Welcome to my little corner of the world of dolls!

Please visit my new website, http://www.littleprincessfrocks.com, where I am selling quality doll things!

I consider it my mission to create beautiful clothes for beautiful dolls and to equip them with all the tiny accessories necessary to live a full doll's life!  Most of the outfits I have for sale are based on a children's literary work...a book, story, fairytale, play, nursery rhyme, or song!  Dolls have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.  I was blessed to have a mother who believed that it was more important for me to have one quality doll rather than a dozen poorly made ones.  That commitment to quality has stayed with me as a collector, seamstress, and creator.

This website showcases both my own creations that are for sale or have sold and also my own personal collection of dolls and doll favorites.  November 2004 I was thrillled to be able to visit Heidi Ott in her studio in Cham, Switzerland.  She has long been my own personal favorite ... all of her dolls and accessories, from tiny miniatures to limited edition 50 cm. dolls, are absolutely beautiful.  I am grateful to Heidi's son, Karl Ott, Jr., for making this visit possible.

I do enjoy the work of many doll designers, however.  Recently, most of my own handiwork has focused on producing one-of-a-kind ensembles for Helen Kish's 7 1/2" cutie pie, Riley!  There is something in the challenge of creating tiny clothes that intrigues me!

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Little Princess Frocks™ take you back to a time when clothing for dolls was made with great attention to detail and with high quality fabrics, trims, and notions.  My favorite childhood memories are of my mother and aunts making all sorts of creations for my dolls.  They indulged my fantasies of tiny things for my beloved Martha and Betsy.  In making clothes for your doll I hope to continue that tradition of quality and detail and whimsy and charm.  I hope you will love these little outfits as much as I have loved making them! Please take a minute or two to sign my guest book!

The name for my business comes from the book A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Nearly 100 years ago Mrs. Burnett spelled out the magic of dolls in A Little Princess ….  “Said Sara, ‘… Dolls ought to be intimate friends. Emily is going to be my intimate friend.’ … ‘She is a doll I haven't got yet, … I have called her Emily.’

“‘I want her to look as if she wasn't a doll really,’ Sara said. ‘I want her to look as if she listens when I talk to her….  If, when I find her, she has no frocks, we can take her to a dressmaker and have her things made to fit. They will fit better if they are tried on.’

 “When … they were approaching a shop which was really not a very large one, Sara suddenly … cried,  ‘There is Emily! … She is actually waiting there for us!’ she said. ‘Let us go in to her….  You must introduce me and I will introduce you,’ said Sara. ‘But I knew her the minute I saw her — so perhaps she knew me, too.’

 “Perhaps she had known her. She had certainly a very intelligent expression in her eyes when Sara took her in her arms….  ‘Of course,’ said Sara, looking into her face as she held her on her knee, ‘of course papa, this is Emily.’

 “So Emily was bought and actually taken to a children's outfitter's shop and measured for a wardrobe as grand as Sara's own. She had lace frocks, too, and velvet and muslin ones, and hats and coats and beautiful lace-trimmed underclothes, and gloves and handkerchiefs and furs.  ‘I should like her always to look as if she was a child with a good mother,’ said Sara.”

"What I believe about dolls," she said, "is that they can do things they will not let us know about. Perhaps, really, Emily can read and talk and walk, but she will only do it when people are out of the room. That is her secret. You see, if people knew that dolls could do things, they would make them work. So, perhaps, they have promised each other to keep it a secret. If you stay in the room, Emily will just sit there and stare; but if you go out, she will begin to read, perhaps, or go and look out of the window. Then if she heard either of us coming, she would just run back and jump into her chair and pretend she had been there all the time."

 Every doll is a Little Princess!