Mask sewing tutorial

As there are many people out there who want to make mask but don’t know how to start, here is an easy step by step tutorial to follow so you can make your own masks – either for you, your family and friends or to donate to a place where needed. If there is a place you know is in need of masks, let us know and we will put a link below!

What do I need?

cotton fabric, washable with 90°C (old bed sheets, tea towels,… stay away from elastics)
thread
paper
scissors (and/or rolling knife if you have one)
sewing pins
ruler
pen
(wire)

How to start…

First of all we’re making our sewing pattern. Don’t worry. It’s really easy.
Take a pen and draw a rectangle with 17x18cm
The short sides are top and bottom, the long sides are left and right.

When you’re done with that, measure 3cm from the top and draw a line, then after 2cm draw another one and after 2cm another one and so on until you have 6 lines.

Now let’s prepare the ribbons. For your mask you will need 4 ribbons with 4cm width.
Two of them with a legth of 10cm and the other two about 85cm-90cm.
The long ones are going to be the long pieces you tie around your head.
I cut them with a rolling knife but you can easily use scissors as well.
If you are too lazy, get prepared ribbons with a width of 2cm in that case you can skip the next step.

Skip this if you bought ribbons at the store:
Now that you cut your ribbons you need to fold them in the middle, iron them, open them and fold the sides to the middle. Then fold and iron them again. You should now have ribbon of about 1cm width.

Let’s go on with the pattern now. Put down your fabrics so it lies double and you can cut two pieces at the same time (if your fabric has two different sides, put the sides you don’t want to see together). Pin your pattern down and cut it.
When you’re done, before taking off the pattern make small cuts into your fabric (~3-5mm) where you drew the lines on your pattern.

After that detach the pattern. Your fabric should look like this now with the small cuts on each side.
Because my sides both look the same I made a pink X on the back side (making it also easier for you to follow this tutorial)

Next step is making the folds. Keep the fabric double, the front facing you. Fold down the upper part at the third cut.

Then fold it upwards at cut two. Cut one should now align with cut three.

Do the same with cuts 4-6. Fold down on 6, fold up on 5 and 4+6 should now align. Pin it down.
Iron it and it should look like this:

Sew together the folds

Now it’s time for the ribbons! Take a 10cm ribbon and turn your mask around. Now fold your ribbon open and pin it to the back side of your mask. Sew in the folding crease.

Then turn around your mask again, fold the ribbon around and sew it from the front, so it looks like the following image. Do that on both sides.

Now take the long ribbon, turn your mask around again so you look at the back of it. Search for the middle of mask and ribbon and pin it down on top, sew it like you did with the sides.

Then turn it around, fold down the ribbon and sew from the end of the ribbon, through the mask and to the other end of the ribbon so everything is held in place. Proceed like that with the bottom of the mask as well.

Hem the ends of the ribbons. I used a zigzag stitch for that.

Now your mask is done!

In case you want to donate it, some organizations only accept them if there is a place to put a wire through. So we’ll show you how to make that.

Take a piece of cotton. Cut a 2,5x10cm piece and hem the short sides, then fold and iron it.
Sew the long sides together. Don’t close the short sides! Otherwise the wire can’t be put in.