Sewing most of my life...starting when, at age 4, Mom taught me to sew buttons and make big stitched hems on her fabric scraps.  By age 10-11, I was making skirts and party dresses for myself. From then on, I made many of my dresses and formals for school.  On occasion I still sew for myself, which includes my wedding gown when Ken and I married in 1995.

Dressing dolls authentically in foreign costume or period styles grew out of an early love for vintage and historical clothing.  I had numerous foreign pen pals, a few of whom gifted me with foreign costume dolls.  Many were lovely, but a few were what we doll lovers would call typical generic souvenir dolls...no real costume, just covered in cheap colored ribbons.  That ignited my desire to produce authentic costume patterns for as many countries as I could. Thus "Nation-Of-The-Month Club was born, and Wonderful World Of Dolls, as well.  Years of extensive research went into the designs for N.O.M. patterns.  Member mailings went out monthly then bi-monthly for 21 years.

Most of the United Nations, U.S. regions, and ethnic groups are represented.  There are many more ethnic costume patterns of mine which were published throughout the years in numerous periodicals for which I wrote and designed.

Meanwhile, a dear Aunt had given me 2 antique dolls she had acquired as "basket cases."  The bug for antique and vintage dolls bit, and I studied doll repair and brought mine to life again.  With more research, I learned what type dolls I had, their age, and was able to costume them appropriately (as time would permit.)  It is still my first love, to research a doll's period and design and make her the proper outfit from the inside out, head to toe.  LOVE IT!

During this time, I was accepted as a pattern designer and column writer for two needlework magazines; my column being "Wonderful World Of Dolls"...(a Trademark Copyright I own.)

Many other periodicals have carried my patterns and articles throughout the years.

I had been self-taught in pattern design, layout, fitting, and drafting.  That soon changed when a pattern design class taught by an instructor from a well-known New York Design College became available at a nearby school.  With my diploma from this school and classes in Millinery, I learned the fine points, and shortcuts in the fields I had already been working in for years.  And so, Wonderful World Of Dolls costume patterns continued through raising 3 children, the end of a long marriage, caring for elderly parents, other jobs, and a second marriage to my loving husband, Ken.