Yahoo Lifestyle Single Woman, 27, Has Spent Over 20 Years of Her Life Collecting Baby Clothes for Her Future Children (Exclusive)
Nicole's love of baby clothes has brought her new purpose as she shares her dreams for the future
Villa de Santi/Instagram
Nicole (left), two of her collected outfits with embroideryNicole, who runs @VillaDeSanti on Instagram, has spent much of her life collecting baby clothes
What started as a love for dolls evolved into a project — to start a wardrobe for her future children
Nicole tells PEOPLE about her experience thrifting, customizing and making her own items for the children she aspires to parent in the future
A single 27-year-old woman is investing time and effort into something special for her future children.
Nicole, who runs @VillaDeSanti on Instagram, is a biomedical engineer pursuing her doctorate by day. Her special hobby, which she's started sharing online, has garnered even more attention than her impressive résumé.
"I started my baby clothes collection when I was very, very young," she tells PEOPLE. "I was maybe 5 or 6 years old when I started collecting the clothes. At first, they were for my baby dolls. My mom nurtured my love of playing with baby dolls. It started as just that and then over the years, I created a baby clothes collection that will hopefully be for my future kids."
The collector has "maybe 100 items total," stocking up on both boys and girls clothes.
"I don't really shop that often. Items come and go. Sometimes I'll get something and later decide not to keep it. I'll give it away or sell some things. What I show online is from what I've picked up over the years. The collection is always evolving."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The collection also evolves because Nicole isn't afraid to get hands-on with customizing these clothes to fit her vision.
"Crocheting and embroidery have always been a part of my life. My grandma would sew and she would also embroider a lot. My mom would do the same, mainly as a hobby, and so it was kind of natural for me to also pick that up," she says.
"Lately, I've been getting into using that skill that I've honed over the years on my baby clothes collection. It's fun to explore and learn more along the way about how to use those skills and create a closet for my future kids, too."
It's incredibly hard to pick favorites, but Nicole has grown to appreciate the items she customizes or, in some cases, makes herself from scratch.
"My favorite personalized items are the ones I've entirely made myself. They're the ones where I have to challenge myself to learn new techniques. There is one particular dress that I've shown on my Instagram page, which has embroidered sleeves on it. That was very challenging. There were a lot of times I had to redo the whole thing, but in the end, I learned so much from it," she says.
"I think that's the beauty in that process, that you learn so much. You put so much time into it and fall in love with the process and, hopefully, fall in love with the product. I spent a lot of time on that dress and put my heart into it."
Of thrifting and vintage finds, she adds, "There's a story behind each piece and some reason behind obtaining it or something specific that drew me to it. It's just really, really hard to choose."
Nicole recently brought her collection to Instagram, hoping to find other collectors and community.
"Just recently, I started thinking, 'Maybe there are a lot more people with the same dream and same interests and aspirations as me.' I decided to give it a try and see what other people thought and share that happiness," she says.
"It's been interesting. The reason why I decided to even share it was because I never really saw anyone talking about it. My friends moved on from dolls around 12 or 13 as their lives got more online and I never had someone to really talk about it," Nicole continues.
"It's been really fun. A lot of the comments have been very positive. There are a few negative ones, but almost anything you say in this world, there's going to be someone that has a little bit of opinion on it. But it's been very fun. I would say it's brought me a lot of happiness."
Seeing the appreciation for the items she's gathered fills Nicole with joy for both now and the future, when she'll get to share her outfits with her little ones.
"I just really hope that my future kids feel the same love that I felt gathering all these items for them. And not just in the material way, but knowing how much they've been on my mind, how much I've expected them. I look forward to one day living this dream with them and sharing with them what it means to me."
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
