retired rope x old shirt = mask
Alright, time to make yourself a mask. Even if you can’t sew, you can do this. I even rounded the corners of these images to make them friendlier. Here’s what you need.
mask pattern download here
old shirt, jeans, bandana, or any fabric
shock cord, shoelace, or hoodie string
old climbing rope optional, but rad
sister’s sewing machine
sharp scissors
lighter for burning rope ends
chalk, sharpie, or pen
pins
Rip off those old shirt sleeves and let your muscles breathe. It’s summer. Here I’m using a blue sleeve as my outer and a light cotton stripe as the liner. Lay them flat and space out your pattern.
Trace the pattern onto the fabric. Cut about 1cm outside the lines.
Excellent, good work. Turn the shapes over, and retrace. Note the ticks. This helps make sure we don’t sew the wrong edges together.
Align and pin at the inner seams. Both liner and outer.
They should be looking like this.
Sew straight along the lines, removing pins along the way.
For the outer, iron flat the seam.
Then add a zigzag stitch. It adds a bit of structure and looks neat.
Looking great. Now align and pin the two halves together, seams facing outward. Then go ahead and sew along the traced line. Be sure not to completely sew the thing shut.
Don’t forget to keep one edge left open. I prefer the edge where the pen is sticking out. It’s easy to hide that seam behind the rope later on. Use a pen to flip the whole thing inside out.
Awesome. Feel free to iron our new outer seam flat. Then straight stitch along the outer edge.
My friend gave me her retired climbing rope and I always enjoy finding uses for it. If you don’t have excess rope, get creative with how you want to attach your strings. There are a hundred ways you can tie this thing to your face. Below I’m cutting two rigatoni sized pieces of rope.
Remove the rope core and burn the edges of the sheath to prevent fray. Flatten the sheath and sew one edge to the mask. I’m using a zigzag stitch here.
With about 40cm of cord, string through the rigatoni, making a little squid monster.
Cut two more rigatonis, remove the inner, and zigzag stitch together. Now we have a bolo tie.
Yeehaw. Use the lighter and burn the ends together. Even better if you have heat shrink tubing.
Hot dog, you did it pal. Well done.
Proud of you.
Yes, you.
Thank you for preventing the spread of covid-19 and farmer tans.