In 1995 I had just retired from  30 years in the field of education and was faced with the question , “What am I going to do now?”   That summer I was on a vacation visiting friends in Kansas City and my love for fabrics drew me to  Kaplan’s, an incredible store.  Fabrics are my weakness so I splurged and bought $500 worth of gorgeous tapestries.  Reality dawned and I thought, “What am I going to do with  all of this??”      My friend Carol Jo who works there,   pointed to vests that she had made  that were hanging on the walls.

That was it!     I came home to San Diego and made a simple sketch of my first vest.

I found a standard pattern and feverishly started to to cut and sew.  I chose five fabrics and did a Small, Medium, and a Large out of each.   Fifteen vests!

I then had the problem of , “How do I market these?”

My first idea  was to sell them at two local craft shows in the fall of 1995.  I found a second hand  tent, a cheap mirror, and asked my father to make a three paneled folding vertical rack 5 ft. tall with chicken wire stretched across it so I could poke hangers in the holes to display my beautiful vests. He grumbled all the while he was working, “Why don’t you  just stay home and garden.”

Besides loving to sew, I had a passion for fine fabrics and expert workmanship. Clothing manufacturers  were having clothing assembled overseas —- sacrificing quality, I felt.   I wanted to personally choose the fabrics, matching linings and buttons,  and carefully monitor the workmanship .  Creating quality handmade women’s and men’s vests was my primary goal.

I tried to think of other ways to sell my vests.  At that time cigar smoking came into fashion so I got some cigar tapestries, made up some men’s vests and trudged into a very high line department store in San Diego on a very rainy day in the winter with my arms loaded.  As luck would have it, they were having a Cuban Cigar rolling  celebration the following Saturday.  I was so nervous as I approached the door that I stepped in a puddle and two of my vests got wet.  I had an appointment with the men’s buyer and  when he saw my vests and said, “They are beautiful.   I’ll take all of them — on consignment.”   I told him they were $45 each and I saw him promptly slap a price tag of $99.95 on each.  I returned a week later and collected my $90 for the two that sold —and an armload of the rest that didn’t sell. .My career in selling clothing in high line department stores was short.

But — I could expand my horizons in other ways.

In the next five years I became very active in local craft shows, doing one every weekend from Halloween till Dec. 15. I sent out 300 cards every fall and spring to all of my customers letting them know when and where they could come to my shows. I bought another tent (now I had two!), several metal vertical racks, and a tandem axle 12 ft. trailer to carry all of my gear. My husband dragged my trailer with his truck, and he dragged himself to every one of my shows —- lifting and hauling at age 77.     He began to hint loudly about starting a website.

My customer base was growing. Right before the holidays men began to ask for red wool vests, plaid vests, men’s casual vests and  tuxedo vests. Women wanted silk vests, holiday vests, and wool vests.      I’d take notes and rush home to furiously start cutting and sewing. My inventory was growing.  I was excited!