Seamstress learned skills from family

Aug. 11, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

WASILLA - When she was 6, Mila Carlson's mother left her and her younger brother and sister with their grandparents on Tubabao Island in the Philippines.

For 10 years, Mila called her grandparents mother and father, and knew her mother as the woman who left lots of beautiful handmade clothes behind. Carlson and her siblings reunited with their mother in 1977 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Like her mother and her grandmother, Carlson now makes beautiful clothes, and clothes are Carlson's business.

&#8220I love playing dress up,” Carlson said. &#8220And I get paid for it. My uncle said what I do is play because I get paid to do what I love. I could make more money doing other things, but I count my blessings every day that I can do something I love.”

Carlson opened Mila's Alterations in Wasilla in 2004. Everything she knows about tailoring and sewing she learned from experience, hand stitching with her grandmother in the Philippines and working with her mother in Texas and Alaska.

In Alaska, Carlson pieced together a niche for herself and her family. After working various jobs, including bookkeeping, photo processing and making clothing alterations for stores in Anchorage, Carlson and her mother opened their own store, Carefree Fashions in 1989.

&#8220I deal with happy people,” she said. &#8220They're excited about weddings and proms. Having family around is another thing I like.”

Carlson makes room for her husband and four children, who range from 8 to 19 years old, in her work space above the H & R Block building. Sometimes the family has picnics while Carlson works in her &#8220playhouse.”

Carlson's journey from the Philippines to Texas was long, measured in miles, and it vastly broadened the horizons of the 16-year-old girl who was charged with bringing her two younger siblings to the United States. &#8220We aren't talking city to city,” Carlson said. &#8220We lived in a village with no running water, no electricity.”

About 300 people lived on her island, she said. All she knew about the United States came from her grandmother, who would point to the end of the horizon and tell her on other side was a totally different world.

&#8220She said she wanted me to be on the other side,” Carlson said. &#8220She read stories and read books, but she'd never been there. She just knew her daughter disappeared on the other side of world.”

In September 1985, Carlson visited her brother stationed at Fort Richardson, arriving from Corpus Christi with two suitcases and a plan to stay a month. Like many Alaskans, she extended her vacation for life.

&#8220It was like a rebirth,” she said. &#8220I just fell in love with this place. It took me. I felt welcome and knew I belonged.”

Carlson lived in Anchorage and had many typical Alaska experiences, including learning to fly a Cessna 150 out of Merrill Field and fishing a setnet site.

&#8220There's nothing better than the rush of being up to your thighs in salmon,” she said. &#8220I just wanted to experience it. It was a lot of work.”

Living and working in Wasilla suits Carlson. She is glad she moved from Anchorage.

&#8220You've got the small, tight community. When I go to the grocery store, it's rare if I don't know five people. Everybody is still nice to each other. In Anchorage, everyone is on such tight schedules, they forget to be people,” she said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.