Face masks

Today’s mini sewing project was to make a couple of face masks for myself and my husband.

I had seen a video online and liked the look of how the mask was put together.  Here is a link for convenience.  https://vimeo.com/404059593

I cut all my pieces of fabric, using some fat quarters (FQ) I had in my stash.   You can make 2 from one FQ.   I found some coordinating fabric for the straps and cut 2” strips approximately 36” long.

I cut the FQ in to two, chose a batik style fabric as it’s easier to pleat.

Folded fabric in half and turned it right sides together, then sewed along the open end side to effectively create a tube.  Turned the fabric inside out so the good side was now to the front and back of the mask, pressed the material.  Turned the material round so the longest part was now facing towards me.   Then made four folded pleats, folding from the top down, using my fingers to hold pleats in places, took fabric over to my sewing machine and placed center of strap to the edge of mask, right sides together, then sewed a quarter inch seam down the strap, from the top of mask, securing the pleats in place, to bottom of mask.   Repeated process for the other side of mask.

Then I took material over to the iron and turned strap material over to the other side and then at the top of strap folded both raw edges into the center of the strap and pressed, went back to my machine folding the fold again, placed under machine, added a back stitch, sewed down the strap, onto the mask, off again right to the other end of the strap.   Finishing with a back stitch.   Repeated process for the other side.  To finish, straps I folded over the tops edges, twice, and hand sewed to avoid top edges fraying.

Here are some photos of the masks.

my husband, Gary, testing out his face mask 😷