Pickle Toes Patterns - Back to School Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on this Back to School Blog Tour hosted by Pickle Toes Patterns and thanks for joining me. The tour is running throughout August and there are links at the bottom of my post to take you to all the other stops, an excusive discount code and a rafflecopter giveaway!

Being a home educating family, Back to School means something a little different to the traditional interpretation. For us, it's a reminder that Autumn {and it's chilly, windy weather} is coming and a good time to start new topics and projects. 

Our time is split quite equally between home studies and hands on trips and visits so it is super important to me that as well as our clothes being functional and comfortable that we can use them to reflect our personalities and likes helping our self confidence as well.  

For this tour, I chose the Hope Tunic for me, the Fried Pickles Tee for my eldest and the Dill pickles pattern for a hooded long sleeve tee for my youngest.

I had planned my projects out for several weeks but plans had to change quite last minute due to my eldest breaking his arm whilst we were on holiday a couple of weeks ago.  His cast goes almost to his shoulder so getting tees and hoodies on is very tricky and we needed a solution to help ease the problem as he'll need it on for at least 6 weeks.  I came up with an idea inspired by the port access placket on the Hope pattern to add a snap placket at the shoulder to enable it to completely open and be able to step into it! I hope you never do but in case you ever need to adapt clothing for a similar reason, I've done a mini tutorial HERE

Other than my little sleeve adaptation the tee is exactly as per the pattern, it is a little different to some in that you choose the size to make based on the finished measurements but if you aren't sure which size to make, measure a tee which fits well and compare those to the table.  It's a lovely quick simple sew and I've actually used it several times since you first saw it in this blog post and perhaps the best thing about it is that it goes all the way from age 2 to age 18 and it's FREE with the code found in the Pickle Toes Facebook group!

He chose this fab monsters cotton lycra {from Lulu's Fabric UK} which makes it even easier to get on him with the stretch and with the shoulder snaps it ticks all the requirements; comfy, practical and he likes it.

For me, the Hope tunic made in this leaf print jersey ticked all my boxes, it is easy and comfy to wear, especially worn over leggings, whilst still being a feminine shape and print.  

The Hope comes in sies XS to 4XL but be sure to double check the measurement chart when choosing what size to make as I was a small in this and am almost always usually an extra small with other pattern designers.  I made it as per the pattern for hemmed long sleeved tunic length but found the sleeves a little short so added cuffs to the bottom {the measurements for the cuffs can be found on the sleeve pattern piece as well as on page 4 of the PDF file} so next time I'll add a little length to the sleeves so I can hem them. 

And for my youngest, a long sleeved hooded Dill Pickles.  The Dill Pickles also covers ages 2-18 like the fried pickles but comes with lots more options so is a great value buy.

​This was actually made a couple of weeks ago as we received a sample of the lovely polar bear fabric from Splashings of Fabric and needed some photos but it was made to be Autumn/Winter suitable and he won't be wearing it for a few more weeks so feel it fits in quite well in this post! 

I made it a size bigger than I usually would as I made it a little in advance of Autumn but this ticks all the boxes for him too, it's comfortable to wear, practical, in a fabric he loves and it has a hood! {All his favourite tops have to have a hood at the moment} Again this was a really easy quick sew and he will get lots of wear from it.  

I hope you've enjoyed my stop and hopefully I've helped inspire you to start building your own 'Back to School' wardrobes, not just for your children but for you too!

​Please do go visit all the other talented bloggers throughout the month for their takes on Back to School sewing

If I have tempted you to buy, you can use the exclusive code 'MEMADE' for 25% off all Pickle Toes Patterns until the 31st August!!

PLUS For a chance to win some fab Pickle Toes Patterns, enter this giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway