Since completely stopping making face masks in the end of September, 2020, not a day has gone by without customers coming in still looking for them. We truly appreciate that they sought us out, most mentioning that our masks were “the best”. Thus, it made us all the more sad to disappoint as we had no more masks to offer. With life in our Atlantic bubble moving along, it just wasn’t possible to continue making them.
To those who are handy with the sewing machine and would like to make their own masks, here is a little tutorial to help you get started. We have replenished our Japanese fabric stocks and have a lot of fat quarters to offer. (What is a fat quarter?)
Special Limited Offer: When you purchase fat quarters at the shop, do let us know if you are planning to make masks out of them. For each purchase of our fat quarter fabric, we will throw in 1.5m length of the elastic cord for FREE. This offer is good while supply lasts.
Let’s get started!
This tutorial will help you make a double-layered, pleated face mask with approximate dimensions of 18cm x 9cm. The choice of fabric material is really up to you. We went through a lot of trial-and-error to choose what we thought was best. We used 100% cotton fabric on all our masks.
0. Materials
2 pcs fabric cut 18cm x 19cm
(One piece will be the front and the other will be the back. You can use the same pattern for front & back too. The masks will be reversible.)2 pcs fabric cut 12cm x 5cm
(These will be your bias strips so we recommend the pattern to be the same as the front pattern of your mask)2 pcs elastic cord 28cm length
Fig 1 Mask materials
1. The Mask Body
Place the 2 big fabric pieces one on top of the other with the “front” of each fabric inside, i.e not showing. (Basically, this is the mask inside-out.)
Make sure they are aligned flush.
Stitch together along the top & bottom edges with a 0.5cm seam allowance.
Fig 2 Stitching the mask together.
2. Pleating
Turn the mask back to its normal position so that the seam allowances are now in the inside. (i.e. no longer inside-out)
Put marks on both side edges of the mask on the appropriate places as shown in Fig 3.
Fold the mask (both layers together) across on each of the marked points. Iron the creases to make them more prominent. (Fig 4)
Use sewing pins to keep the creases in place. (Fig 5)
Stitch across the creases at about 0.5cm from the mask edge on both sides. (Fig 6)
Fig 3 Marks for pleating
Fig 5 Sewing pins to keep creases in place
Fig 4 Make creases on the marks
Fig 6 Stitch the creases together
3. The Bias Strip
Take the smaller piece of fabric and put it under the mask. Make sure both are front facing. (Fig 7)
Align the smaller piece flush along the side edge of the mask. Place it centred vis-a-vis the top-bottom edges of the mask.
Fold both the protruding top & bottom excess fabric towards the mask and stitch them together all the way down. The stitching should be at about 0.5cm from the mask edge (more or less on the same line as the stitching for the pleats). (Fig 8a & 8b)
Pull out the bias piece as shown in Fig 8c.
Fold the bias piece two times as shown in Fig 9a & 9b.
Stitch the bias piece in place. Do the same for the other side. (Fig 10)
Fig 7 Placing the bias strip
Fig 8a Sewing on the bias piece
Fig 8b Bias piece is sewn on
Fig 8c Pull out the bias piece
Fig 9a Fold
Fig 9b Fold again
Fig 10 Stitch the bias strip
4. The Elastic Cord
Use a needle or bodkin to thread the elastic cord through the bias strip. (Fig 11)
Tie the cord together and hide the knot under the bias strip. Do it on the other side too!
Fig 11 Threading the elastic cord
And there you have it!
Fig 12 Face mask completed!
Extra notes:
For cotton face masks, we recommend washing in cold water and hanging to dry. Putting it in the dryer may cause shrinking.
The recommended length of 28cm for the elastic cord should be more than enough. You can always shorten it if it’s too loose. It’s harder to loosen it up if it is too tight!
We hope this helps. Stay safe!