Mask Pattern

I started with the mask pattern shared online at https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/, but I made a bunch of modifications / adaptations to produce a handmade, fully washable, reusable mask with no disposable parts, that was as close to an N95 mask as I could make it.

Differences from the original:

• Added an interior felt layer to act as a droplet filter
• Added malleable wire over the nose bridge to allow a close fit to the face
• Elastic is sewn on directly, so that the sides of the mask do not gather under tension
• Added a "Large/Tall Man" size because the upper ear elastics were too low on my tall husband to fit comfortably over his ears

Required materials:

• Two felt liner pieces
• Two interior fabric pieces (I used muslin or quilting cotton)
• Two exterior fabric pieces cut as mirror images of one another (I used patterned quilting cotton)
• Two pieces of 5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon with length = 
• 3.0" for Tall/Regular Man mask
• 2.5" for Woman/Teen mask
• 2.0" for Child mask
• One piece of garden wire, or other thick but bendable wire with length = 
• 6" for Tall/Regular Man
• 5" for Woman
• 4" for Child
• Two pieces of flat elastic (lengths may vary and should ideally be measured to fit).  Estimates:
• 7.5" and 9" for Woman
• 8" and 10" for Man
• Child sizes vary with child age

Patterns: cut out 2 felt liners, 2 interiors, and 2 exteriors ---> make sure exterior (and any other fabric with a "right" side) pieces are cut as mirror images.  Click on the pattern images to get a link to a full-size PDF for printing.

When you have cut and assembled all your pieces, you should have this:

Use an open flame to melt the ends of the grosgrain ribbon so that it doesn't fray.

Stitch the grosgrain ribbon onto the edge of each felt insert, leaving about 1/2 inch between the end of the ribbon and the front nose bridge area.  Leave the edge near the nose bridge open, but secure the other three edges to the felt.  Make sure you stitch the ribbon onto mirror image sides of the felt!

When the ribbon is attached, place the felt on top of the interior lining muslin or cotton.  Set the felt about 3/8" from the curved edges (it will be farther from the straight side edge).

Attach the felt to the lining fabric.  Stitch about 1/4" inside the edge of the felt.  It's okay to overlap the attached ribbon, as long as the ribbon still has a wide enough opening to fit your wire inside.

When you've attached the felt, your two lining pieces should look like this:

Roll the side edges under so there are no raw edges visible, and topstitch down.

Now put the two sides together, felt side out.  Line up the felt along the long curved edge and stitch through both layers, right along the edge of the felt.  Make sure you stitch just a tiny bit on top of the felt, so that the seam captures the felt in it.  Turn the piece over and make sure your stitches also caught the felt on the back side.  If needed, stitch the seam again from the reverse side to make sure you've caught the felt in the seam on both sides.

Your attached pieces now look like this:

Hold your mask lining up to the light and look along the nose seam to make sure that the felt has been captured along the seam on both sides.  Anywhere you've missed the edge of the felt, you'll see a gap of light shining through along the seam---this is how virus droplets get in!  If you see gaps, stitch the seam again, making sure to catch the felt in the seam.

Use a pinking shears to trim the excess fabric off the inside of the nose seam.  You've now finished the mask lining!

Take the exterior fabric pieces.  Lay right sides together and stitch along the nose seam with a 3/8" seam allowance.

Take your fabric scissors and clip along the convex seam so that it will lie flat.  Be sure not to clip too far and cut into the seam!

Finger press the seam open and top-stitch to stabilize.  It's a little tricky to maneuver the concave fabric to stitch the seam, so go slow!

Now you have a finished exterior!

Tuck the exterior into the lining piece.  Make sure the right side of the exterior fabric is facing in to the smooth lining fabric (so the pieces are right sides together).  

Line up the center nose seam of the lining and with that of the exterior.  Pin (I've used clips) along the top seam line, starting from the aligned center and then out to the edge.

Sew the top seam together right at the edge of the felt.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end of this seam.  It makes it much easier to turn right-side-out in a few steps.

This time, your stitch line is just off the edge of the felt, so that the felt isn't bulky in the seam.  The video clip shows how you want to sew right against but not on the edge of the felt.

Remember to backstitch at the end of the seam.

Now align the bottom edge of the lining and the exterior.  Line up the central nose seams, then pin or clip out to the edges.

Sew the bottom edge, just outside the edge of the felt like you did on the top seam.  Make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end.

Now your mask pieces are connected together, inside out.

Take your piece of garden wire and fold it in half to find the middle.

Tuck each end of the wire into the grosgrain ribbon pockets on each side of the nose bridge, then slide the wire until it is fully inserted into the pockets.

Your inside out mask should now look like this:

Turn the mask right side out through one end.  It's a little tricky because of the bulky / stiff felt and the wire.  Go slowly.  

Once your mask is right side out, it will look like this:

Make sure the wire is still tucked into its ribbon pockets, and bend it back into the correct shape.  If the wire has slid out of one or both pockets during turning, carefully wiggle it back into place!

Now top stitch along the top and the bottom of the mask to get cleanly finished, turned edges.  Go slowly around the curvature of the nose.

Finally, roll the raw side edges under, fold over the lining, pin or clip in place, and top stitch down to make a finished edge with a little tube pocket along the sides of the mask.

The body of your mask is now finished!!  It should look like this:

The final step is to attach the elastic.  For adult masks, I like to sew flat 1/4" width elastic straight on to the mask.  You can also use one long piece of round elastic cord and thread it through the tube pockets on each edge of the mask (see original pattern).  I find that this tends to make the mask bunch along the sides and gives a less good air seal on the face, so I prefer to sew the elastic on as below.

Fold over the raw edges of the elastic.

Place the folded-over elastic on the edge of the mask and securely stitch to the edge of the mask.  The longer elastic goes on the top (nose) edge of the mask, and the shorter elastic goes on the bottom (chin) edge of the mask.  

I like to stitch the elastic on in a box shape, with an X down the center.

Once you've attached your elastic, you have a finished mask!

I like to machine wash and dry the masks hot before I give them to people.  This is helpful in a few ways:

• It removes the manufacturing starch / chemicals on the fabric that make it lie flat on the bolt so it won't irritate skin
• It proves to the recipient that the mask will survive a good hot wash

Stay safe and healthy out there!

Scrapping with guitars

I have trouble throwing away fabric.  I save scraps down to (probably ridiculously) small sizes: strips down to 1" in width and pieces down to about 1.5" square.  I store these small pieces in little ziploc bags by color.

I don't quilt as much as a lot of bloggers (full time job, 2-year-old), but even at the rate I go these little bags are starting to get pretty full.  Particularly the aqua one!

From time to time, I like to dump them out and choose a color way, then start piecing improv slabs.  Some of those I set aside with the idea of making a scrappy improv slab quilt someday.  Some of them I turn into baby bibs, like these.  

For this slab, I started with a few small pieces of Michael Miller's "Groovy Guitars" fabric left over from a quilt I made for my sister.  I grabbed some other small scraps in coordinating colors and started improv piecing.  I wound up with this:

My plan is to make it into a little zipper bag for my other sister, who plays the guitar.  I figure she can use it to hold random small music supplies (capo, tuning fork, etc) inside her guitar case.  Or if not, she'll have a cool guitar-themed bag to use for something else.  

My plan is to turn it into a boxy zipper pouch uses Jeni Baker's Triplizip pattern.  I've only every made one (super simple!) zipper pouch before, so it may not come out perfectly.  Hopefully it will be good enough to be loved.  That's all that matters, right?  

Linking up with Leanne and Nicky for Scraptastic Tuesday.  

More scrapping: bee blocks and bibs...

Last year, I participated in Stash Bee.  It was a lot of fun, so I'm doing it again this year.

It's also a great way to use scraps.  Since you're only making one block each month, you don't need very much of any one fabric (depending on the block) and queen bees often request something super scrappy.

This month, Kim (who is expecting a little girl) asked for string blocks made from gold, melon pink, and teal.  She plans to make a quilt to match her new nursery.  I was a little short of melon pink, so I cut one long string from stash, but all the other strings here are scraps:

I still have a lot of strings left, although not very many melon-pink ones!  This block was easy to improv.  I grabbed the strings I had in the appropriate colors, then sorted them by length.  

I had a little bit of trouble figuring out my method for this block, in terms of getting started.  What finally worked was: 

(1) Use tracing paper so that you can see through it.

(2) Draw a diagonal line down the center.

(3) Then draw a line 1/4" and 1/2" on one side of the center line.  

(4) On the side of the paper you *didn't* draw on, lay down your 1" white strip and your first colored strip.  They should line up with the 1/2"-from-center line.  Pin fabrics in place.

(5) Flip over, and sew along the 1/4"-from-center line. 

Once you have those first two strips on, everything can just be gauged off of the edge of the previous strip, so no further line-drawing is necessary.  By having the strings sorted by length, it's easy to grab the right length string as you go.

I did find myself pinning fabric-side-up, then having to flip the block over to re-pin fabric-side-down.  Anything else didn't stay in place well enough.

One note: the tracing paper shrunk noticeably during ironing.  So make sure your strings run a little bit off the edge of the paper in all directions!  That way, when you trim the block to the correct size at the end, you won't be scuppered by the shrinkage.

And... because Kim is having a little girl, I pulled out this scrap-slab that I made a while ago and turned it into a bib.  

I love these patchwork bibs, and they are a favorite way to use scraps!  Only when taking a picture of the bib and blocks together did I notice that they match!  I guess I can be really confident that Kim will like the color-scheme.  :-)

So bee block done in plenty of time!  Now I just have to remember to get it into the mail before everything gets late.  That's always where I fail...

Linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday with Leanne and Nicky:

The Sanctuary Quilt

A good friend of mine has been having a tough time lately.  There's been work stress, health problems, career changes for her and her husband, and a cross-country move.  All with two young children.  They've all had a tough time.  On top of it all, my friend isn't getting enough sleep because her 6-year-old daughter keeps waking her up in the night, almost certainly due to transition anxiety.

I can't solve any of these problems, but a wakeful little girl in need of comfort is just screaming out for a quilt!

So I made her one (of course).

This pattern is from Simply Modern Christmas, by Cindy Lammon of Hyacinth Quilt Designs.  I love how it features a large-scale print, but has plenty of other interest to it.  

I had been hoarding a yard of a beloved fabric (Sanctuary, from Kate Spain's Cuzco line) and this seemed like the perfect place to use it.  It's just right for a little girl, without being too cloyingly girly.

I had been wanting a chance to make a bunch more flying geese, since getting all inspired by the no-waste flying geese method I discovered last fall (fast! easy! so perfect they don't need trimming!).  This was a perfect chance---plenty of flying geese, but not too many to intimidate a novice.

I had a fitted sheet left over from the Target sheet set I bought to back my mom's Queen-size quilt and matching patchwork pillows---it was great to be able to use it up!  And a fun zigzag stripe for the binding---again, something in stash that I had *just* enough of.  

I was very happy with how this quilt came out.  It's a pattern I may find myself using again.  I was dedicated and the quilt went fast: the whole things was done in two weeks, in time to gift while my friend was in town.

And the recipient loved it.  She said hardly a word the whole time they were at our house, but when she unwrapped the quilt, she folded herself in it and stayed snuggled up in it for the rest of their visit. I hope it makes her feel hugged and snuggled.  At any rate, I hope it's something she can love about her new room.  Change is hard for anyone, especially a little kid.

My son wanted to participate in the photo shoot, with Olaf in tow (as usual, these days).

I love the way this quilt came out, but it wasn't hard to give away.  On the contrary, I felt like it was going to the best possible home.  I hope it gets loved for years to come.  There is no better fate for a quilt.