Giving an old design new life

I have been making kids a-line pinni's for about three years now and they seem to be a very popular design, as most market stalls that sell handmade children's clothes, sell this sort of design. In the past I have tried to alter my pattern to make this simple dress different. I have made them in corduroy with applique (flowers, birds, butterflies, owls etc), in cotton, with printed cotton fronts and corduroy backs and with pockets on the front for those little collectors (inspired by violet). I was starting to think that my pinni pattern was almost done, I have seen so many variations of it and I was just over the whole thing.
After cutting out my long denim winter skirts I had a lot of off cuts left, I am planning on making kids pants out of these, but I also got thinking that maybe the pinni dress wasn't dead yet! So I started to make a new collection, I never make more than 1 of the same dress, but after seeing people do collections and how well they go I thought I would give it a go. So I started cutting and cutting, I only got 4 made as it was 3 days before the Perth Upmarket, but they looked fantastic and once more the pinni dress came back to life. I started with a few owls and haven't got much further than that at the moment, but I do have more in mind. The few Denim Owl Pinni's that I took to upmarket proved to be a big hit.
I guess that goes to show you that old favourite's can have a new life no matter how over done they are, all it takes is a little imagination and a whole lot of off cuts.

I tried for an hour to upload some photos, will try again tomorrow.

Sewing for someone else!

I'm not sure if I am the only crafter or it is a common occurrence  in the crafting world, but when you sew to sell you never seem to get the time to finish off those projects you started (with such excitement and good intention) for yourself or kiddies. I always seem to want to sew something for us just about a week before a big market. Maybe it's because I am so tired with sewing the same thing or it's just that i'm one of these people who can't wait until tomorrow, when I get an idea in my head it has to be done now not later (just ask my poor husband).
Anyway, it started out last week with me having way too much sewing to do for the Perth Upmarket (which was only days away), I was procrastinating, which usually means I get on the computer or the telephone. I was checking out some FB pages that a friend had recommended to me and came across the most gorgeous pirate doll. Let me stop here and go back a few days to a day when my little violet gave iluka her favorite rag doll (mem is her name) to look at. Now I got mem from a lady at the Denmark Market about 2 yrs ago, she is all handmade and has skinny little legs and arms. Violet has loved this doll from the day we got her and I wish I had have got more as willow has always wanted one and now it seems iluka does too. Anyway we all love her and iluka thought she was great to chew on (skinny legs and arms) much to violets disgust. So mem was very swiftly ripped from iluka's grasp and hidden back in violet's bed.
Now this got me thinking that maybe I could find another like mem, all of the dolls I have come across were too big and a lot more expensive (not that I mind as I to am expensive at times). So next step was to try and re-create mem but in a pirate form. It took me 3 attempts and a whole day to make this doll (now I know why they are so expensive), which I must say turned out pretty good for someone who can't hand sew.

 When I finally finished the pirate and gave it to iluka, the first thing he did was test out the chewiness of it's arms and legs. If he could I think he would have given me the thumbs up!