http://lucykatecrafts.blogspot.com/2008/02/eye-patch-tutorial.html
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Eye patch tutorial (for occlusion therapy)
My daughter is the unfortunate owner of very
poor eyesight (her prescription is a +5 on the right and a +6 on the left) and
also a squint, both are corrected by wearing glasses, which she has done, with
very little complaining, since the age of 18 months old (proud Mummy moment!).
In addition to all this, we are exercising her weaker eye (the left one), with 2
hours of patching a day. The sticky patches the hospital gave us were, to be
honest, useless, and kept peeling off, but why use something like that, when Mum
can make one of these... a cute, pink eye patch, out of felt.
I decided to post this as a full tutorial, so
many craft bloggers have children, I figured there will be others out there who
may find this useful.
You will need - light pink felt, dark pink felt,
yellow felt, black felt, a button, embroidery thread, pins, a needle, and a pair
of scissors, and of course, ...some glasses!
Print out the templates so that the basic eye
patch shape is roughly 7 x 10 cm, and the flower is 5 cm wide.
Cut the patch template, making the 3 slits as
indicated. Fold the end over, as below, and sew down both seems (I have done
this on the machine, but you could stitch it by hand), trim off the excess
felt.
Pin together the 2 edges of the center slit,
trapping the folded over arm holder loop in between, and sew.
Trim off any excess felt from this inner seam
and turn the patch the right way round. Try it on the glasses for size, and also
trim the outside edges if needed (probably a good idea at this stage to get the
person who will be wearing the patch to try it on to check the fit)
Pin the lense sleeve into position,
and sew on with random straight stitches along
both the top and the bottom edges, leaving both side open for the glasses frame
to slip through.
Repeat the basic patch shape in black felt,
remember to sew it the reverse way round this time, as the 2 need to fit
together with all seams on the inside. Place the black inner patch, and the
outer patch together and trim any excess off the black so they both match and
blanket stitch both pieces together, all the way round the edge.
Attach the flower decoration using the button by
sewing onto the lense sleeve, be careful not to sew it on through the whole
patch, and just to the sleeve, other wise it will block the gap the glasses
frame is to slip through . Place the patch on the glasses, and using some sharp
scissors, poke a small hole through the whole patch, for the nose pad to slot
through.
The patch can be used on either the left or the
right side of the glasses simply by turning it upside down, Lucy's goes on the
right, covering up her good eye, so she is forced to use her left one. This is
the girly version, you could easily make a boy's version by using red and blue
felt, and decorate it with a star sheriff's badge, or a bug shape.
No doubt, in the future, I will be making more
of these as Luke also has a slight squint, and it's best to catch these things
early, that's when patching has the most effect.
If you make something from one of my tutorials
please do join the Flickr group, Lucykate Crafts... pattern
pieces, to show off your creations.
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