Vicki Vogel Custom Designs & Sewing

Pleated Face Mask Pattern and Instructions

PATTERN Adult sz M/L – inside & outside fabric pieces cut at 9 ½” w x 8” L each; cut 2 casings 1 1/2” w x 4 ½” L; 45”L x 1 ½” w strip if doing a

tie that loops around neck or 2 pieces of elastic. 8” if you are sewing ends together fits most. Or you can cut elastic at 10”

and tie a knot so it can be adjusted; don’t hide knot in casing if you left it to be adjustable.

Adult sz S/M – inside & outside fabric 8 ½” w x 8” L each; cut 2 casings 1 1/2” w x 4 ½” L; 45”L x 1 ½” w strip if doing a tie that loops

around neck or 2 pieces of elastic - 8” if you are sewing ends together fits most. Or you can cut elastic at 10” and tie a knot

so it can be adjusted; don’t hide knot in casing if you left it to be adjustable.

Child (age 5 to 12) – Inside & outside fabric cut at 7 ½” w x 7” L each; cut 2 casings 1 1/2'” w x 3 ½” L; TIES ARE NOT ALLOWED ON

CHILDREN. 2 pieces of elastic - 7” if you are sewing ends together fits most. Or you can cut elastic at 9” and tie a knot so it

can be adjusted; don’t hide knot in casing if you left it to be adjustable.

Young Child (age 2 to 4; children under the age of 2 should not wear masks) – Inside & Outside fabric cut at 5 ½”W x 5”L each; TIES

ARE NOT ALLOWED ON CHILDREN; 2 pieces of elastic -7” if you are sewing ends together fits most. Or you can cut elastic

at 9” and tie a knot so it can be adjusted; don’t hide knot in casing if you left it to be adjustable. NO FILTER POCKET.

CLOSE IT UP BY STITCHING ACROSS TOP.

PLEATED MASK INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Top stitch all the way across the top of the inside layer of mask fabric. Use ½” of

fabric, rolled under, creating a ¼” wide hem. (Picture 1 below.)

While there are many other methods to putting in nose wire, I have done time

studies and the following, wrapping the wire, is the fastest and adds comfort

and durability to the mask.

Step 2. SEE PICS BELOW. Cut wire in 3” length. DO NOT PLAN TO TURN IN OR LOOP IN WIRE

ENDS. FEEDBACK IS TURNING IN WIRE IS HIGHLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOR WEARING MORE THAN

VERY SHORT PERIODS OF TIME. If wire is 22 gage – 18 gage wire one piece is enough. If a lower

gage wire, the green covered floral wire, twisty ties, etc you need two pieces of wire or it is just too

flimsy to clamp on the nose well to secure the mask for the needed protection.

Step 3. Cut a strip of cloth (I use all my scraps for this) 7”L x 1” W. Use this

fabric piece to wrap the wire as illustrated above. Fold the fabric in 1” – lay

wire in center of folded in fabric (pic 1). Fold over again (pic 2). Fold the

length in creating a sleeve for the wire (Pic 3). Clamp the folded end under

the machine (making sure the wire stays in tight bumped up to folded edge

of fabric under the presser foot; fold the opposite end in 1” (Pic 4). Fold

the opposite end over again, making sure the wire is bumped up to each

folded edge tightly (pic 5). Stitch the length as tight to wire as possible, using

4-5mm stitch (pic 6 & 7). After stitching the wrapped wire doesn’t need to

look pretty. Trim excess fabric as close to stitching as possible.

Figure 1 fold 1" of fabric in. place

wire(s) in center of folded in fabric.

Step 4: Using a piece of masking tape, make

a “nose placement chart” on your machine

table by marking the various widths of mask sizes

and mark the center 3” placement for the nose

piece (Pic 1 & 2 to the right of this Step Instruction).

Since these pictures I have added the size S and

Size age 2- 4 on my nose placement chart.

Step 5: Put your fabric up against the nose placement chart and place the nose piece where it needs to go, holding the nose piece in

place. As you can see in the pic, I have the fold of wire sleeve on the bottom and I have the wire sleeve placed a ¼” down from the

fabric top. That ¼” of fabric will fold down and then you will roll it under again with the nose piece in the middle (the wire, inside

the sleeve fold will be at the top fold of your rolled hem. Put it under the machine, starting at the far side of the mask panel and

you are going to do a roll hemmed (it gets easier and less clumsy the more you do); there is a ½” width of fabric with which to do all

this. Do your top stitching as close to the edge as possible, because when you get to the nose piece the bulk will pull up the fabric a

bit. If you need to use more than the ½” width of fabric for this it is ok – you can just short the bottom a little later.

Step 6: Sew front and back panels together with right

sides of fabric facing each other. Match the top of both

panels of fabric, to be sure the inside panel is as high as

the outside panel. If the inside panel is a sliver higher

than the outside panel, this is fine. The inside panel

cannot lay lower than the outside panel at the top. (Pic 1)

Because of sewing the nose piece into the top hem of the

outer fabric, the hem of the bottom of the panels may not line

up perfectly. That is fine. The top of the panels need to line

up, not the bottom. When sewing the bottom of the two

panels together, make sure you are sewing into the shortest

fabric a ¼”. Turn fabric so right sides are facing out. Run a

ruler along the seam to make sure seam is turned out well

without having to press. Pic 2.)

Step 7: With the two panels together, tops even or the inside panel a sliver higher, top stitch

across the top, approximately 1/8” away from the top fold, sewing the two panels together.

You will turn down at the nose piece so you can back tack along the side of the nose piece. You

will be able to feel the nose piece through the layers of fabric. Cut your threads and you will

hop to the other side of the nose piece; do a back tack along that side of the nose piece as well,

and continue top stitching / sewing the two panels together a 1/8” from the top fold.

(YOUNG CHILD SIZE – instead of “tacking on the side of the nose piece

and hopping over to the other side of the nose piece, after back tacking

on one side of the nose piece, sew across the top to the other side,

closing up the top completely so there is no filter pocket. (pic 1 & 2).

Step 8: Make a pleating guide for both sides of your presser foot. The top line is the top of your mask. The 2nd line should be 1” lower, Then four lines 5/8” apart after that. See below. Step 9. Pleating. Line up edge of mask to top line. The third line is the bottom of the first pleat. Fold Fabric under, the top of the first fold under is at the 2nd line. The third line is the fold for the 2nd pleat, Fold fabric under and the inside top fold of a pleat should always bump up to the bottom of the Previous pleat. There should be no spacing between pleats and the pleats should bump up to one another. Correct length of a finished adult size mask is about 3 ½”. Size “S” (age 5 – 12) mask: top line is ¾” above the first pleat line. I narrower the pleats the tiniest little bit. Finished mask is about 3” long. Size Young Child mask: top line is ½” from the first pleat line and pleats are no more than ½” deep.

Step 10: Hem the top of casings by turning in fabric ¼” and top stitching 1/8” from fold. (pic 1); There is no need to do a double fold hem as we do not want the bulk, but the casing must be hemmed. Because a mask can turn out a hair longer or shorter than the 3 ½” mask length, and we want the casings to match the top and bottom of the mask exactly, before I sew the other side of the casings I lay the casing along the mask and fold up raw edge of casing to match mask length perfectly and then sew the bottom of the casings to match the mask length. I hem the bottom of the casings, making both casings the same length – no matter what. Sew Casings on the back of the mask, right sides of mask & casing together (pic 2). Line up the edge of the casing a ¼” away from raw edge of mask. Sew ½” seam allowance, but you are only sewing into the edge of the casing ¼”when doing this. This is so that there is as little bulk inside that casing as possible. You can stretch the side of the mask a bit, or ease some extra fabric in, to make the mask and the casings match exactly, if anything lines up a teenie bit off. If sides of mask are a lot off from each other, you need to fix a pleat or pleats. Step 11. Flip casing forward. Turn under raw edge ¼” and top stitch close to fold (pic 1 below).

Step 12. String 45” tie coming down top of mask on one side, and up from the bottom of the mask on the other side. Ends of mask ties are at top of mask and loop is on the bottom. (pic below). NEVER put ties in size S/Child or Young ChildmSizes. Children cannot have ties in their masks. OR – Adult: String 8” of ¼” wide or 1/8” wide elastic through each casing and sew elastic ends together with ends over lapped 1/2”. You can also cut elastic 10” long and tie a knot, leaving it out of the casing for people to adjust. Sizes S/Child & Young Child: Cut elastic 7” if sewing and 9” if tying a knot so it can be adjusted later.