Apr 23, 20203 min read

Craft Nights: D.I.Y. Medical Mask

Good night! I'm not really sure what to say because in the morning I would say good morning as a greeting but good night is more of a goodbye-type phrase. Oh well. Anyways...I am proud to share with you, my first post on my new series: Craft Nights. This is so exciting! The whole idea of this isn't for you to have a list of tutorials, but for us to all craft together. Instead saying "here's this thing that you can try," it's "hey there, come try this out with me." So let's get right to it.

The Craft: D.I.Y. Medical Mask

This is a great craft for so many reasons: you can donate your mask, you can wear your mask, and you can use that sewing machine in your closet that hasn't been touched for 2 million years.

P.S. I got this tutorial from sarahmaker.com. Here is the link if you want to watch her easy to follow video: https://sarahmaker.com/how-to-sew-a-surgical-face-mask-for-hospitals-free-pattern/

Get your materials

Fabric (according to the CDC, cotton and other tightly woven fabrics are best, NPR also adds that denim is another good option)
Thread
Ruler
Cloth Ribbon
Scissors
Pins
Chopstick

Sew the mask- each number coordinates with each picture

Cut the tea towel to be 8.5" by 16"
Fold the tea towel so that it looks closer to a square than a skinny rectangle. Mark (with pins) a 2" space in the center of the top
Sew the top, except for the space in between the pins.
You will now have an opening.
Sew down the sides. They are supposed to lay flat, I made the mistake of sewing along the outer edge instead of a little inwards.
Sew the right and left sides down. You should now have no open edges.
Snip the corners (only a little) and fold it inside out. You may need a chopstick to push out the corners.
Fold over the top and bottom and stick in the edges of 4 pieces of 18" cloth ribbon on each corner.
Make three marks and fold them up, holding them with pins. Note: I didn't cut off the edge of the tea towel which made it hard to sew over edges. Therefore I could only make two pleated folds.
Sew down the sides, securing your pleats.
This is a picture of the back side, it didn't come out as neat as the front. Oopsies.
This is the opening in the back which you can use to put in a real mask. Note: this opening is optional.

You're all done!

Congratulations, you created your very own mask. Now there's only one thing left to do, wear it, or call your local hospital to see if they're accepting donations.

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Here is my finished mask, modeled by me

Notes:

I didn't cut off the edge of the tea towel at the beggining, this made it very difficult to sew over edges, make the pleats, and flatten down the opening
It was hard to sew in the ribbons. Elastic would have been much easier, the downside is not all elastics are washable. Ahh!
It was too big on me. I think this was because I only did two pleat folds and not three. I couldn't do three because the un-cut edges made it impossible.
Biggest problem: Un-cut edges of tea towel

P.S.

This was a super fun craft but I'm not going to lie to you, it took a ton of work! If you aren't up for that, here is how to make a two second mask with only two materials.