I made 20 masks using a video how-to, and I thought I was going to go out of my mind. The method was way too fiddly and there wasn’t any way to streamline it. I ran out of bias binding. I don’t want to go to the store to buy more, and I’m supposed to stay at home, and with limited income, I don’t want to spend money on craft supplies. If you are like me, you have YARDS of fabric and plenty of thread, but not much tape or binding. There has to be a better way.
Here’s one better way to make fabric masks quickly, using supplies you have in stash. (The short form is at the bottom for people who don’t need to see all the steps.)
This will make sense after you make a few masks: 45″-wide yardage makes two strips of masks (15″ wide each strip) and a fair number of ties. You may need extra ties, so every few lengths of yardage, make one strip of masks and two sets of ties. Old flat sheets make a TON of masks.
Masks are about 9 x 7.
Cut a piece of fabric 15” wide, and as long as you have, in 9″ increments (quarter yard). For six masks, the piece should be 54”.
Do the math, or let your kids do it as home schoolwork.
Fold it in half lengthwise, right side in, and sew the bottom edge. The fold will be at the top of the mask. If you want to make masks with openings for pockets, measure the length and mark the fabric so that you stitch the first 3″, skip 3″, and then alternate stitching 6″ and skipping 3″ for the length of the strip.
Turn and press the tube. Put the fold on the top and the seam at the bottom. Then, fold the strip in half lengthwise, and press again. Trim the ends if needed.
Trim the ends if needed.
Fold the edges back, away from the center, to form a W fold.
Cut the folded strip into eight pieces. You can do this simply by folding the strip in half, and half, and half. The exact size of each mask is not critical.
Form a box pleat from the center fold.
//It’s OK to skip the wire step. It’s fiddly, and I’m not convinced it adds enough value to be worth the time. Plus, you’re going to run out of pipe cleaners before you run out of fabric, probably. //
If you are using wire, slip a 7” piece of very soft florist wire or a pipe cleaner into the top of the mask along the fold. (The wire slides in more easily along the fold than along the seam line.)
Stitch a channel to keep the wire against the fold. 32-gauge wire is too soft to push into a narrow channel, so insert the wire first, then stitch. The trick to making these quickly is to stitch all 8 masks, one after the other, without clipping the sewing thread. You don’t even have to backstitch because the channel ends will be covered by the ties.
Cut 16 pieces of fabric about 1.5” wide and 31” long. Use pinking shears. These strips will be the ties for the mask. (This solves the problem with running out of bias tape.) You can cut the strips with a rotary cutter. // Don’t tear them; they’ll fray and tickle the person wearing the mask.// At 60+ masks completed, I am tearing these strips. I pull off the long threads that come with tearing. I don’t have time to cut them individually and tearing works well enough. //
Take a 31” strip and center it over one raw edge of the mask. (If you’re fancy, give an extra inch on one side because you need longer strips to tie over your head than your neck.) Fold the strip over the edge, catching it in place with more pins. Pin all 16 strips to the masks, one strip at each side of each mask.
At your machine, zig zag the strip to the edge of the mask, making sure to catch both sides of the strip. Use a wide stitch and backstitch at each edge of the mask. You do not need to stitch the rest of the strip. As you finish one edge of the first mask, feed the next mask into the needle so there is only a stitch or two between them. Repeat.
When you get to the end of the first side of all masks, pull the other edge of the last mask around and under the presser foot, and stitch. Again, pull the second side of the next mask in to be sewn, and repeat. You will have a chain of eight masks, parallel to each other with only a stitch or two separating them, when you’re done.
Snip the stitches between each mask.
Bingo–eight masks.
Short form of fast mask
Stitch a long tube, fold it into W-quarters lengthwise, cut into 9″ masks, pin a box pleat into the mask using the center fold, (add wire along the folded edge and stitch a channel to hold it in place), pin 31″x1.5″ strips of fabric over each end, and stitch box-car style (chain) so you don’t waste any thread.
