Sleep masks are a nice little project. They can be handsewn in an hour or two, or machine stitched even quicker. They're easy for beginners, and, best of all, they're functional. I didn't realise how much light pollution was affecting my sleep until it was gone. It makes such a huge difference to have something over your eyes. Plus, if you need to sleep with a light on (if there's someone else in the room for instance) or during daytime, they're fantastic. When I stayed at a youth hostel over Christmas (I was working in a homeless shelter) having my eyemask made such a huge difference to how well I slept.
My First Eyemask
The first thing you need to do is choose your fabric. I made my first eyemask from scraps off an old jumper I had, and some other bits of spare fabric. The one I made yesterday is made up off little bits of fabric that I bought for bandanas. If you buy half a metre you can cut two square bandanas out of it and have a little rectangle leftover that's perfect for this. The one I'm making now is made out of an old top which was very soft while being thick enough to effectively block light.
Next, make a template. Scrunch up a sheet of paper (A5 is big enough) until it's soft, then lay it over your face and use a felt tip to draw around your brow- and cheekbones.
Once you've done that, trace whichever half is neatest onto a folded sheet of paper, neatening it up as you go. Unfold the paper, and voila...you have a symmetrical mask template. Use it to cut a mask shape out of your fabric; I recommend at least four layers, depending on thickness. Remember to leave margins for sewing. At this stage, hold all of your layers over your eyes to judge how well they block the light. If it's not dark, add a few more.
Carefully pin your layers together. You want them in this order; the two outsides, facing towards each other, then the inner layers on top. Carefully pin this shape together along the outsides.
This bit is optional, but useful; fold your mask in half, and pin a small section, running halfway down the mask, as shown below. Pin through one of the top layers and all of the inner layers; do not pin through both top layers. Sewing this, as shown below, shapes the mask for your nose. If you want a more personal fit, hold the mask over your face and pinch. This will reduce light seeping in from around the base of your nose. If you pin through both top layers, you won't be able to turn the mask rightside out later.
Once you've done that, proceed to sew most of the way around the outsides of the mask, through all the layers this time. Leave a small gap, and turn the mask rightside out. Finish sewing it up carefully from the outside. I used ladder stitch, and you can find a tutorial on that here.
Sew some ribbons to the side to close it up, and you're done. To get the right length of ribbon, wrap it around your head one and a half times, cut it in half and sew each half to one side of the mask. You could use elastic, or do something creepy and sew buttons over the eyes of the mask and fasten the ribbon to that so you don't have knots on your head while you're sleeping, but then you'll look like something out of Coraline. Which could be awesome. Try it.
Et voila, reversible sleep mask!
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