Brielle's Avalon

The finished eye patches

A friend called several weeks ago needing a few eye patches for some ex-Nazis in a s film she’s shooting. “Sure, I can do that!” I said as my mid visioned cutting, wrapping, sewing…then my mind went SCREECH!!!  I grabbed some blue note cards, my ancient glue gun (yes, although I generally prefer other methods I can shoot one of those), bought a swatch of cloth and a roll of ribbon and went back to planning. The day of making these was supposed to run concurrent with a Doctor Who marathon I am having with a friend. I’m catching him up  on the New Who (from 8 to 11, soon 12). Things happened and it had to wait for Monday to finish prep and Friday to assemble. AAARGH, my life! Sometimes I hate when work gets in the way of art. Oh, who am I kidding? I always hate when that happens.

I expect that only a few of my friends will ever need this information (Filmmakers, Thespians, Rennies, Healthcare, Sci-fi fans, Cosplayers, Steampunk aficionados, SCA members and maybe the odd Pirate…) OK, most of my friends might be able to use this, so here goes:

Eye patch Supplies

Supplies: Black cloth (or any colour/pattern you want, actually)

Ribbon or (Optional) Elastic

Thread to match the cloth/ribbon

3×5 note-cards

Needle

Hot-glue and Hot-glue gun.

If you want to add any embellishment add those to your shopping/foraging list, too. I used ribbon because this was a period piece and these would more likely have been tied on with a bow than slapped on with elastic. Yes, I could have used elastic and sewn a nice bow on the back to look correct to the period, but…*sigh*…this seemed right for this time, since I was making it for a WWII era film. Here’s how I made them.

Eye-patch Template

First I cut the shape I needed, making sure it would cover my eye. Then I realized that it was flat and needed dimension. Crap. Back to one. At least I now had a template.

Eye-patches taking shape

Half way there

This time I trimmed the top of the patch from a 3×5 card and cut a slit in the eye-patch from the middle-bottom to center. I folded the bottom of the center slits together to make the middle a very slight cone and hot glued it together. I did this 4 times (Gita needed 4 patches) then trimmed them using the flat template I originally made.

Patch covers and backing

I cut 4 squares of black cloth big enough to cover each patch front and (mostly, folded around) back. I also cut 4 patch-shapes from the black cloth using the original template.

Fold and blue the top

I wrapped the cloth around each patch, starting at the top (wanting to make a nice, smooth fold), hot-gluing it across the back,

Fold and glue the bottom and sides

then folded it up from the bottom, hot-gluing it there, being careful not to burn myself. I continued to fold and glue on each side around the edge, making as smooth an edge as possible.  Make sure you fold from the outside (curving out) to the inside (curving in) that will be near your eye.

Ribbons for tying on

 Now cut ribbon long enough to run from the edge of the patch to the back of your head and tie a nice bow. Maybe a foot long. I used polyester fabric ribbon so I quickly ran the ends through a candle flame to seal them and keep them from fraying. If you use elastic you’ll still have to sew 2 ends to the patch, just make sure it’s not so long that it’s floppy and it stretches enough to hold but isn’t too tight. Come to think of it, maybe ribbons are a better idea.

Sewing on the ribbons

Thread a needle with black (or matching) thread. Tie a knot in the end of the thread and pull the needle and thread through the end of a length of ribbon. Poke the needle through the patch near the bottom of the top swell on one side. Pull the ribbon end and thread up to the back of the patch and continue sewing it to the patch, making sure you catch both the ribbon and the patch on each pass.

Ribbons attached with cross-stitching

I used an X to distribute the strain of tying it to a head. When done repeat on the other side.

Hot-glue the patch-shaped cloth on the back

Then I took each patch-shaped piece of cloth and glued it to the inside of each patch so the folded cloth was covered and it would be smooth in front of the eye.This way the end of the ribbon and stitches don’t rub near your eye.

Tie on with a nice bow

Tie on using a nice bow and be ready for piracy.

My assistant Posh approves.

Testing…all done!