Story by Karen Parr-Moody

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Beyond the baked treats found each Friday at the Smith-Trahern Mansions’s Winter Market, there is a hodgepodge of inexpensive, handmade items for children. Handmade baby booties sell for $3 a pair, crocheted baby blankets are $25 and cozy children’s scarves are $3 each – and that is just a sampling.

The market occurs every Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 101 McClure Street, at the corner of 1st Street and McClure Street.

At a recent market Melinda Jordan, of In Stitches Custom Embroidery, stood before a rack of fluffy, colorful tulle skirts and dresses. She pulled out a black and yellow tulle skirt.

“These are the Steelers’ colors,” Jordan said. “So a girl can wear this with her jersey and watch football with Dad.”

Jordan also makes matching hair accessories and can create any color combination of tulle skirt or dress as a custom order.

Alyssia Herrera makes a number of goods by hand to sell each Friday, including children’s hair accessories and nontoxic laundry detergent. She was at the market with daughter Aubree, who wore one of her colorful headbands.

“This is really nice for us to have this market available to us,” said Sandy Hart, who was there selling crochet blankets. “There is a good variety of handmade items here.”

Sharon Mann, who sells an array of crochet baby clothes, booties and doll clothes at the market, said she has been crocheting for decades.

“Mom taught me when I was young, like 11 or 12.”

Renee Shirley makes vibrantly colored scarves for children out of cozy fleece, selling them for a mere $3 each. They have looped fringe on the end and

Shirley can make them in custom colors and with a child’s name included.

The market operates during the winter and early spring, when the Clarksville Downtown Market is closed for the season. If you are interest in participating in the Winter Market at the Smith-Trahern Mansion, please contact Barbara Brown at 931-801-0822 or mamabee@twotzus.com or Martha Pile at 931-648-5725 or mmpile@utk.edu.

Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.