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Show ,;.. $ . -- . ., ...... . , mWM- LllMlMM ; 'ilthe Daily ' ' Herald ' v : : . f . V t r lilMlid Li Sunday, December 3, 1995 ; " u usiness makes jobs for others vuiujiiiiy O'l . "Watt- At a time when most couples are retiring to take up tnjeyable pastimes, Paul Hull, 77, and his wife, Vee. 65, of Covered Bridge Canyon, have become entrepree neurs, hiring five employees and 25 independent contractors. Their business is called Vee's Victorians, and their plant is in Mapleton. They make quality doll clothing of various sizes. "Our contractors are women who have handicapped children or who simply wish to work at home," says Vee. "Some of them, at one time on welfare, have coordinated their hours so that they have gone off the welfare rolls." ,Veet majored, and .excelled in clothing and textiles studies; Her love for sewing : stems' from the ' time she was;eight. Her mother interrupted her own weekly washing to help . Vee cut out a pattern and sew a dress for herself on their old treadle machine. By age 3 Vee was making her own and her three sisters' clothing. Vee began creating her own patterns, sewing' and selling dresses for little girls. As a hobby, she later created fashions from the past for her own collection of dolls. Her husband said, "That's marketable." Vee responded, "I dont want it to be marketable 1 want it to be fun." Paul persisted.5 Now the Hulls have clients from all over the world. Paul explains, "Our customers are teachers of All over America women make porcelain dolls that are of a quality superior to some made in Europe 50 years ago. The women in America make their dolls from their own molds and designs. They are highly skilled, and there are thousands of them." 1 full-tim- , Sffyv 11 ' . W ' - . iv , s v f f . v f - i Daily Herald PhotoPatrick J. Krohn Paul Hull does a markup on one of the doll dresses he and his wife, Vee, make in their production shop In Mapleton. The couple's business i3 called Vee's Victorians, and their clients come from all over the world. v ... i 1 doll-makin- g. ' I Louise 8 B'fl " Hanson . t f The Golden Scene Vee phased out her business of making dresses for children to make doll clothing. 'The' designs were hers, and Paul at first supervised the women who sewed them while Vee recovered from an illness. Later, Vee look her dresses' to doll shows and discovered that they were indeed marketable. The Hulls began to advertise in the Doll Crofter, a magazine subscribed to by the best doll makers. People began calling the Hulls for their dresses. Two characteristics of their business are trust and quality. "Paul set up the marketing system," says Vee. His concept is trust. Some based on family-lik- e teachers cannot afford to buy the dresses, so Paul allows them to order a group of dresses to show to their students. These students try them on their dolls and decide what they want to order. The teacher then ships back the doll-maki- . ' CI ' V ." unsold dresses. "We have a 100 percent-retur- n a business built on guarantee trust and convenience," Vee says. "And those people become like family to us. Customers have been wiped out by hurricanes, death and other disasters. We either forgive their debt or work with them through hard times until they can get back into business again." One customer had just bought a supply of dresses, which was later stolen from her car. Distraught, she told the Hulls' she could not afford to buy them again. "We shipped a ''fX M 'I "... ZIONS BANK m !: av n e r fn c i " .1 li i ! ' Daily Herald PhotoPatrick jt V. 4. J. Krohn dresses a doll in one of her creations at their home in Covered Bridge. Before starting the doll dress business with her husband, Vee created and sewed dresses for little girls. She later took up the hobby of creating fashions for her own collection of dolls. r . U. " Vee Hull For that really great Chrbtnuu gift, vint any office ofZioiw Bank am) open a child's Javingj account mth a $50A'pivit and uv '11give you thu - metal, combination hank to put uiur the tree. Aleny Chrutimu. ... -- 'r. duplicate order to her without charge," Paul says. As a result, the woman had the courage to continue with her doll classes. "Most of the doll dresses on the market now are made overseas very cheaply." Vee says. "But we brought quality to the doll-dress business." Not too many people past retirement age have created jobs for 30 people, in the process freeing some of them from the government's dole. Congratulations to the Hulls for their entrepreneurship. |