Spotlight On The Serial Stitchers!

One of the best things about the Peninsula Youth Theatre is their dedicated group of volunteers, and there cannot be a more dedicated group than the Serial Stitchers.

The Serial Stitchers (formally named after working on Sweeney Todd) spend hundreds of hours sewing costumes for each and every PYT Main Stage show. Their fearless leader, Alette Mahler, hosts the group each Tuesday afternoon at her home, where she provides not only plenty of sewing space, but a delicious lunch too. The Serial Stitchers meet in the daytime, rather than meet in the evening at PYT, so they don’t have to spend time away from their families.

Alette Mahler has been the leader of the sewing circle for the last few years. She became involved with PYT in 1997 when her daughter Lee performed in The Little Mermaid. Even though her daughter’s last main stage show was 12 years ago, Alette remains with PYT because she is THAT passionate about the organization.

“It’s the connections, It’s the people. I can just sew by myself all day in my sewing room but that gets boring and it’s too asocial. It’s a good group of adults. It’s a good group of kids.”

The number of volunteers in the Serial Stitchers varies, depending on the show. It can be anywhere from 3 – 12 people. The day Spotlight was there, six ladies were working on Wizard Of Oz costumes for the November 2016 show.

Mari Delaurier joined the sewing circle seven or eight years ago when her son Michael was acting in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. “It’s kind of a lost art. There’s so many new technological things, sometimes it’s nice to sew.”

Heather Graham says she needed to find the right niche at PYT. “I did painting, but it was not my niche. I can spackle anything, just ask me, but I sort of fell into this group during Seussical when my son was the assistant stage manager… I was just hanging out, waiting for him and saying, ‘where can I help?’ Finally, during technical rehearsals someone said, ‘Doesn’t your mom sew?’ And that was the end of it, and I’m just having way too much fun.”

Phyllis Schmit, who Mari says, is the “fastest pants builder this side of the West,” works on costumes for the St. Nicholas School in Los Altos. But they only do one or two shows a year, so Alette “roped Phyllis” into the Serial Stitchers group.

Susie Lew has been involved with PYT for many years (see earlier blog) usually working on the costume committee. Talking about the sewing circle, Susie says, “We’ve had a few people come recently who’ve said, ‘I kind of know how to sew. I’ve got a sewing machine that’s been sitting in my closet.’ And so it’s like–‘Pull it out! We will teach you.’

Miki Hofuman started the summer of 2016 when her daughter acted in her first show, James And The Giant Peach. She was recruited by Susie. “I’m still learning,” Miki says, but Mari replies, “She is a fast learner!”

For each main stage show at PYT, there is a tremendous amount of costumes that must be borrowed, bought or built. For instance, in The Wizard of Oz show, many of the kids have five or six different roles. Susie counted the number of costumes required for just one cast (there are two), and came up with 209 costumes. Each costume averages four or five pieces, so for one cast, that’s anywhere between 800 – 1000 pieces.

Spotlight – “Wow! How does the job get done?”

Alette – “When the costume designer designs, she keeps track of how many things are going to be new and how many things they want to use from what’s been done before. But in part, it has to do with what the director’s vision is. If the director’s vision is totally different, then you’re building a lot more, or buying a lot more, or you’re going to Goodwill or places like that.”

“We have the costume bank where we’ve stored things, so many of the Winkie Guard (costumes) we didn’t have to make new. We only had to make two or so of those.”

Alette goes on to say that many of the costumes they get, come from the costume bank. This means the sewers only have to adjust or add to those costumes, rather than making them brand new.

Susie – “Alette creates these costumes so they’re adjustable and has trained us to do that.”

Mari – “We build pants with elastic waists and leave a little opening so we can adjust the elastic – make it bigger or take it in. We use techniques so costumes are reusable.”

PYT also shares stock with other places such as, TheatreWorks, the St. Nicholas School in Los Altos, and the Castilleaja Girls School in Palo Alto.

 

Spotlight – “Do the Serial Stitchers have to stay within budget when they buy materials?”

Alette – “We do a lot of Jo-Ann’s coupon clipping and paying cash at Fabrics R Us so we get our 3% discount. Yes, the costumer has to stay within budget, which is part of why they use as much stock as they can, that fits the creative energy for the show. You’d go broke building everything from scratch and you’d be late. You wouldn’t get it done in time.”

The Serial Stitchers’ devotion to their work is made obvious by their attention to detail. In PYT’s 2013 production of Peter Pan, Mari remembers that “the clothes had a lot of gears. I remember ironing those gears in the pirates’ pants, and it was kind of funny because, even though I knew that the people in the audience weren’t going to see the gears in those pants, because they were relatively small, when you gave the pants to the kids and they saw all those gears (they’d say), ‘Oh! This is cool!’ You could see that they felt, I’m so cool, look at the gears in my pants. So sometimes even though it doesn’t mean anything to the audience, it makes a difference for the actor. And those pirates were good because they were steam-punked!”

The Serial Stitchers are enjoying a holiday break right now, but soon they will be busy making costumes for PYT’s upcoming production of Cats. You can see the results of their work when it plays at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, March 11 – 19, 2017.  Click HERE for more information on how you can rent costumes at the PYT Costume Bank.

blog and photos by Karen Gough

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