Over the years, I have received some excellent ideas from customers, for example the hand-embroidered socks that I make to go with each dress. It had never occurred to me to embroider socks until a customer asked me if I would embroider a pair to match the dress she was buying for her grand-daughter. I agreed to do it and when they were finished I found they added a nice unique touch to the dress. They “completed” it, so I decided to have a pair of socks to match each dress I make. That was many years ago, and the socks have been a permanent companion to the dress ever since.

Then there have been several people who loved the dresses, but had no little girl to buy them for-  A few of those people bought a dress, framed it and hung it on their wall. Other people bought them for decor as well, hanging them in a special corner of a room, or on a wall, or in a child’s room to add a special “country” touch, or to suggest an antique look to a room.

One woman ordered one to hang in her family room. She gave me the exact colors that she had in the room; navy, green, red, and white- and she asked me to do something with a lamb on it. I used navy and white gingham fabric, smocked it in navy and put a large white lamb with a red ribbon around its neck, mounted on a green- wheeled, base with a long navy string attached to it- (a child’s pull toy, lamb) in the center of the smocking. She loved it and said that it looked wonderful hanging on the wall in her family room! Who would have thought?

And one more idea! Because these dresses are made to last, they can be handed down from one sibling to the next, but they also make great heirlooms. I know of a woman with three daughters, who bought a dress for each daughter when they were born. She insisted that the dresses not be passed down when they no longer fit. She wanted each daughter to have her own dress that was to be kept as an heirloom.