Sewing: Sleep Mask

One day, one of my young sewing students showed up for her lesson, expressing an interest in making a mask so that when she is sleeping, she is not disturbed by any lights.

I'm always willing to let students sew what they want, as long as it is within their capabilities. This young girl, 9 years old, has been a sewing student with me for over 3 years (amazing, actually!).

So, off we went to my computer, and did a Google search for sleep masks. This website popped up, and appeared to have what we needed: www.craftbits.com/project/sleepy-time-eye-mask.

So we downloaded the pattern for the mask shape, and printed both the mask shape and the instructions (unfortunately, I told the printer to print all pages - I didn't realize that there were several pages of comments!)

Anyway, we found some appropriate fabrics both in her stash and in the classroom stash - she chose soft fleece for the part next to her eyes, some denim for the middle layer, and a pretty silver star fabric for the public side. For the straps, she chose an ombre print that would go well with the fleece.

She cut out the fabrics for the mask and layered them. She sewed the strap, and threaded elastic through it. (She loved using the Fasturn cylinder and pigtail tool described in the tubes article.)

We positioned the strap between the layers in the proper place, and she sewed all around, leaving the top open for a few inches. Then she learned how to hand sew, a novelty for her, because she's used to machine sewing! She did a whip stitch to close the opening, and she was done.

Here are some photos of the project as it progressed.

Note that I usually hide the upper face of my students when I feature their photo in my articles - in this case, such privacy protection is obviously not necessary.

And finally, at her request, I made one myself, to hang on the Inspiration Wall in the sewing classroom. Mine has flannel next to the skin, denim in the middle for darkness, and cottons on the strap and the public side. And I edge-stitched around the outside so that I wouldn't have to hand sew the opening to close it.

I also learned that it is hard to see what you look like in a mirror when you have a sleep mask on (big grin!!).