Mama You Can Make It For Me: Back to School, Bugs! (Lulu & Celeste, Sprouting Jube Jube Back to School Tour)

My kids don't get excited about back to school clothes because they wear uniforms, and there is NOTHING exciting about going to the uniform store to pick out khaki slacks and embroidered polos. However, this year, as part of the Lulu and Celeste, Sprouting Jube Jube productions "Back to School" blog tour, I made them clothes for those few casual clothes days they have so there was a tiny spark on the excitement train. I'm just glad that they are still willing to wear the things that I make for them...most of the time!

So, for my stop on the tour, I knew that the newly released Emmy t-shirt from Laela Jeyne Patterns was perfect for both of my kids, and my daughter also got a pair of Little Birdy pants to go with one of her tops, also a Laela Jeyne Pattern! One of my favorite parts about this pattern is that it can also be made for boys up to size 6. The pattern itself goes up to a size 14, and it's unisex through size 6 so my son got a new shirt as well. I feel so bad that my little guy kind of gets left out a lot so he was over the moon trying to pick out his fabric from "Momb's store". I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry that he thinks my fabric collection qualifies as a store...I probably do have more fabric than Jo-Ann's, though.

The top is designed to be a fitted t-shirt so it's not quite as loose as a standard tee, which my daughter loved! She won't wear about two-thirds of the tee shirts in her dresser because they're "too flowy". I also opted for a hood with two of their shirts because the weather does get nippy here in Oklahoma, but there are options for a standard neck and a cowl neck (which might not be a bad idea either since it covers the neck...another project maybe?). I also made my girl a top with a standard neckline.

The Emmy comes with a lot of options so you can make a ton of these and no two would look the same. You have three different neck options, three elbow patch templates, four sleeve cuff options to include thumb holes, an optional accent triangle on the side...endless combinations. I personally like that because my daughter will find something she likes and request 10 of them in different colors. With this pattern I can have a little different twist on each top.

My son, Ash, is crazy about all things boy. He likes superheroes, cars, construction vehicles, getting dirty, breaking things...He is, however, very particular about his clothes so I let him pick out his own fabric. He opted for a hood with folded over sleeves. He did ask for pockets so that might be a future hack! He landed on a two way race car knit that I got from Ozark Fabrics and some black and white checkered fabric that I bought from Sincerely Rylee. It fit like a glove and was spot on for a size 5 ready to wear.

For my daughter's first shirt, I went with a Like A Girl panel from Zenith and Quasar. It wasn't quite big enough so I did some blocking on it to make it the right size. I also made her a pair of Little Birdy pants to go with the top. The loose flared fit of the pants were a perfect match. My daughter also doesn't like jeans so we decided on these as her comfy pants to wear with her new shirt. For this top, she chose a standard neck and regular sleeves. She's pretty tall so I had to extend the armscye to a size up (common problem with her shirts) but everything else was a standard size 7 which is her ready to wear size. Again, spot on only better because we could fit the armscye for her frame.

The hooded shirt I made her was from a Liverpool that I got at Hancock's. She shares my obsession with florals so this was going to happen as soon as she saw the fabric. I wasn't sure on the Liverpool because it tends to have a little less give, but this was perfect for this tee...we also did thumb cuffs, and she now wants them on every tee she has so that's a win in my book! I love thumb cuffs and these are so easy to make that I might just add them to all of our tee shirts!! The instructions are extremely easy to follow along and even with the hood, gathered sleeves, and thumb cuffs, I was able to crank it out in about an hour. The others were even quicker than that to make!

Nini and Ash were so completely ready to start their new adventures as first and second graders. They have adventurous spirits and a love for discovery, and I am so excited for what this year holds for them...even if they don't want me to walk them to class anymore.

So, as I was saying, I am just one of the stops on the Lulu & Celeste/Sprouting Jube Jube productions back to school tour. There have been a lot of wonderful giveaways throughout the tour from our lovely sponsors and a lot of posts from fellow sewists who have been sharing their creations this week:

Check out this post from Lulu & Celeste to see what special sales are available during this tour! You can also head here to find out more about who is sharing their creations today! Don't forget that you can also enter TODAY'S GIVEAWAY through this rafflecopter link. Enter by August 29th at 11:59PM EDT, and you could win 1 PDF pattern from Big Little Patterns and 1 PDF pattern from Sofilantjes Patterns (*excludes bundles).

If you sewed up any back to school projects between the 1st of August through the 4th of September (when the link up closes) you can link them up and be eligible to win a pretty amazing grand prize package. Just make sure you leave your email address so that you can be contacted if you win! Here are the grand prize details:

3 yards of fabric from Mabel Madison

1 Tie Die Wire Headband, custome made to your size from 421 Myers Design Studio

1 PDF pattern of choice* from SisBoom

Nana's insulated totes PDF pattern from Sew Happily Ever After

1 PDF pattern of choice* from E+M Patterns

$15 gift card to BLAVERRY

(*excludes bundles)

Remember, don't miss out on the rest of today's tour stops:

Sewing By Ti * Adventures with Bubba and Bug * The Simple Life Pattern Co * Inspinration * Moon Star

If you would like to stop by the other stops on the tour, please follow the links below:

Day 1: Call Ajaire * The Wholesome Mama * Sew and Tell Project * DIY Crush * Blaverry
Day 2: Phat Quarters * Mahlica Designs * Handmade Boy * Kaleidothought * The Berry Bunch
Day 3: Filles A Maman * Tales of a Tester * Sew Happily Ever After * 5 out of 4 Patterns * The Crafting Fiend * Lulu & Celeste
Day 4: Create 3.5 * Sew Sophie Lyn * Sweeter Than Cupcakes * The Eli Monster * Paisley Roots
Day 5: Cindy Parrett Blog * Sew Starly * Sew and Tell Project * Elegantine * Gracious Threads

And the complete tour of blogs here: