The History of Raggedy Pants Designs

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It all began in a small basement room with a lot of buttons and fabrics. . .

  My first real craft room was in the basement of an old house I use to own. The walls were covered from top to bottom in rolls and rolls of a variety of different fabrics. (more on that in a bit)

  Me and my son use to go to craft supply shops and spend hours picking through large containers of buttons. Those buttons would go on to make my first sellable artwork: Small buttoned dolls with an itty bitty pottery vase for a body.  Me and my son would go out to small shops and beauty parlors to sell them, and although I didn't make much, it was enough to make me start to understand that I could one day make a living doing the thing that I love most: making art.

Below the stacks of fabrics were boxes of stuffing. . .

  At the center of my desk in my first craft room was my sewing machine. And with the fabrics, stuffing, and a little bit of creativity my creations began to take on a new form; the clothed doll. Which helped shape the name that is behind my business: Raggedy Pants. 

  My first cloth dolls were just as the name would later suggest: raggedy. And although I wasn't yet ready to name my business, I did increase the confidence in myself and start to attend craft shows that would be happening around my home state.

  In these craft shows I would sell my cloth dolls, scarecrows, a few Santa Claus, and a lot of snowmen. 

Online selling became more popular . . .

  With E-bay, online selling was becoming more and more popular. And with the outreach that the internet has (meaning I could get my name out to more people outside of my home state), I decided to once again take a step forward in my business and join the online sensation.

  But I needed a name for my business. Something that fit well with my work of art. Looking around me at my creations and with cloth dolls being the majority of them at the time, the name raggedy pants came to me. 

  And so Raggedy Pants Designs was officially created. 

Back in 2004 I had to have surgery on my feet . . .

  The surgery left me unable to effectively create the dolls that I had been making for E-bay. And although I was in recovery, I was determined not to stop my passion of art. 

  Then one day it came to me. I could make patterns of the dolls I make. This helped me to never truly leave the art world. And with time I recovered.   :)

Time went on and years went by. I continued to make cloth dolls, Changing styles, and continued to make patterns. . .

  There came a time when I wanted to switch mediums to clay. I loved all the clay creations I use to see other artists making. But I didn't know the first thing about how to even begin.

  When my youngest son was just a kid we use to make clay sculptures just for fun. The kind you would bake in the oven to finish. But that was nothing like the clay work I do now.

  So I began to teach myself how to work with professional clay. I would make different characters and creations I now look back on and laugh about. But eventually the time came for me to get serious with my creations. The only question was, what should I make?

  Fairies and art dolls were my first sellable works of clay, but. . . 

  I began to get into the holiday seasons. I have always loved creating snowmen so I began to make them with clay. Soon there after my first boo was created. And while the fairies and art dolls were fun, my passion still lies within the seasonal styled art.

  . . . and from there the rest is. . . well, history.  :)