Adjustable Face Masks from Repurposed Materials

Times are really strange. Yesterday on my personal Facebook page, I shared a story about my Mother who contracted the Polio virus in 1940 with a single decision that impacted 3 generations of family. It makes all this hit home so we are hunkered down, even more than normal. Like so many others, we go back and forth between “this is totally ridiculous overreach” and “this is a life changing type of serious”. That’s a whole other discussion. But, we have decided to have face masks on hand for when we do have to go out. An ounce of prevention, right?

Face masks are pretty easy to make and we have lots of material scraps and stuff around to make them. In some places though, I read that both elastic and rubber bands are increasingly difficult to find. These masks can be made with elastic or regular shoe laces (by just tying) and adjust to fit all size faces. With our littlest member of the family, even when the mask technically fits the way it should, he feels like it should be loser, tighter, etc. all within the same 5 minutes. We brainstormed a little about what we had on hand and came up with this adjustable mask using old camo pants legs that we saved from cutting pants off to make into shorts (because camo was non-negotiable, ha) and some elastic “speed laces” that are meant for kids shoes. It’s not pretty because this one was the prototype, so if you make one, turn under your edges for the seams like they should be.

adjustable face mask — Front – Original Pants Leg Hem Is Used As The Bottom

Making The Mask:

Hem around the outside of the mask. We used the existing hem that was the bottom of the pants leg for the bottom seam. For reference, the cut portion for this mask is 7″ x 5″. Other masks I’ve seen are as big as 9″ x 7″. Use what works best for you.
Fold your pleats, pin in place and then sew again over the top of the pleats to secure.
Sew the elastic in place at the two top corners.
At each bottom corner, make a small hole with a seam ripper or scissors for the elastic to run through.
Make a small hole in the bottom center to pull the elastic through to create the loop where it adjusts.
Attach the toggle and you are ready to go. Your ear loops are created between where the elastic is sewn in place at the top and where it inserts into the hem at the bottom. You can also use regular shoe laces and tie them in a bow where they come out the bottom instead of using the elastic laces and toggle.