Kelly Mackey of Searcy leaned over her dining room table and ran a pair of noisy Black and Decker electric scissors around a homemade pattern, cutting a piece of cloth that will become the front of a child's dress.
"I've been sewing since I was 12," Mackey, 40, said. "My mother sewed. When I was in the sixth grade I expressed an interest in sewing so she would sit me down and leave me to it. She learned to sew on her own and that's the best way to learn, from your mistakes."
The Mackey family's dining room isn't like that of other families - the table is covered with heavy paper that contains scribbled sketches and measurements, folded under and taped around the edges to protect the wood. A beautiful chandelier hangs just above Mackey's head as she cuts the cloth, and against a wall opposite a window is a rack of hundreds of patterns she made herself.
Mackey has begun her own children's clothing design business, Emmilu, which she said has been successful beyond her hopes, being sold in 85 stores in the southeast part of the country. The whole family, husband Lee, head of the wealth management division of First Security Bank and Crews and Associates, son Jake and daughters Emma, Lucy and Milly have all done their part in the enterprise. The girls have served as models for the concern's marketing campaign photographs and their names to form the company's name.
Using the slogan, "Let girls be girls," the girls' clothing business is successful, and Mackey has plans to expand her product lines.
"This coming spring we're introducing boys' clothing, but Jake wouldn't let me use his name so it's going to be Emmilu and Brother, Too," Mackey said.
Mackey has a bachelor's degree in home economics, now called family and consumer science, from Harding University and taught the subject in middle and high schools in Texas and Kentucky.
"I don't even know how we got started doing this," Mackey said, describing her hectic lifestyle of the typical "soccer mom" and family taxi duties in addition to running a business from her home.
With a friend, Mackey began designing and making children's clothes, selling them at trunk shows. Then when the friend dropped out, Mackey moved ahead.
"I had family that encouraged me to keep doing something so I decided to start selling to retailers," Mackey said.
After four months of research, Mackey set up a temporary booth in a Dallas apparel mart and began taking orders. At that event, a sales representative saw pictures of her products and decided to pick up her clothing line. Now three representatives travel from store to store, offering Emmilu clothes by displaying samples to buyers. When the salesmen leave the stores, they phone Mackey with orders. Now the orders are coming in steadily, showing that retailers like Mackey's designs and prices.
"I had planned on making them myself," Mackey said. "But we had so many orders I couldn't fill them all myself. I found a manufacturer in Houston, so now they make some. I send them everything cut out and they put it together and ship it out to stores."
The fall Emmilu line is about to go into stores now, and the spring/summer samples are being sent to the sales representatives as well.
Mackey describes her designs as "mix and match fun" clothes in classic styles, and one of her joys is picking out innovative patterns when she buys bolts of cloth. Her designs are tasteful and modest for little girls, and when finished with a design Mackey designates the new garment in her own way, but not with a product number.
"Everything is a little girl's name because it takes on a personality," Mackey said.
Grouped into seven collections, Emmilu clothes are designed in infant to size 14 for the girls and the boys clothes will go up to 4T.
"This is something she's always wanted to do," Lee said. "She's very creative and she's always thought big. She's doing something she really enjoys. It was frustrating at times but we're beginning to see the light."
While Mackey only sells the clothes wholesale, they can be found in downtown Searcy at Everett, a children's boutique, 103 W. Market St., one block south of the courtsquare behind Stott's Drugstore and Quattlebaum's Music store.
"They have done very well," said Carol Hendon, owner of Everett. "They're cute and people like the way she uses coordinating fabrics in the apparel. Her fabrics are colorful and coordinate very well with each other."
Mackey admits that dealing with the fabric and picking them out - she recently made a trip to an Alabama cloth wholesaler's warehouse - is one of her favorite tasks.
"I think part of it is an addiction to fabric," Mackey said. "And I like little girls to look like little girls."