The kit comes with six pre-cut sections of fabric, one piece of elastic, one cord lock, and a piece of wire that starts as a hook to pull the elastic through the loops on the side, and then turns into the nose wire.

Each piece of fabric should have either a small notch cut out, or a black mark (the exact location varies in different batches: here you see them at the top left of each piece). These always mark the top of the mask (the edge that will go over your nose). If for some reason your fabric is not marked, the top is the concave (curved inwards) side that is slightly longer than the other. Add any missing marks before proceeding, or risk confusion.

Start with the two more-attractive piece of fabric, which will become the outer shell (styles will of course vary). Place both pieces exactly on top of each other, with the good sides facing towards each other (so you see only the bad side). Here I have curled up one corner so you can see how the good sides are facing each other.

Sew a seam about 1/4” (6mm) in from the edge all along the convex (bowing outwards) edge.

When you start the seam, position the machine about 3/8” (10mm) in from the end, and use the reversing lever/button to run it in reverse until you just reach the edge, then go forwards. Likewise, just before you reach the end reverse the machine and double back for a short distance. This doubling-over makes the end of the seam much stronger. (Experiences sewers: yes, this end will be folded into another seam, but it’s still worth doubling over. You want the ends of this joint extra-strong.)

Congratulations, you’ve made your first seam! It should look like this.

Note that I have used a strongly contrasting thread color, to make the stitches easier the see. Up until the last few steps, the thread color doesn’t actually matter, because the thread will not be visible in the final product.

Repeat this process for the large and small white/off-white fabric pieces (these will become the lining and filter holder). For these pieces there isn’t a good and bad side to the fabric, but do make sure the long and short curved sides are correctly matched.

If you are making a lot of masks, you can use a technique called “chain piecing” to make it go faster. When you get to the end of one seam, don’t cut the thread, instead lift the foot, move the piece the absolute minimum distance needed to make room for the next one, and keep going. When you’ve made a bunch of them you can snip them apart. This cuts in half the amount of thread cutting you need to do.

Take the smaller of the two liner assemblies and fold over one of the ends by about 1/4” (6mm). Just press with your fingers for now. Then fold over a second time by another 1/4” (6mm). Again press down with your fingers, then iron the two folds. The raw edge of the fabric should now be hidden in the second fold.

This is called a hem.

Iron the double-folded edge, then flip the piece over and repeat on the other side. After ironing the second side it should look like this.

Sew along both of the folded hems separately. You don’t need to double-back on the ends of these because they will end up buried in another seam.

(If you are making a lot of masks, this is a great time to use the chain piecing technique. If you do it right (see the video for details), you don’t even have to lift the foot, you can just feed one piece after another, doing one side of dozens of them and then, without cutting yet, do the other side in reverse order. You’ll get a lovely hanging double-linked chain, which you can snip apart in seconds.)

Next you need to iron the curved seams flat. You might think you want to spread the flaps of the seam out and iron them flat in opposite directions. And indeed you can do it that way if you want. But the method described here is much faster, and for reasons that will become clear, the end result is almost the same.

With the piece positioned with the sewn side away from you, and the top (marked with a notch) to the left, fold the seam up and over towards you, then iron it down right along the stitch line. Try to get the fold as close as you can to the stitches.

Repeat for all three pieces. Yes, you are folding all the seams in the same direction, when the orientation of the pieces is the same. They will be wrinkled and refuse to lay flat: that’s OK.

Here’s what the three pieces look like when you open them up and pop them sort of inside out, and smooth down the seam from the inside. (You don’t actually need to turn the colored one inside out, I’m just showing what it should look like. But do turn the two white ones inside out.)

Here’s the view from the other side, showing how all three seams are lying flat, pointing towards the same side. With the pieces properly curved, the seam flaps will lie flatter.

With the smaller white piece popped so the seam flaps are on the inside, fold over the bottom edge (the one away from the notch or mark) by about 1/4” (6mm), and iron the fold. You want to fold it towards the same side as the seam flaps.

Assemble the two white liner pieces on top of each other as shown. Align the top edges (which are facing towards the lower right in the photo). Try to get them flat against each other, with the two vertical seams on top of each other.

The folded-but-not-sewn hem on the bottom edge of the smaller piece will be about 3/4” (2cm) from the bottom of the larger piece. Along the top you should have two raw edges of fabric. And both pieces should be right-side-up (with both pressed-open seams and the unsewn hem of the smaller one facing down). Yes, that’s correct: the good side of the larger piece is facing the bad side of the smaller piece.

Sew along the top edge about 3/16” (4mm) in from the edge. You do not need to double-back on the ends here. This seam is actually just a temporary placeholder to get the filter holder in exactly the right place. The whole thing will be sewn over later.

Do NOT sew the two shorter sides! The black stitches you see are from the earlier step where we folded and sewed a hem on the smaller piece, before it was attached. They do not go through the larger piece.

(Chain piecing works here too.)

Now you need to position the bottom edge of the filter holder correctly. You want the large and small pieces to be pressed tight up against each other as they curve around. Holding the top (sewn) edge in one hand, press up from below with a finger to smooth the two pieces together all along the seam line.

Keep a grip on the bottom edge of the smaller piece, holding it together with the larger piece, once you have both of them tight to each other the whole way.

Here’s a view of what my finger was doing from the bottom side.

Before you let go of the two pieces, place a pin across the seam about 5/8” (15mm) in from the edge. (I put it a bit farther in than necessary here.)

Make sure the two seams are perfectly in line, and that the bottom edge of the smaller piece is still folded over (you ironed this fold several steps back).

Place the assembly in the machine as shown. This is the opposite of what you might expect: normally you sew with the larger side of the piece to the left. But in this case, you want to do it this way because it ensures that the folded seam flaps on the bottom (circled in the picture) are encouraged to stay folded in the right direction (towards you). Start with the needle positioned about 3/8” (10mm) down from the end, and about 1/16” (2mm) from the left edge of the smaller piece. Make sure both layers are flat to each other going off the right, and towards you. Don’t worry about the area beyond the seams yet.

Sew backwards until you go about 1/8” (3mm) beyond the end of the smaller piece, then go forwards until you reach just past the midway point of the thick double-seam stack. Then check the alignment of the next half of the seam, and continue sewing until you go about 1/8” (3mm) beyond the end of the small piece on the other side, and back up about 3/8” (10mm) back onto it.

The result should look like this. Notice how the stitch line is longer than the smaller piece. This because you don’t want that flap pulling up when you insert a filter.

Notice again that the two short sides are not sewn together with the larger piece. They are open, forming a sort of tube.

With the completed liner positioned as shown, pocket side up, place the outer fabric over it with its bad side up (the side with visible seam flaps). Check that you’ve got it as shown: good side of the pretty fabric down, and pocket-side of the liner up.

I’m showing them offset here so you can see which sides are facing together, but you want them directly on top of each other, with both top and bottom edges aligned.

Look closely at the point where all three seams come together. You should have both the white liner fabric’s seam flaps pointing to the right, and the seam flaps of the colorful fabric facing left. If you press together at this point and slide, the seams will naturally stop where they are perfectly aligned.

Now you see why we folded them this way. The white fabric is thinner than the colored, and overall the thickness is quite uniform, even though there are more layers on one side than the other. (Yes, it would be perfectly even if all three seams were spread out and ironed flat facing away from each other, but this is very difficult to do, and actually makes the finished product weaker.)

Place one pin through the seam near the top edge. You could use more pins to hold everything together at this point, but it is not necessary: one pin, plus proper technique, will get you better alignment than multiple pins.

Place the piece in the machine with the foot about 1/4” (6mm) from the right edge. Make sure there is perfect alignment along the right edge, and that the two pieces are of equal length from the foot to the seam where the pin is. (I.e. one isn’t bunched up and the other stretched).

You do not need to double-back when starting this seam.

Don’t worry yet about alignment past the point where the pin is.

Sew until you get to the triple-layer seam, where the pin is. At this point watch out that the flaps of the top-most layer do not get flipped around as they go under the foot. You may have to stop and lift the foot if the flaps start getting pushed back instead of getting sucked under the foot. (If you need to lift the foot, rotate the machine manually, if necessary, so the needle is through the fabric. This will make sure the piece doesn’t move while the foot is up.)

In all previous steps where the flap folding the wrong way could have been a problem, the seam flaps were on the bottom, and they were facing towards you, so they automatically got smoothed the right way. That’s why we folded them in the particular direction we did.

After you stop at the seam stack, align the second half of the line to be sewn, and continue to the end. You do not need to double-back here.

Do NOT sew along the two short sides.

The result should look like this.

Align the other side (the bottom edge) of the piece like you did the top edge, with the seams exactly on top of each other, and the flaps folded to the correct sides. Place a pin as you did on the top side.

Sew the bottom edge the same way you did the top edge. The result should look like this.

Now comes the exciting part where you turn the whole thing inside out through one of the open short sides. Surprisingly, this is a step that it’s actually possible to do wrong.

As you start turning it inside out, you will soon reach a fork in the road: you could continue turning inside out either through the opening between the two white pieces, or between the colored and white piece. You want to follow the route between colored and white fabric.

If you get this DON’T PANIC! You didn’t sew it wrong, you just turned it inside out wrong. Go back one step and try again.

Once it’s turned inside out correctly, it should look like this. The mask is very nearly finished, but it’s all lumpy, and needs to be ironed to attain its proper form.

Start by using a finger to push outwards on the seam and get the fabric pulled away, so the stitch line is being pulled apart gently.

Rubbing back and forth with two fingers can encourage the fabric to roll around until the stitches are at the very edge.

Iron the seam carefully. You want to be sure none of the white liner is showing from the outside: try to get this as close to perfect as you can: you’re going to lock in the alignment you get now in the next sewing step.

Once you have all the edges carefully ironed, you can quickly iron the center too, just to get things nice and flat for the next step.

Note that I’m using a $12 travel iron not because it works better, but because it hides less of the work for these pictures, and because Maribel is using the big iron. Though, to be honest, having been forced to use it, I find it quite convenient for this work.

Sew a line about 1/16” (2mm or less) in from the edge, all along the top and bottom edges. You want to do this with the white liner facing up, and you do not need to double-back at the start and finish. This is where you lock in the position of the white vs. colored fabric at the outside edge.

As you can see from the other side, this is the first step in which the thread color matters. The bobbin thread will be visible on the outside of the finished mask, so if you care what it is, now is the time to change it. You will want to leave that bobbin color in for the rest of the project, because all the remaining steps result in bobbin thread visible on the front of the mask.

If your thread tension is perfect, it theoretically shouldn't matter what top thread color you use. But thread tension is never perfect, so it’s best to switch both bobbin and top thread to the color you want on the outside. Don’t worry about the color on the inside, you can’t see that when you’re wearing the mask.

With the white side up, fold over one of the short open edges by about 1/4” (6mm). Iron it down.

Then fold over again by about 1/2” (12mm). You are making tubes for the elastic to slide through, and they need to be wider than the earlier double-folded hem you made in the liner. Iron this fold as well.

There should be about a 1/4-1/2” (6-12mm) gap between the tube and the filter pocket (but don’t worry about making this perfect, whatever you get is fine).

Sew a line about 1/16” (2mm) in from the inner edge of the double-folded hem to form the elastic tube. Double-back at the start and end, sewing as close as you dare to the edge of the mask (beyond the edge of the flap, which will be slightly narrower than the mask as a whole).

It should look like this after you do both sides.

Again in this step the bobbin thread will be visible on the front of the mask.

The last sewing operation is to form the nose wire tube. To do that, sew about 3/8” (9mm) in from the line you sewed just below the top edge.

Double-back at the start and finish, and sew a bit beyond the edge of the smaller piece at both ends. Just be sure you don’t go too far and sew closed the ends of the elastic tubes.

Here again the bobbin thread color will show on the front of the mask.

Here is the result seen from the inside.

Take the nose wire, folded in half, and pass it through one of the elastic loops from the bottom up. Then pass one end of the elastic through the loop at the end of the wire.

Pull the wire through, dragging the elastic with it. Repeat on the other side. You want both of the loose ends of elastic coming out the bottom of the mask, away from the nose wire channel.

Push the folded nose wire through the cord lock (you may need to squeeze the bend tighter) and put both ends of elastic through the loop at the end of the wire.

Pull the elastic through the cord lock. Pull harder, it will go through.

Take the folded piece of wire and twist it tightly along its entire length. Try to get the cut ends to point in a bit, so they don’t poke the fabric.

Insert the nose wire into the channel at the top of the mask. Work it through until it’s centered.

Bend the nose wire into a rough nose shape. You’ll need to carefully fit it to your face the first time you put it on.

Congratulations! You have finished making a fancy face mask! Put it on and adjust the nose wire for a tight seal around your nose and cheeks (this is critical for both comfort and filtering effectiveness).

Pull the elastic tight, letting it slide through the tubes until the top loop is comfortably snug as well. Your goal is to have the sides by your ears pulled flat, not bunched up forming a gap. So you want the top elastic relatively high on your head, and the bottom elastic around your neck.

After pulling the elastic tight through the cord lock, you will probably have a good bit of extra elastic left: you can cut that off if you like.

If you prefer a behind-the-ears style, you can cut the elastic in half and tie knots in it to form two individual ear loops. But don’t do this, because it won’t fit as well and you’ll regret cutting the elastic.

Optional: If you want to use a filter insert, fold it and slide it into the pocket.

Work the filter in and unfold it. Make sure it’s lying nice and flat in the pocket.