Fun With Felt Pt. 3

 This is the third installment of my fun with felt series. We've already done felt food and felt play-mats. I was inspired for this next project because my sister in law, after seeing my own kids' Halloween costumes this year, jokingly asked me to make one for her 18 month old son. I don't think she expected that I really would! But once she told me he was going out dressed as a doctor, I had so many fun ideas running through my head, and I couldn't resist whipping something up.

Materials Needed:

• half yard of white felt materials from the bolt, not the little squares.
• scraps of other felt colors to make the Dr. tool accessories. You'll have plenty of white felt materials left over from your vest to make the pockets and Dr. accessories that need white.

First, cut out your vest using this tutorial here on danamadeit.com This is my go to vest for all things dress up. There are SO MANY variations to this vest (so far I've made a vest for Woody the Cowboy, a pirate, and now a doctor)  and it's so simple to make.

Once you have your vest pieces cut out, don't sew them together yet. First, add the dr. details. At the end I'll tell you the exact order and how I assembled my vest.

The hardest part of this project was getting the tools proportioned to the vest and to look good. I was inspired by this pin from the storytimekatie website. However, she said when she made the Dr tools she just printed out clip art images. I had a really hard time finding images that would work for what I wanted/needed so I just freehand drew my own. But the good news is, you don't have to! Drawing and erasing and redrawing took a lot of work, so I made sure to save my patterns. All you need to do is print the patterns out on a regular-sized piece of printer paper.

Click HERE to get the pattern

The easiest way to make your dr. accessories is to print them on paper or cardstock, cut them out and then pin them to your material and cut them out using a good pair of sewing scissors. The reflex hammer-thing (what is that thing actually called?) is two pieces. I just sewed the grey part over the top of the blue part. The eyelight is one piece of black felt with a tiny circle cut out of white felt. The band-aid is flesh colored felt, a square of white felt and a red felt heart on top. I secured the white pad and red heart to the "band aid" separately before I sewed the entire thing to the vest.

 I didn't include the cross with my pattern, but you can print out or draw a plus sign on a piece of paper and use that. For the medicine bottle, I cut out the entire bottle on white felt then cut out just the lid on gray and sewed it on. then cut out just the bottle shape on pink and sewed it on. The thermometer is all on white and I used red and black markers to add the details.

 The stethoscope was tricky. It's 3 pieces. I sewed the back piece on first. then I lined up the two side pieces so it would look like all one piece. I cut the entire stethoscope out using black felt. I sewed the grey circle over the black one for the little pump. For the ear pieces, I cut just the U shape out in gray, then I actually trimmed the black U shape down so I could lay the black piece on top of the gray U. I hope that makes sense. The gray U shape kind of comes over the middle of vest, so I hand sewed just the "ear pieces" in place.

Tips for assembling the vest:

• Sew the back piece of stethoscope first. Then line up the two side pieces and pin in place so it looks like one piece. sew the two side stethoscope pieces in place.
• Sew the red cross on the back
• sew the red cross on the front
• pin all your dr. accessories (except the band aid) in place. Sew them.
• cut your pockets to the size you want. Place them over the accessories and pin and sew pockets in place (leave the top of the pockets open)
• Pin and sew the band-aid in place.
• Sew your vest together. Don't forget to sew it right sides together so your shoulder and side seams are hidden!

It's always fun to see an idea become a reality. I thought this vest turned out really cute and I sure hope my little nephew loves it. Don't forget to visit my etsy shop to see if anything catches your eye. Thanks for stopping by!