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The CDC has now recommended that everyone should wear a cloth face mask when going out in public, in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). It is important to note that the CDC recommends cloth face coverings, not surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Those are critical supplies and should be reserved for healthcare workers, not the general public.
As a beginner sewer, I was a bit hesitant to try making my own mask, but Cricut has made it easy for even a beginner like me to make and sew my own face mask! I have now made a few masks that I am giving to family and friends so that we can all help slow the spread of Coronavirus.
Even if you don’t own a Cricut Maker, Cricut offers a FREE printable sewing pattern that you can cut out by hand! The printable pattern is on their directions page as well.
Please note the disclaimer that is on Cricut’s directions page:
Caution: This mask is NOT rated for disease control. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has provided the following information regarding homemade face masks: The role of face masks is for patient source control, to reduce contamination of the surrounding area when a person coughs or sneezes. Patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 should wear a face mask until they are isolated in a hospital or at home. Most face masks do not effectively filter small particles from the air and do not prevent leakage around the edge of the mask when the user inhales.* When professional face masks are not available, healthcare personnel might use homemade masks for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, caution should be exercised when considering this option since their capability to protect healthcare personnel is unknown.
If you have a Cricut Maker, you can find a FREE face mask sewing pattern in Design Space, along with directions on how to put the mask together here. It helped me to print out the directions so that I could refer to them as I went along. I followed Cricut’s directions and learned a few tips along the way that I would love to share with my fellow beginner sewers. Let’s get started!
Materials Needed:
- Cricut Maker
- Cricut FabricGrip Machine Mat (Cricut calls fro 12″ x 24″ – I used a 12″ x 12″ one)
- 1/2″ or 1/4″ braided elastic (20″ long for adult large)
- Rotary Cutter
- Fabric Scissors
- Small Safety Pin (I have also used a paper clip and it worked well!)
- Fabric of your choice (I used cotton): 8″ x 16″ (for outside fabric), 7″ x 16″ (for inside fabric)
- Iron or Cricut EasyPress Mini
Optional Materials:
To find the free face mask sewing pattern, open up Cricut Design Space and click on the ‘New Project’ button on the home screen.
On the next screen, click on the little notebook icon that says ‘Projects’.
To find the face mask pattern, you can type ‘face mask’ into the search bar at the top of the projects page.
Click on whatever size face mask you’d like to make. When I made this mask yesterday, there was a small/medium adult face mask size, but I don’t see it today. The small/medium was a bit snug on me anyways, so from now on I’m going to make the large adult face masks.
Once you’ve clicked on the size you want to make, click on the green ‘Make It’ button on the next page.
Now you’ll see your cutting screen. One of the awesome things about a Cricut Maker is that not only can you cut out your sewing pattern, but you can mark it as well! If you have a Cricut fabric pen, you can insert it into the ‘A’ tool clamp, and toggle on the ‘Mark Fabric’ button on your cutting screen. If you don’t have a fabric pen or don’t want to mark your fabric, just toggle off the ‘Mark Fabric’ button. When the toggle button is green, it is turned on. When turned off, it will be gray. Click ‘Continue’.
NOTE: Make sure that you have a ROTARY BLADE loaded into the ‘B’ tool clamp. The rotary blade allows your Cricut Maker to cut fabric.
Select the ‘Cotton’ option in the material section. If you’re using a fabric other than cotton, then select that fabric. Next follow the directions to cut out your fabric!
TIP #1: Cut your fabric out to 10″-12″ width. It doesn’t matter how long the fabric is (as long as it is at least 10″-12″) I had a yard of fabric and just cut it into thirds, so my piece was 12″ wide x 44″ long.
TIP #2: Make sure when you place your fabric onto your mat, that the grain of the fabric is running the length of the mat. You can tell which way your grain is facing by looking at the frayed edges of your fabric.
TIP #3: To get my fabric to stick well to the fabric grip mat without any wrinkles, I used a roller/brayer. If you don’t have a brayer you can just use your hands to smooth the fabric onto the mat.
Now you should have all of your fabric pieces cut out! You can iron out the pieces if they are wrinkled or creased.
The first thing you’re going to do is match up your pieces for the outer layer and put them right sides together. Do the same with the pieces for the lining.
HINT: The ‘right side’ of a fabric is the side that the pattern is on. This is the side that will be showing when your project is finished.
HINT 2: The larger pieces will eventually be your outer layer. The smaller pieces will be your lining or inside layer.
Now you are going to sew along the curved portion of your outer pieces with a 1/4″ seam, meaning your stitch will be about 1/4″ from the edge. Do the same with the lining pieces. I backstitched each end to make sure it would have a strong hold.
Backstitching is essentially just sewing backwards. You can use the reverse button or lever on your sewing machine to do this. After you sew a few stitches, press down your reverse lever while you sew backwards for a few stitches, and then sew forward normally. You can do this again at the end of your stitch. This will give the beginning and end of your stitch a nice strong hold!
Whenever you are done with a stitch, you should trim/snip any hanging threads.
Now the directions say to make some snips with your scissors around the curved ends of the pieces you just sewed together. Be careful not to snip over your stitches! You can see I just made very tiny snips.
Next you will open your liner piece and press the edges down on each side about 1/4″ with your iron.
Then you will make a straight stitch with your sewing machine close to the edge, on each side. Remember to trim/snip any hanging threads.
Now you will take your outer piece, open it, and press down the edges about a 1/4″ on each side with your iron, the same way you did with your liner piece. Then you will fold the edges again and press them with your iron, making enough room for whichever size elastic you are using. I was using 1/2″ elastic, so I made the fold a bit bigger (so that a 1/2″ wide elastic will fit through it).
Then you will sew a straight stitch close to the previously pressed edge on each side, so that you leave enough room for your elastic. Trim/snip as needed.
The next part was, in my opinion, the trickiest part of the project. The directions say to press down the curved seam of each piece and stitch along that side of the curved seam. I found this super difficult to do with my iron. What I ended up doing was just folding each piece in half and pressing it down with my iron. I found the seam still stayed to one side of the fabric and I was able to top stitch along the curve.
It helps to hold your fabric taut will stitching, making sure you are sewing over that inside seam. You will do this with both pieces. Trim/snip as needed.
TIP: Sew slowly on this one! That way you can make sure you are sewing over the inside seam correctly.
Next you will lay the inner and outer pieces on top of each other, right sides together. You will stitch along the top and bottom of the pieces. Make sure not to stitch too far over the outer piece, because you need to leave an opening for the elastic to go through. I started and ended my stitches right before and after the side stitches of the inner piece. I also backstitched at the beginning and end. Trim/snip as needed.
Now you will turn your fabric inside out, which will really be right side out!
Then you will stitch along the top and bottom of the mask again. I backstitched these to reinforce the stitches.
Now you’re almost done! All that’s left to do is thread the elastic through the sides. Put a safety pin through the top end of your elastic. Then thread through the bottom casing on one side. Continue through the top of the other side until you’ve gone through the whole mask.
Now you will zig zag stitch the ends of the elastic. I had never done a zig zag stitch before, but it was super easy! Your sewing machine should have a zig zag stitch option that is easy to find, because well, it looks like a zig zag. ?
My zig zag stitch was located at ‘C’, so I turned my stitch knob to ‘C’.
Before you make your stitch, make sure the elastic isn’t twisted. I made three zig zag stitches so that it would hold strongly through stretching.
Next, move the part of the elastic with the zig zag stitch into one of the casing sides for looks and comfort.
We did it! Now we have a face mask that we can wear out in public to help slow the spread of the virus. You can even insert a filter into the pocket of the face mask if you’d like.
I’d love to hear how your masks turned out! Drop me a comment below and let me know!