How To Make My Favorite Hand Sewn Face Mask With A Filter Pocket

Y’all, this is LEGIT the best tutorial I have found for making a face mask. It is completely not my pattern. It belongs to Dress Me Up By C on YouTube. I just modified it to my needs.

You don’t need a sewing machine — or, thankfully, the talent to sew fancy things. You just need material, a needle, thread, a tape measure or ruler, and elastic (or ribbon).

I have made like 20 of these masks for my family and friends. Each one takes about half an hour to make. The FIRST one took forever, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy-peasy.

I start with a cotton fabric. I went to Walmart, and bought the precut yards of fabric. I’m not going to lie, the selection is grim, but they do have SOME. Some is WAY better than none.

I can’t find elastic ANYWHERE, so I improvised. I use 5/8 or 7/8 grosgrain ribbon, and sew it in to tie at the top and bottom of my head.

Don’t know what grosgrain ribbon is? DON’T sweat it — I didn’t have any CLUE what it was before I started making these masks. It’s just a good fabric ribbon. It’s what you see a lot of cheerleading bows made out of.

So, you cut your fabric in a rectangle that is 18 by 9 inches. Don’t be like me, and completely mess up the measurements a few times before getting it right. I told you, I don’t have sewing talent!

Then you just stitch up the top and bottom seams, on the short ends.

When you are done with that, you fold it so the right sides of the fabric are touching, and sew in your elastic or ribbon.

Then you just sew down the length of both sides.

I am AWFUL at the pleats, so I, again, improvised. I sew down one side, and then cinch up the fabric down to about 3 inches before I tie off the thread. Then, I do the same to the other side.