Of doctors and their outfits

Yesterday we had to take Ebi-kun for his 3 year check up, all went well and he was given the all clear. His weight is bang on average and he is a bit taller than average - which surprised me, he always looks little when he is playing with his friends. What surprised yesterday was the number of boys screaming their heads off, all the girls were OK but it was the boys who didn't want to see the Dr/Nurse/Dentist, very odd.

After the check up daddy-ebi took Ebi-kun to play and I nipped to Nippori, well it wasn't so much of a nip, it took me the best part of 2 hours to get there are an hour and half to get back. I did come back with a lovely pile of C-U-T-E fabric, I am hoping the weather will be nice today so I can get the photos done and get it all up in the shop.

We were supposed to go and play at kodomo no shiro today but I woke up with no voice and Ebi-kun is a grumpy pants, he hasn't had an afternoon nap for 3 days and it has caught up on him, so I have decided a quite day would be better suited, he asked at breakfast if he can do some Montessori work :o).

Melissa asked how I made this surgeons scrubs outfit...

The pants I basically used this tutorial, I had used this to make shorts last summer so I actually did it from memory. This is a really easy way to make kids pants and if you have a few cut out at once it takes next to no time to whip them up.

The top (if you are professional clothes maker look away now!) I folded the fabric in half then place one of his baggy T-shirts folded in half on the top (folded edges aligned) and used it as a template to make the front of the shirt, adding a bit extra fro a seam allowance. Then I used the new cut piece as a template for the back of the shirt. For the sleeves I just guestimated the size and cut two rectangles but instead of cutting the top edge straight you need to have a curved edge, called a sleeve cap. As brilliant as this method of pattern making sounds, when I tried it on Ebi-kun, held together with a couple of pins it was way too small.  No problem! I cut a V in the front piece of the shirt and cut the 2nd piece in half, vertically. 

I sewed the sides and shoulders together then hemmed the neck line and the back pieces.

Then I made the sleeves - same method as in the link above and sewed them to the shirt.

Finally I folded over a piece of fabric so no raw edges were showing and sewed it, to make the ties for the back and added them to the shirt, so the back is basically open.

The hat, I made a band which would be long enough to tie once it was on his head. Then cut a large square, I cut a corner off the square and hemmed it all then sewed the cut off corner edge to the front of the band, it didn't quite work as well as I hoped, there is probably a much better method to make one! The mask I bought a pack of them from the ¥100 store.

Japanese people often wear masks to stop the spread of colds or in the spring when hay-fever is a problem.

I hope that all makes sense! I have started the stamp tutorial, will try and get it finished today.