I’m excited, because today I’m going to tell you how to make my convertible cup mask with elastic and removable filters for grade school children. To start, I’ve cut and sewn all four panels together; the outside panels and the inside, stacked on top of each other. Next I did a ¼” hem on the center curved seam. Now, I’m just going to use my pinking shears and I’m going to remove the excess bulk from that seam. That’s going to give me a nice clean finish to my mask’s cup.
I’m going to pull it open just as if I were shucking corn; somebody described it to me like that and I thought that was a great analogy! You’re going to see, because of the one seam in the center, that everything lines up beautifully. There will be no need to do a basting stitch or anything like that around the cups body. You’re just going to have a nice, beautiful, perfectly lined up mask cup that you can easily work with.
The next part of this would be putting in the slots for the filter in place. This is very easy. I’m going to take each corner of my mask, and I am going to put it on my cutting mat and mark it with tailor’s chalk at 2” on each corner, top and side. Repeat on the opposite side. Then, I’m going to lay my trim down and tack it. Choose a trim that is very flat, comfortable, and soft. It can have a little bit of stretch to it on this mask, but most likely, you want as little stretch as possible. That’s what I’ve picked a soft lace, which makes for a thin and comfortable trim. This one’s about ⅝” wide. I like a ¼” best.
I’m making sure that the good side of the lace is up, and I’m going to give it a quick tack, top and bottom. I’ll add a quick straight stitch at about ⅜” of an inch, because I want room to trim the excess off. After I have tacked in my filter pocket holders, now I want to sew in my nose bridge, and I used a piece of tape that I made with a bias tape maker. You can see that in another video that I have, the diamond quilted filter video, but I am just going to sleeve that cup into that tape and run a straight stitch across the nose bridge.
I already have my 3.5” (child size) piece of 22 gauge wire, I’ve bent both sides to make it comfortable, and I’m just going to run that into my casing and bend slightly over the center. Next we’re going to sew the elastic in and finish the mask with more ½” tape I made with a bias tape maker.
To finish sewing the convertible cup mask for kids, I did some markings first to make it easy. This first marking is flush with the mask, at the nose bridge. Then I marked a half inch above on the inside of the tape, because we’re going to extend that just a little bit to have less fabric in there when we put the elastic in. I’ve also trimmed out the excess fabric inside the end of the tape ends. Now we should be able to just fold where I’ve marked at half inch. Put that ½” elastic into the mask, just a little bit under the mask and tape. Now we are going to be able to just sew that right in. I’ve cut that elastic for this child’s mask at 15” for medium, and children under 5 cut 13”to prep it.
Now the tape beginning is in, I’m going to pivot and sew diagonal seam to create a cross stitch or ‘X’ to secure the end tab. I return to the center of the X, then again, I’m going to turn it and do the sewing on the diagonal the opposite way. Now, I’m going to return to finish sewing my mask cup into the tape.
I’ve prepped to do the same thing on the opposite side, where I’ve marked it flush with the mask and then a half inch above. That’s going to tell me where to fold the tape to match the opposite side. I’ve trimmed that excess tape off too. Before I finish sewing the mask into the tape, I’m going to take the elastic and bring it from the other side. Repeat the cross stitch on the tab to finish. I used ½” elastic, but my friend Sharon has used ⅛”. I think it’s a matter of preference, and age of the child too. For a younger child use a smaller elastic, and for older, wider.
Keep Sewing – It’s good for the soul! If you liked this tutorial, check out my other pattern, the diamond filter face mask. Or if sewing isn’t your speciality, you can purchase your own convertible cup mask here!
Dawn
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