It started with a glorious, glossy catalog in the 1980's
And like many others I had to be satisfied with just the catalog. Unable to afford the actual doll, I cut out a full page spread of then Pleasant Company’s Samantha, and placed her in a scrapbook.
More than a decade later my boyfriend and I came across an American Girl display in a gift shop. I “introduced” Samantha to my boyfriend and told him my catalog story. More than a year later, as solace after a particularly difficult day at work, my boyfriend (then fiance), brought Samantha home for me.
Already an avid seamstress, sewing for Samantha came naturally. From the first outfit I made, Dorothy’s gingham from The Wizard of Oz, I was hooked. At the urging of family and friends, I started selling my outfits on eBay in August of 1998. I purchased Kit to round out my “model” options and BunnyBear was born.
I happily spent upwards of 16 hours creating each one of a kind offering for my customers. I searched online, in book stores and family basements for historic design support. I purchased vintage snaps by the box and buttons by the pound. I was having a great time.
Occasionally I would get a question or comment asking if I would sell the pattern for a particular outfit. Wanting to protect the OOAK feature of my work, my response was always sorry, no.
In the summer of 2006, my fiancé (then husband), and I had our first child. I had to stop producing BunnyBear outfits in favor of sleep. In 3AM conversations my husband urged me to reconsider offering my patterns to customers. He reasoned that while I would no longer have the time to make outfit after outfit, I could find time to make one outfit here and there.
I worked for almost two years designing my first offerings and in August of 2008 BunnyBear reopened its “doors”.
