Sunday, March 19, 2017

How to Make a Flannel Sleep Mask

The only way I can get to sleep and stay asleep at night is in a super duper cave like dark room. Unfortunately, curtains in every room on the planet (and especially in hotel rooms) conspire against me.

No matter how well I think I close them, there always is a hairline sliver between the curtains that shoots the early morning light directly into my eyes like a laser beam and wakes me up hours before my alarm is set to go off.  Every. Single. Morning. ARUGH!

Fortunately,  wearing a sleep mask thwarts the Sun Beam – Curtain Conspiracy. Take that sunbeam hahaha!

Unfortunately, most sleep masks are backed with nylon polyester, which doesn’t breathe making it way too hot to wear.

Fortunately, I reorganized and unearthed more scrap fabric than I realized I had including some nice, soft, cotton, and breathable flannel that makes an excellent and super cute sleep mask!


How to Sew a Super Cute Sleep Mask

 

Pin this quick and easy tutorial for later!

I used this project to experiment with making sleep masks from different types of fabrics and padding and play with some of the features of my Brother sewing and embroidery machine (learn more about it here) I haven’t used yet (best. purchase. ever!) so I made quite a few. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

I could say I made a bunch of soft fabric sleep masks to give as gifts (which they do make great gifts!) but in reality, I’m keeping them all for myself because I often forget to repack them in hotel rooms when I travel. Oops.

You will need the following supplies for this project:

 

Fabric – a fat quarter is more than enough fabric for this project. You can buy cute fat quarter bundles here if you need them. This is a fantastic scrap fabric project! Feel free to use cotton, fleece, flannel or whatever fabric suits your fancy!

Fleece or batting - you can buy fleece fabric online here

Dressmaker’s pencil like this one

Pattern weights

Fabric scissors - these are my favorite

Straight pins or sewing clips - I have these exact sewing clips and like that they came in a cute storage tin.

Coordinating thread

Sewing machine

Elastic

Iron and ironing board.

Optional: Embroidery thread and needle

Optional: Stitcher's Revolution Iron-On Transfer Pattern for Embroidery, Raining Cats and Dogs

Disclosure: I included affiliate links in this post for your convenience.


Step by step how to make it:

1. Trace the pattern with the dressmaker’s pencil onto the  fabric. If you want to decorate the front of your sleep mask with embroidery, do it now and before you cut the front of the sleep mask from the fabric. This way you have enough fabric to hoop to create your design.


 You may need to enlarge this pattern after you print it.

I machine embroidered a butterfly on this sleep mask using one of the designs that came with my Brother sewing and embroidery machine. I hand embroidered this sleep mask using the Raining Cats and Dogs embroidery template for fun.





2. Trace the center pattern piece on to a piece of batting or fleece and cut it out with the scissors.

3. Cut the front and back pattern pieces from the fabric with the scissors. Feel free to mix different types of fabrics, colors, and whatnot for the top and bottom pieces of your sleep masks. This isn’t super serious brain surgery, have fun!

 This sleep mask has a cotton fabric front, fleece padding, and a flannel back.


4. Measure your head and cut a length of elastic to be the head band.

5. Pin each end of the elastic to the right side (the pretty side) of the back piece of the sleep mask and sew it into place.





6. Pin the front and back of the sleep mask right sides together with the batting layer on the top.

 
Pinning!


7. Use the sewing machine to sew the sleep mask together. Make sure you leave an opening in the seam so you can turn the sleep mask right side out.

8. Use the scissors to trim the excess fabric from the seams.

9. Turn the sleep mask right side out through the open hole in the seam and press it into place with the iron and ironing board.

10. Sew the open hole in the seam closed with either the sewing machine or by hand. I opted to sew it close by topstitching my sleep mask to make it look more professional.

 


11. Put on your sleep mask when you go to bed and have sweet dreams!

If you'd rather buy than DIY, check out the options - and more! - below!

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