<p>A baton dance team from Bermuda, wearing That's So Addie dresses in a pre-holiday parade, sent this Christmas card to Raenita Deal as a way of saying thanks.</p>

WALLOWA – Not every successful business is located in a storefront on Main Street.

Take “That’s So Addie Boutique Designs,” based in the Wallowa home of Raenita Deal, for example.

An experienced seamstress who often made clothes for her own children, Deal sold her first little girl’s dress on e-Bay about six years ago. Today, she estimates that she sells 30 to 40 custom-designed children’s outfits a month – most of them to Internet customers – and spends 40 hours or more a week at her sewing machine. Her designs have sold all over the world and even adorn the children of celebrities.

“My business has been growing faster than I ever imagined it could, especially considering the economy,” she said.

A native of Wallowa and a 1989 graduate of Wallowa High School, Deal worked for many years for her family’s business, Little Bear Drive-In, before “retiring” after the birth of her daughter Adalyn, now 7.

She wasn’t interested in learning to sew growing up, but that changed when her older children, Logan and Danaleigh Roberts, now age 21 and 19, were babies. “I asked my mom (Janice Bennett), who is a fabulous seamstress, to teach me how to sew,” she said.

After they got older and didn’t want to match anymore, Deal said she quit sewing for quite a few years until Adalyn was born. “I wanted to have unique outfits for her that weren’t like any other baby in town,” she said about her decision to rev up her sewing machine again.

She remembers browsing on-line through e-Bay for custom-made outfits and seeing the high prices designers were getting. “I thought to myself that I could do that for Adalyn, and maybe make some extra money too so I could continue to be a stay-at-home mom,” she recalled. “About six years ago, I sold my first outfit on e-Bay and that was how it all began.”

Her youngest daughter was not only the inspiration, but also the namesake for the business. “Addie” is, of course, the nickname for Adalyn.

Deal said when the fees for the e-Bay on-line auction site got too high, she began selling on Etsy (www.etsy.com), a marketplace website limited to items that are hand-made. Now “It’s So Addie” also has its own Facebook page with 1,500 followers that accounts for about 75 percent of its business. Go to www.facebook.com/thatssoaddie.

Addie’s designs for kids are very colorful, with fabrics that make liberal use of popular characters (the Grinch is a favorite), animals, flowers, polka dots and other motifs. “I put them together in ways you might not expect,” she said. “My outfits are practical – you can wear them to school – but are also for dressing up.”

Little girls’ dresses are the best sellers, but Deal also designs outfits that include applique T-shirts and jeans, and also makes such items as handbags, aprons and tooth fairy pillows. Prices start at $25 and go up from there.

Addie’s does often have outfits modeled on her websites in stock, but most outfits she sells are custom-made, with color and fabric combinations picked out by the customer for a particular child. “I have a ton of fabric,” she said.

Deal, who had already sent off 100 outfits for the Christmas season to on-line customers, also set up shop for the second year at last weekend’s bazaar in Wallowa. By working extra hard, she had 50 outfits on hand to sell and said she would be putting any left over on her Facebook page.

Deal said that she’s been so busy with her Internet business, she hasn’t had as much time as she’d like to build up an inventory for local craft shows, though she’d like to in the future. “Eventually, I would like to be able to offer my items in local stores, too,” she said.

Deal said that part of her success over the past couple of years is attributable to the way she has learned to network and market herself, thanks to other designers she “met” on-line. For example, she was introduced to a publicist who has helped her get her “sets” (outfits) in the spotlight for the target audience.

“My sets have been featured on three different morning TV shows this last year in Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah,” she said. “I have also had sets go out to a few celebrity moms in this last year, and getting to use that as a promotion has really boosted my business. Celebrity moms Halle Berry, Victoria Beckham, and Clare Kramer all have “That’s So Addie” dresses for their little girls. Most recently, I sent a baby dress to Tori Spelling for her new baby, Hattie.”

Sometimes her success has made things a little hectic. Deal started making Christmas outfits for customers in July, and she had a baton dance team from Bermuda purchase 28 Grinch-themed dresses to wear in a Christmas parade.

“I closed down orders for about two weeks,” she said. “I was a little stressed to get them done in time.”