He's Free at Last!! Amblyopia patch pattern

My son, J, is finally free! For those of you who saw his picture in my "frost" blog entry you have seen the eye patch he has worn for 6 hours a day for the last 6 years. He has a lazy eye. Not an eye that wanders, but one that didn't want to focus or work. In 2005 his eyesight WITH glasses was 20/100...borderline legally blind. Uncorrected he would not have been able to get a driver's license.
Patching has been a very long, unhappy road for J. He hated wearing the patch, hated the attention it brought him when we were out and about, and hated the question "What happened to your eye?" every time we went out. To begin with he had to wear an adhesive eye patch. Picture a giant eye bandaid and that is about what it looked like. After a few years we found a website that was selling eye patches that fit over his glasses and looked a little more fun. At the time you could only order the eye patch off the internet. So I ordered one with a soccer ball (his favorite sport) embroidered on it. He was less hesitant to put it on and he looked less like he had an injured eye. This made life easier.
However, the patch wears out over time. It didn't look to complicated to make so I took it apart and modified the pattern so it would fit better and started making my own patches for him. He seemed to like this better because he went with me to purchase supplies, he picked out different colors, different embroidered patches to put on them etc. He personalized them.
The good news, earlier this week we went to his opthamologist. His vision is now 20/40 and has been for about the last year. We have been attempting to wean him off the patch so that we can ensure that his lazy eye will continue to function properly. At the visit the dr. released him! He now only has to go for yearly eye exams and can throw away all of his patches. His face lit up and I don't think his smile could have gotten any bigger! It was a wonderful day for him.
So in honor of his gift of freedom from the patch, I am sharing my pattern for his patch. I apologize that I don't have pics of it being made but my oldest, K, accidentally broke my digital camera so now pics until I can afford to get a new one.

Children's Eye Patch for Amblyopia
You will need:
1 piece of felt
piece of fusible web same size as felt
pattern that can be found here
scissors
thread to match felt
small embroidered patch of choice
Directions:
following the manufacturer's directions, fuse the fusible web to one side of the felt. Print out the pattern and check to make sure it printed the correct size. Cut out pattern pieces from the felt. Pin the dart area on the large pattern piece and sew along dotted lines. Cut excess material off the main body of the patch. Cut eye slit. If desired, sew embroidered patch to the center of the second pattern piece. Now place this piece behind the lens of the childs glasses. Cut remaining pattern piece and place on front side of lens and pin to main body of patch. Sew along dotted lines of top piece. Cut excess material off. To place on glasses, slide arm of glasses between the main body and the lens cover piece. Place nose piece in the slit of the main body of the patch.




Eye Patch for Amblyopia by Ginny Blankenship is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.