Basic Mask (Tutorial)

If you have nothing but a pillowcase and a travel sewing set (probably stolen from some hotel ;)) this is the mask for you. 

BTW: This is the last resort if you don't have acces to FFP masks, surgical masks or Vacuum filter bags.
If you are interested, please read about the scientific basis here.

Major improvement: If you can manage to add a wire the fit will be much better! If at all possible please try to add a wire. See here for detailed construction

You will need:

• Needle and thread
• Pillow case
• T-shirt (thicker stable material is easier to sew)
• sissors
• A printed out version of the sewing pattern

A few pointers for handsewing (if you don't own a sewing machine):

DO NOT do a running stich. It's super lose and thats not something you want for a mask

Instead do a backstitch. Step 1: push your needle through the fabric as shown.

Step 2: slide the thread all the way through

Step 3:stick your needle in where you first entered the fabric

Step 4: Come to the other side aproximately after the same length

Once again going back

Once you are done your line of stitching is hopefully neater than mine

it looks like this from the back. See how strong that seam is?

Step 1: Cutting your fabric:

You will only need these two pieces for the basic mask:

I am using a pillow case as my outer fabric and a t-shirt as my inner layer.

Put your pattern piece on the outer fabric (that will be the fabric that you will be able to see from the outside). You need 2 pieces. If you want to cut both pieces at once fold your fabric in half and cut through both layers.

Cut around it. I am using a rotary cutter here because it is fast and precise. But you can of course use sissors as well. Remember to cut two pieces that are mirror images of each other. If you have trouble cutting around your patterns pin it onto your fabric, that way it won't slip around

Now cut the piece at the dotted line to form the lining piece (if you plan to make more masks, you can also just fold it out of the way). We will cut our lining pieces from the T-shirt next.

I folded my t-shirt fabric in half so that I can cut two layers at once.

Put your lining piece down and cut around it like we did with the outer fabric

Lastly we will cut the nose pad. You just need one.

Check if you have everything cut out. 

Pin your pieces together with right sides facing each other (that means that the pretty sides are on the inside)

If you choose to sew by hand you make your life a lot easier be marking your seam lines with eraseable pen first. The seam line is 1 cm in from all sides

Sew a line of stitching 1 cm from the edge (outer fabric and lining both)

Clip into the curve on your outer fabric. Make sure that you don't cut through your stitches. 

Iron the seam of your fabric open

While you are at the ironing board, fold the edges of the lining piece over by a little bit and iron them in place

Now we are going to join the two pieces together. Pin them at the top and bottom with the right sides facing each other.

There should be a 2-2.5cm gap at the ends

When you pin at the seam that we sewed before make sure to spread it out like this, to prevent the fabric from bunching up while sewing

After stitching it should look like this. Note that the sides are left open.

Turn your mask inside out and iron it to make the edges neat.

We are going to prepare the nose padding now:

You should start with a 10x6cm rectangle

Iron it in half to form a crease in the middle

Unfold and fold the top and bottom edge towards the middle

Fold the whole thing along the middle to encase the raw edges

Sew it shut

Pin the nose pad in place and sew in by hand

If you are wondering why we sew the nosepad to the lining just at the lower edge: that way it can bend towards your face and mold to your nose shape.

Here you can see even better that the nose pad bends towards my nose. 

It should look somewhat like this

fold the edge of your outer fabric over by a little bit and iron in place

Fold the outer fabric all the way over the lining fabric, iron in place. Then stitch it down along the edge. 

it should look like this now

it will look like this from the outside

The only thing left to do is threading in either ribbon or elastic -> Click here for different closure options.

If you want to know how best to care for your mask click here.