Kids’ clothes maker in Oakesdale balances family, writing and sewing

Half the fun of visiting Ginger Ale , an Etsy shop run by Oakesdale resident Jennifer Buhl, is reading her descriptions of the children’s clothes she sews and sells. This is how she describes a floral, feminine dress modeled by her 3-year-old daughter Lizzie:

“She looks so innocent, doesn’t she? This is the child that recently dismantled an outlet. You too can disguise your naughty engineer and mud-flinging child in this seemingly delicate dress.

The rich, chocolate color looks good against most skin tones. The back features a button and loop closure with wooden buttons and hand-crocheted loops. The bodice is fully lined.

Lizzie likes to pair this dress with a pirate stocking cap and cowgirl boots, but you might have other, better ideas. A hard hat? A fake mustache?”

Jennifer learned to sew as a child, but didn’t get serious about it until four years ago, when her oldest daughter, Emilie, was 1. Christmas was approaching, she needed gifts for her many nieces and nephews, and money was tight.

“We were so freaking poor,” she says. “I had to handmake everyone’s Christmas presents. I couldn’t afford patterns, so I made the patterns, too.”

Buhl’s husband, the Rev. Erik Buhl, is pastor of Oakesdale Community Presbyterian Church. The family moved to Oakesdale from western Washington three years ago.

Jennifer also is a writer. She writes young adult fantasy fiction and is currently searching for an agent in hopes of getting her most recent book published.

She devotes two to three hours a day to writing and two to three hours a day to sewing. Emilie goes to kindergarten, but Lizzie stays home with her.

“She’s a very independent little soul,” Jennifer says.

The girls are picking up on their mom’s love of sewing. Last Christmas, Emilie made patterns and sewed tree ornaments for friends and family. She also began embroidering just last week.

Jennifer’s daughters also like to give their mom feedback on her clothing designs.

“Emilie is getting to the point where she wants it to look like the things in stores, so her favorite things (that Jennifer makes) are jeans and jean skirts,” Jennifer says.

Last year, Jennifer followed Anna Maria Horner ‘s pattern for a “Little Bo Peep” skirt , and Emilie gladly wore the full, ruffly outfit to preschool. But Jennifer says the 5 year old has since passed it on to her younger sister and has requested that her mom no longer make anything that’s “coo-coo crazy.”

The clothes Jennifer sells in her Etsy shop are her own designs. Even though she doesn’t have sons of her own, she began sewing boys’ shirts at the request of friends who couldn’t find anything stylish or unique in stores. The shirts have a 1960s retro look about them and they’re sewn up in uncommon fabrics, including an orange shirt with white line drawings of rocketships and another red shirt with sock monkeys on it.

“I refuse to do camouflage or khaki,” she says.

Check out Jennifer’s shop to see all her cute designs and take a peek at her Flickr page , too, for more kid-clothes inspiration.