Eeyore Lab Coat

Mad Lab Donkey #1

May 2005

Explanation

I do some work as a Mad Lab Rabbit for Looney Labs, running demos and tournaments, mostly at the Origins game convention. At events, we rabbits usually wear lab coats to identify ourselves as staff. That way, people can walk up to us and know we can answer their questions. (The picture at right shows me wearing this lab coat while running a CrackeD ICE tournament.)

I've had an official Mad Lab Rabbit coat for several years, and had it personalized with my name for most of that time, but it's still just a white lab coat. I decided I wanted something even more personalized. Something that was still a lab coat, but was quite distinctly my lab coat. I resolved to make an Eeyore Lab Coat. It would mostly be a normal lab coat, but gray like the sad donkey, and with a removable tail.

This would also give me the opportunity to do some things like add some extra pockets that a standard lab coat does not have.

Materials

Mostly, it's just gray cotton fabric from the quilting section of the fabric store. I wanted to use a cotton/polyester blend so that I would not have to iron it, but I couldn't find anything suitable. The tail is made out fabric, with a bow made out of red cotton fabric and a fringe made out of some black wooly yarn. The tail is actually removable, held on with button.

There are three different sizes of button used in the coat. The buttons up the front are 3/4 inch button, the button closing the breast pocket is 5/8 inch, and the button holding on the tail is 1 1/8 inch. All three are the same style, however.

The Process

It's almost entirely just following the directions of McCall's pattern 9123. This is a pretty easy pattern except for one tricky bit around the collar that I decided to do a different (easier) way. I would recommend this pattern to just about anyone.

Besides the tail and collar, the main divergences are:

• The pocket bands are interfaced for stiffness.
• Each of the lower pockets has a smaller pocket inside, so that certain things I carry in them don't slip all the way to the bottom.
• There's a pocket inside the lab coat, behind the breast pocket.
• The breast pocket is closed with a button.

I'm really happy with this project. I got a lot of compliments on it at Origins. Next year, maybe something wild!