she doesn’t care to repeat, and noted she prefers unique creations with more individuality. She said her annual attendance at the Bridal Extravaganza in Las Vegas keeps her busy with customers for the entire year. She said she began calling herself the Dress Doctor because she is willing to make house calls for measurements, alterations and fittings of wedding gowns and costumes.

“The customers didn’t know me but they saw my work and sought out my services,” she said of the Extravaganza. “When I go to someone’s home, I will often do alterations with the sewing machine right there so they can see the magic. Sometimes, I will even show the customer how to do the alterations themselves.”

Hill said her mother was an actress and now her daughter, Desiree, is an actress as well but noted that her own interest has always been as a seamstress, enjoying the creativity of fashion design. She said more than anything else, her job requires confidentiality and diplomacy to ensure the surprise of a beautiful bride on her wedding day, as well as the joy of a memorable life event for bride and groom and their families and friends.

The Colony Days parade is slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18 with Tent City following in the Sunken Gardens.