Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Hortensia Garcia, 67, holds up 'Elizabeth', the first porcelain doll she's ever owned, wearing a new dress that she created. In the background in Garcia's nearly 50 year-old sewing machine that was given to her just after she married.
Retiree makes business of dolls
Hortensia Garcia sells the clothes at the Farmers Market
By Amy Jenkins
Dolls aren't only for little girls. This is what Hortensia Garcia discovered several years ago when she retired as a teacher's aide and pursued her passion for dolls by making clothes for them.
Garcia, 67, has sewed her "entire" life, she says. Her mother taught her at a young age and she went on to make clothes for herself, then for her daughter, granddaughter and her dolls.
She decided three weeks ago to start a business, selling the clothes on Saturdays at the Sunnyvale Farmers Market, as well as taking custom orders. She mostly makes clothes for 18-inch dolls but will make any size for a custom order, she says. She sews on the same machine her husband bought her when they were married 49 years ago, and it hasn't ever required repairs.
"I told my husband, 'You'll have to buy me a sewing machine if you want to marry me' and he did," she says with a chuckle.
Her interest in selling comes from her father, she says. He was a carpenter by trade but was always selling things on the side, such as fingernail clippers and candy. He even made his children sell pictures of Gen. MacArthur door to door in their Houston, Texas, neighborhood, Garcia recalls. When her father retired, he sold real estate and eventually joined a monastery in San Jose. He was the top ticket seller for the monastery barbecues, she says.
The business is named "Three Busy Bees," after an embroidered pattern of three bees that her mother sewed onto a dress for Garcia when she was 6. Garcia made a replica of the green dress for her granddaughter and for her favorite doll, named Clara, which is Garcia's middle name. The doll dress has the original heart-shaped, gold buttons from her childhood dress and a replication of the three yellow bumblebees on the upper right-hand side of the dress.
On March 16, her first Saturday at the Farmers Market, she said she sold three dresses. Garcia says she hopes to be there every week selling the doll clothes, doll blankets and pillows. Currently, she is making shorts and blouses that will probably sell for between $12 and $15 per set.
Garcia didn't always have a love of dolls. She retired two years ago from the Sunnyvale School District and had to leave a job she had as a cake decorator for 30 years because she hurt her shoulder. When she stopped working and had more free time, her friend recommended she put her sewing skills to use by making doll dresses.
"My friend told me I should make dresses for my dolls for each holiday," Garcia says with a smile.
Since her daughter grew up she wasn't exposed to dolls as much, but now she owns 50 dolls and many teddy bears. Most of the dolls were purchased at the shop she worked at in Saratoga for a year and a half, called "Goldilock's Doll Cottage."
Garcia says she was sad to see the store close last December. Every week she bought a new doll from the store.
"Working there was like paradise," she says. "It was like working in a candy store. I couldn't wait to open the boxes and put out the new dolls. It was a beautiful experience, and I learned a lot about dolls."
She also got to meet celebrities. When she attended doll shows with the store's owner she met famous doll artists, including Marie Osmond and Richard Simmons.
Her most expensive doll is from the Maggie Iaccno line. Named "Mary had a little lamb," it has a dress with lambs on it, is completely made of felt and has 11 movable joints.
Her husband is supportive of her latest endeavor.
"I think sewing keeps her busy and is an enjoyable way of spending her time," says David Garcia. Of his mother's new business, Garcia's youngest son, Greg, says, "Both my parents are entrepreneurs and it is neat to see her take an idea and materialize it."
The Sunnyvale Farmers Market is held Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Murphy Street, between Evelyn and Washington. For more information about "Three Busy Bees," call 408.736.5995.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
