You meet lots of nice ladies at craft fairs who sell clothing, quilts, hats and other items they have lovingly hand-sewn, but this nice lady also happens to be a retired doctor.

Robyn Yim Pang, 51, followed her father and brother into the medical profession and became a doctor, specifically a clinical pathologist. Her career path took her to the very top level of the Blood Bank of Hawaii where, after nearly 15 years, she retired as president and CEO in 2012.

"I did nothing for a year," she said, explaining that her daughter had gone off to college and that she wanted to spend some time with her sons who were still in high school.

She then dived into manufacturing, combining her love of sewing and a desire to start her own business with the M.B.A. she had earned along the way.

She established RYP Designs LLC.

RYP has some retail accounts, such as at Na Makana and the gift shop at the recently reopened Paradise Park, at Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii at Ward Warehouse.

But in addition to her medical credentials, what also sets Pang apart from other handcrafters who sew is that she also makes customized items for sale in bookstores at Punahou and ‘Iolani schools.

"I like to focus on team spirit, groups and clubs," she said. "I’m finding fabrics that fit the club (or school) colors … and then I’ve started to develop embroidering as well," she said.

She just did a project for the Boston College Hawaii Club. "It’s unifying, if you all wear the same thing," she said.

She is working on another project for the Oahu College Band, which is essentially the pep band comprising Punahou alumni that plays at Punahou athletic events. "They’re funny. They have more fun than the kids," she said.

Of course, as alumni they’re not buckling under all those academic and social pressures they had in high school.

Part of that project involved helping to design a logo.

Pang is passionate about palaka, or what also is called Hawaiian plaid. "I’m trying to bring back palaka, putting a contemporary twist on classic palaka style," she said.

Pang uses palaka as the main fabric or trim fabric in shorts for women ($16) and girls ($14), as at least one side of her reversible bucket hats ($15) and men’s caps ($15), and to cover washable visors ($15), among other uses. She sews all of her products herself.

Thanks to a family member who surfs, the visors are catching on with other surfers. They do everything visors do — shield your eyes from the sun, hold your hair back and the like — but then when the surf session’s pau, "you throw ‘em in the wash and hang ‘em up," Pang said.

She makes aprons ($12) and pillows ($14, $16) and lap quilts ($25), which at 42 by 34 inches are a good size for babies or seniors; she makes drawstring bags ($14) and embroiders hand towels ($8); and, with an eye toward the Oahu plastic bag ban that takes effect July 1, she makes what she calls an Aloha Furo­shiki, which sells for $6. A furo­shiki is traditionally a square cloth used to transport items in Japan, by tying the diagonally opposing corners together to secure the items and form a handle.

Pang’s Aloha Furoshikis measure 36 inches square, are 100 percent cotton and therefore washable, and are "overstitched" for added strength. "I tested them on my mom and all my aunties, and they’re seniors," she said.

Coming from the medical profession as she did, Pang is very excited about her next niche area: scrubs. Not the kind that R&B group TLC doesn’t want, but the kind health care professionals wear.

"I have a new line of local-print scrubs I hope will take off," she said.

"So many nurses drown in their scrubs," she said. "These are a little more fitted but still very loose, allowing freedom of movement, and I think the fit will catch on."

It’s common to see female health care workers wearing cute fabrics, but most guys wouldn’t dream of donning Hello Kitty- or Toki­doki-type scrubs. For them, Pang will make scrubs with aloha shirt-printed fabric.

She also is looking at making pants for the scrubs.

"What I dream of is finding a vendor that will make fabric" according to her design specifications, and that she’ll be able to design fabric for a company or any entity, to create a personalized version of their scrubs, she said.

"I still volunteer-teach at the med school, to keep my brain moving that way, too," she said, but she has to laugh at her friends who rib her about going from "stabbing arms (at the Blood Bank) to stabbing fabric," she laughed. "I must still have a thing for needles."

"Buy Local" runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.