PRETTY eye-patches!
I can finally use up all those SCRAPS!
This is really, really easy, and I request right off the top that you yoink this, make these, sell these, and do whatever you can to make having to wear an eye-patch less depressing and more comfortable for people (including children) who MUST wear them. I made these, and about a dozen others in different colours, for a neighbour of mine who survived the kind of stroke that kills or severely incapacitates just about everyone else. One of her eyes is fixed and dilated, and as a result, she cannot switch on the lights in her house without covering the "dead" eye. She asked me to make her some eye-patches that weren't black vinyl, but wouldn't press against her eyeball, or drown her in sweat in the summer, or basically make her look like a pirate or a crook.
You need:
- paper-backed fusible web (e.g. Heat-n-Bond or Steam-a-Seam)
- Cotton, or other breathable fabric that can be ironed on the "cotton" setting; scraps should be at least 4"x3"
- buckram interfacing (stiff stuff, but not too stiff, and definitely do not use heavy non-woven!)
- stretchy fabric for binding (I used spandex) cut in 1-1/2" wide strip of about 7" length
- 1/4" elastic band, black
OK, first you obtain an eye-patch to take apart and use as a template. :-) They're really cheap at the drug store - my neighbour gave me one of hers with a stretched-out elastic band. Damn, it's ugly. You need only the patch part. Take a look at my notes (but don't look at the "add 1/4" s.a." - I wrote that before I had decided whether to overcast the edge, line it with raw edges turned inside, or bind it). See the notches in the side: that's where the elastic gets stitched. The line denotes the overlap to create a cone .
Next, fuse your paper-backed web to your buckram. That's the white stuff you see on the plaid there. Fuse the buckram to the WRONG side of your "show" fabric - the fabric that will be on the outside of the eye-patch.
Trace your eye-patch template, and mark your elastic placement, the slit, and the overlap line. I used gel-pen ink because it wouldn't soak through to the right side of the fabric, but I could still see the dots in the buckram at the edge of the piece.
Cut out your eye-patch, and cut from the top to the centre dot along the cutting line. There will be some loose threads along the slit - you just snip those off. They won't fray much because the fabric has been fused to the buckram, and you want to add as little bulk to the eye-patch as possible.
You may want to skip the next step if you're not going for total "black-out" conditions. My neighbour with the dead eye needs to block out ALL light, so I lined her eye-patches with dark fabric.
<--- Fuse more paper-backed web to your lining fabric. It's not essential to have complete coverage here, and this is an excellent way to use up all those little scraps of that somewhat costly web that my projects eat up all the time. (I can't seem to throw away anything larger than 1"x1"... it just seems wrong.)
---> Trace your eye-patch onto the paper-backed web. You don't need to transfer any markings. Cut out your eye-patch shape, peel the paper off, and fuse it to the WRONG side of the "show" part. (That would be the buckram with the writing on it.)
<--- See the slit? Snip the backing fabric there. I used a black eye-patch for better contrast in the image. Once the fabric has been snipped, you should be able to overlap the the edges to make a cone. The overlap was about 1" for this eye-patch.
---> Stitch close to the edge. You want to be able to hide this basting in the binding, which is applied last.
<--- Cut your elastic band the length you need to comfortably wear the eye-patch, if it's for yourself. My neighbour required about 16" for comfort - most patches she bought in the drug store had a 12" to 14" band, which was too tight and would crumple the vinyl against her face. Since she can't blink that eye reflexively, either; this has caused serious discomfort as her eye-patch rubbed her eye-ball.
Position the elastic ends on the sides, raw edges together, making sure the elastic band is not twisted. Now, if you know which eye you're covering with this patch, you can move the "nose-side" end of the elastic 1/4" or so towards the top of the patch, so it will cross the forehead over the other side's eyebrow. If you're just making them for general sale, make them symmetrical, or make "lefty" and "righty" versions. You can't move the "ear-side" elastic away from its corner, or the eye-patch will ride up and let in light, or otherwise not protect the eye it's covering.
<--- These are your Spandex binding strips. Note the diagonal seams. Diagonal seaming is a quilting trick to camouflage the joins in borders and binding - and when they're in fold-over binding, they reduce the bulk of the seam. Take a look at pre-packaged bias tape: it has diagonal seams, too.
The easy way to do this: cut a strip 1-1/2" wide by 7" long. Fold the short ends together. Turn the top 90 degrees, so you have a teardrop-shaped loop, and stitch from top left corner to bottom right. Use a really SHORT stitch length to prevent ravelling. Trim your seam allowance pretty close to the stitches (you'll have two triangles of fabric to discard. YES, DISCARD. They're not worth keeping. Trust me.)
Now, it helps to have a quilting ruler and rotary cutter here: lay your strip flat on the table, make sure the edges are even, and cut that sucker in half lengthwise, to make TWO rings 3/4" wide each. If you don't have a rotary cutter, just eyeball it as "half" as you can. The edges don't fray, so you don't need to do any more folding or finishing.
<--- Pin your binding to the eyepatch edge with the seam allowance tucked invisibly to the wrong side, and somewhere discreet (I like the lower "ear-side" part of the patch). It's stretchy enough that you can get away with just a couple of pins, and let tension hold it on. Try to keep the binding even on the "show" side, and let the excess go on the back. We'll deal with that last.
Note how I've loosely knotted the elastic band to keep it out of the way, and inverted the eye-patch to make it easier to sew. These things are somewhat reversible - that's why I like to line them!
With your needle in the left position, straight-stitch around the edge of the binding.
Go around AGAIN, using a zig-zag stitch a little less wide than the binding itself. (It's an extra step to make sure you've stitched down the binding on both sides - and I like the way it looks.)
When you reach your starting point again, switch back to the left-side straight stitch, and lock down your threads with a few almost-buttonhole-sized stitches. No need to back-stitch if you do this. Cut your threads as close to the fabric as you can on both sides.
<--- Last step: trim the excess binding fabric from the lining of your eye-patch, as close to the straight stitching as possible. I've got "thread snips" designed to cut threads flush with the surface of the fabric - they're great for close work like this, too. The pointier and sharper your shears, however, the closer you will get to the stitching.
TA-DA! One eye-patch!
I used the l'Orna fusible beads and bead iron to embellish the eye-patches for St. Patrick's Day. :-)
I don't recommend using anything that will pierce all the layers of the fabric, such as rivets or studs. This thing is going over an eye, after all.
Note that I've made a "righty" with the plaid, and a "lefty" with the polka-dot patches.
The fabric is stiff enough to avoid crumpling under some tension, but it doesn't quite sit under eye-glasses. My neighbour tells me the patches I've made for her are very comfortable, and very breathable. Since we live in Southern Ontario, she hasn't yet test-driven their summertime "sweatability".
I'm not sure yet how WASHABLE they are, but I imagine you can just gently rub some detergent or soap on them with your fingers, rinse in the sink, and hang them on your towel rack to dry. I don't know how much the buckram will soften after washing. Those versed in buckram lore are invited to recommend a better stiffener that still breathes; the non-woven medium and heavy interfacings I tried were far too bulky and heavy. I'm hoping to make and sell these decorative eye-patches through a hospital pharmacy, and I want to be sure I'm making something a bajillion times better than the standard black vinyl patches available. (I encourage everyone here to do the same, if the spirit moves you.)