New scrub shirt for my buddy!

My buddy's birthday is coming up, and I'm still slowly filling her Christmas/birthday box. I bought this fabric for her back in 2016 (yeah, I'm already beating myself up about waiting so long), so it was well past time. This is one of the projects I cut during quarantine, then didn't finish for a long time. But here I am. I'm still easily exhausted, so instead of being a one-night project, it was spread out over four nights.  But now it's done and ready!

This is McCall 9123, my standard scrub shirt pattern for years. I used Kaddidlehopper's tutorial for binding the neckline. And I left off the lower pockets (she doesn't use them) but made an excellently pattern-matched upper chest pocket. No, really - you can't see it until you blow up the pic and look for the stitching lines! I'm so proud.....

I have hopes of getting a matching mask and possibly scrub cap out of this - we'll see if I can get that done this weekend, because the box needs to go out next week!

 

A new scrub shirt!

This was a recent birthday gift.  One of my friends on an online sewing group was destashing her mom's sewing stash, and when I saw this print, I knew it'd be perfect for a new scrub shirt for my mom.  Though it wasn't done for her birthday, it was done and mailed in time for her to wear it to their church's yearly VBS program.  (Apparently her fellow volunteers and the kids keep track from year to year whether I've made her any new scrub shirts?)

So Tigger is of course colorful and adorable on his own merit....but I discovered after prewashing the fabric that I didn't have enough to also make the bias binding for the neckline from the main fabric.  Instead, I stole from fabric designated for a different fabric (don't worry, it's at the local JAF - I can get more!) to make the bias binding.  Then, I figured that to tie it together, I should also use it for the tops of the pockets.  Makes it look intentional, and added bonus that it's easier to find the pockets in the busy print!  

No pattern matching here for the pockets - the print was busy enough.  And I think the orange tonal print looks great against the blue background and Tigger.

I hope everyone really likes this one!

More scrub shirts!

So back in December of 2007, I made a Jeff Gordon scrub shirt for one of my techs - someone who looooves NASCAR and Jeff Gordon in particular.  And she dearly loved it, and I saw it in frequent rotation.  Then last September, I was in town for a conference, and I happened to see her still wearing it!  And, oh, how ratty it was looking!  I suggested it was time for retirement, and I was told that she couldn't retire it, because she couldn't get a replacement.  (Apparently they don't make NASCAR scrubs?)  And the tech beside her helpfully told me that she wears it every Friday, and that she tells everyone that I made it for her.  Gulp.  Did I mention it looks really ratty now?  So, as one can imagine, I got onto the internet that night and looked for some new Jeff Gordon fabric.  And it arrived less than a week later, got prewashed, and there it sat.

Until now.  Since I was pulling out the scrub shirt pattern for my mom, I decided to cut out a couple of other ones.  This was first on my list - no occasion, really.  I just wanted it done and out the door so she will hopefully burn the old one. :)  I put in the lower pockets but left off the upper one.  I'm really happy with how it looks, and I hope that she will be over the moon to get a surprise replacement.

Last July, I was in need of some retail therapy, and so of course I went to the fabric store.  With grand intentions of sewing some new scrubs for myself, I bought two prints for tops and three solids for bottoms.  And there it has stalled....until now.  I chose this for the first top to stitch up for myself, simply because I could use black serger thread on both this and the Jeff Gordon top.  I left off the lower pockets but put in the upper pocket, to hold a pen.  And I didn't bother pattern-matching, because it is such a busy print.  Think I'm going to have some fun wearing this one!

Now let's see how long it'll take me to work on the others....

Birthday scrub shirt

I've made my mom scrub shirts in the past, but mostly pre-blog, I guess.  The only one I've previously blogged was, ironically, a Suzy's Zoo print, and that was four years ago.  So when she wrote that she still wore them and hinted that she would like another, I figured it was time....

She likes Thomas Kinkade prints, and I actually have two TK prints in the stash, intended for scrub shirts for her.  But then I was at the local quilt store on New Year's Day for their sale, and I found new Suzy's Zoo fabric from Hoffman Fabrics!  Well, that settled it!  I bought the brightest print they had with the intent of making a scrub shirt for Mom's birthday.  Between the end-of-school craziness and all the other deadlines I had, I basically made this shirt at the last minute to get it mailed out in time.  But finish on deadline I did!

I'm really happy with how it turned out - I left the lower pockets in, and my pattern matching was near perfect.  I've had issues with some of the quilt basting spray not washing out of my pockets very well, so this time I used Steam-A-Seam to secure the pockets before I stitched them in place.  It worked well, and I'm very happy with how it all looks.  I hope that my mom loves it.

And there's my adorable Cooper getting his face into the picture!

New scrub shirts!

My friend who loves walruses has a birthday this month - she's the one who got the walrus PJ pants for Christmas.  And I had the passing thought that it would be great to give her a walrus scrub shirt, but I'd never seen walrus fabric (other than that flannel).  Without much hope, I gave eBay a try, and I was stunned to find ONE source of walrus print fabric!  I ordered two yards (these shirts take 1.5) and was extremely happy with my find.  I made this from M9123, which appears to be out of print, but there should be plenty of other basic scrub shirt patterns around to choose from.  I used Kadiddlehopper's "Bound Neckline on Scrubs" tutorial again - I love how it looks!  This one does not have a chest pocket - the pattern repeat is quite large, and even though I had extra fabric, I didn't have the right picture in the extra fabric.  I even looked to see if I could put the pocket on the other side, but no luck.  Oh, well....my friend only wears her scrub shirts in surgery, so it's not like she really needs a pocket.  And I thought the print was way too large and awesome to have the jarring effect of a non-matched pocket on it.

Since I was in the scrub shirt sewing mode, I figured that it would be nice to have a new scrub shirt for myself!  I had two nice prints to choose from - this and a dolphin print (that may be up next!) - but decided on this one because it matches the dark green scrub pants I recently completed (apparently I didn't blog them).  This fabric has been in my stash for at least 2.5 years, maybe longer.  I bought it with the intent of making a scrub shirt, though I don't remember for sure now whether I had intended it originally for me.  At any rate, I thought it would be a fun change for surgery, so off I went.  Details are the same as the walrus one, except that the neckline is bound with green broadcloth left over from the pants, and there is actually a chest pocket.  (I barely eked a pattern-matched pocket out of my leftovers - phew!  Because I wear these all day, and I definitely need a place to keep a pen.)

I'm really happy with how these turned out, and I can't wait to wear mine to surgery and hear how my friend likes hers!  This kind of put me back in the mood to sew scrub shirts, so there may be more coming up soon....But right now I'm switching gears to Bible costumes.  Need to stitch up some of the sheets (used for inexpensive, durable fabric) currently occupying my sewing room floor!

November birthdays....

November is a great month to have a birthday. My DH (fittingly) was born on Nov. 10, the Marine Corps birthday. I had intended to have another KS 2935 shirt ready for him, but it just wasn't happening. So instead, I (fittingly) bought him the BluRay boxed set of the HBO miniseries The Pacific. (It worked out to sort of be a birthday present for me, as well - I'm a Veteran's Day baby.) We've been watching that at night, and we just finished it the other night. Now we just have the Special Features disk to go.

My brother was born Nov. 13, and I have told him for years that he was the worst birthday present I ever received. :) Feel the love, right? Well, this year, instead of the traditional boxers or PJ pants, I decided it was time to make him a Hawaiian shirt. I found a loud rayon challis on sale at HF a few months ago, and I cut it out during my time in the lab (while waiting for stuff to finish so that I could do the next stuff). I have since discovered that rayon challis would benefit from starch, and that next time, I won't cut it out, wad it up in a bag, and let it sit for months before sewing. (I had to recut both collar pieces because they wouldn't fit the interfacing pieces.) Oh, well....he still loves the shirt and tells me that it'll be perfect for the office Christmas party at the bowling alley. This is KS 2935, size XL. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, and more importantly, it's done!

My best friend from high school has been the recipient of many sets of scrubs. And she loves the Peanuts gang. So when I find Peanuts fabric on sale, I get at least enough to make her a scrub shirt. I don't remember where I got this fabric - maybe WM before they got rid of their fabric - but it was cut out for over a year before it was finished (it was supposed to be her birthday present last year - oops!). With the Hawaiian shirt also taking orange serger thread, I decided to finally finish this and get it out of the UFO box, just in time for her pre-birthday visit. Hooray! This is M9123, size S.

Odds and Ends

First up, finished items! As I am transitioning into surgery four days a week at an animal shelter, I have a need for more scrubs. I finished a shirt (M9123) using a cotton print I bought at least five years ago at a WM in Mississippi, planning to use it for a friend. Well, now I decided it was here and would be used by me! I have already worn it to work once and was asked where I buy my scrubs. ;) For this, I also used the bound neckline and pattern-matched the upper pocket. I have decided for the moment that I don't really need the lower pockets for surgery, so I'm leaving them off. Instead, an upper pocket for a pen and a cargo pocket on the pants for a cell phone, and I'm good to go.

Next, the second pair of solid shorts for Thing 1. I bought a khaki twill on sale at JAF and used B3475 again. This time, I shortened the pattern by two inches. I think I will shorten it another inch on the next pair. I didn't shorten the pockets or alter the placement, but I think I need to raise the placement a little for the next pair, so that the pockets aren't below the hem.

I lined the pocket flap again. I am a little annoyed with myself, because I didn't look at the previous pair to see how I did the stitching. On the previous pair, I echoed the double topstitching on both pocket and flap, but this time, I did single topstitching on the flap. I definitely don't think that this pair looks as good. Oh, well....next time.And what's to come? Well, I'm currently working on inventing a padded case for Thing 1's Didj. He really likes playing with it but has no case in which to store it or the games. We just discovered that he has lost one game in the last several months, so I upped this in the priority list. So far, I have quilted the fabric with two layers of Warm&Natural batting in between and bound all the raw edges of the pieces with black swimsuit fabric, as I am not lining it. I plan to install a zipper in the main compartment, and I am adding a zippered pocket to each side, for storing games and headphones. I hope to finish it today.

I also found a blog tutorial for making toy sacks with clear plastic windows, to see what toys are inside. Eureka! This may be the thing for attempting to contain all the toys on the toy table. I've got two sacks cut out and in the process of being made. I have a bunch more planned, too. I'm using prints from my stash for the outside and solid broadcloth for the lining. I even had tablecloth vinyl in my stash already! I am so convinced that this will go well, that I bought more solid broadcloth on sale at JAF this week. But the two in progress are completely from stash, and I'm making both at once because I'm using the same lining and thus can use the same color thread for topstitching. I'm okay with some assembly-line work.

Otherwise, there's more scrubs in the line-up, so hopefully I'll have a new top and pants to wear to work this week.

Yep, another scrub shirt....

Since I was working on the horse scrub shirt for my stressed out friend, I figured that I might as well do two at a time, and I cut out this shirt for another friend. (This, however, really will be kept for the going away time.) Despite doing a food animal internship, this friend is truly a Dog Vet, and in fact I nicknamed her the Dog Vet Intern in my short-lived facebook journal of my adventures. So I thought this fabric would be especially appropriate. (The fabric was originally purchased to be a scrub shirt for our technician, who deals with a lot of the dog breeding, but I can't figure out - without asking, which embarrasses me - whether she doesn't wear the skull scrub shirt I made her because she doesn't like it or because it's the wrong size, so I wasn't going to make another.) Personally, I thought the fabric was kind of hideous in the flat stage, but it's kind of grown on me since it became a scrub shirt. I hope that she will like it!
Again, the neckline is from Kadiddlehopper's tutorial, and I dare you to find the upper pocket. :)

Up next? Still finishing the scrub jacket for my friend - that one just needs hems and cuffs, but I haven't yet gotten cuff fabric - the next sizes of shirts for the monsters, new monster PJs, and new summer pants. I think that's all that I've cut out so far....

A new way to make a scrub shirt....

I have a friend who had a very stressful surgery on Saturday, so I decided that she needed a new scrub shirt to cheer her up. I had just the print in my stash, so I whipped it up Sunday and presented it to her Monday morning, much to her surprise! I used Katie Kadiddlehopper's tutorial for making a "Bound Neckline on Scrubs" and think it looks really nice!

And I totally pattern-matched the pocket:And here's what the whole thing looks like! She loves it and wore it the next day. Nothing more gratifying than that, is there? No question of whether she liked it. :)

I have another scrub shirt coming up, and I just cut out the next shirt sizes for Things 1&2. We'll see how quickly those work up. And DH is going to get his next shirt soon, too. I think this one will be grey.

Scrub shirt marathon complete....

Well, mostly, anyway. Though technically, the other scrub item I was working on was a scrub jacket, so the scrub shirt marathon is complete. But I digress....First up, the masterpiece, the Beatles scrub shirt!


I think it turned out really well. And check out the awesomeness that it the matched pocket! Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the pocket was standing slightly away from the shirt when I took the picture, so this doesn't do it justice. From a small distance, you really can't see the pocket.My friend was super excited to get it - not the least because she had given up that I'd ever actually make it. She was thinking that the fabric would be willed back to her. :) It was a great surprise.

Next up, Taz, for my friend's husband:

Then Suzy's Zoo, for my mom:

Followed by McDs, for my friend. This one will probably go into the mail Monday as a Nurses' Day gift. It'll make her laugh. :)

All the scrub shirts are M9123, except Taz, which is M2834 (same thing, but bigger size).

Progress update....

Four scrub shirts finished! These are for some colleagues at work. The dalmation shirt is for a good friend and colleague - she used to have two dalmations, now only one. The Jeff Gordon shirt is for one of our vet techs - she's a huge Jeff Gordon fan. I think she'll light up the place every time she comes in wearing it. ;) The horse print shirt is for a fellow resident who is an equine vet, and the skulls print (a Halloween special at Wal-Mart - wish I'd gotten enough for a shirt for me!) is for our other vet tech. She seemed really into the fabric when I originally bought some to make a chemo cap for a friend, so I went back and bought more to have enough for a scrub shirt for her. (In case anyone's interested, I make my scrub shirts from McCall patterns - 9123 for sizes S-L and 2834 for XL-XXL - but I use the Simplicity pattern directions for attaching the V-neckbands.)

I pretty much followed the pattern on these, with the obvious caveat that I used contrast fabric in the dalmation shirt. And I have started lengthening the pockets so that I can incorporate the bottoms of the pockets into the hem - much easier! On these, I also used quilt basting spray to attach the pockets prior to top-stitching. I like that! I'll definitely do it in the future, but I also have to remember to allow enough time to wash the shirts before wrapping them. Otherwise people are taken aback to find that the pocket is stuck to the shirt. lol

I have made progress in the queue, but there's much more to go. My next projects (partially started) are 1 pair of adult PJ pants, 1 pair of toddler PJ pants, 2 pairs of boxers, 2 fleece chemo caps, and 1 pair of toddler fleece pants. We'll see how much I can get done today....