Sweet Dreams!

Working the night shift has made me appreciate my little sleep mask that I use when I get some shut eye during the day. I loved it so much that the little strap broke and thought I should just make one of my own... and show y'all how I did it. It's a well known fact that you sleep 1/3 of your life, so you might as well enjoy it!

You will need: two coordinating fabrics (about 5"x8" each), polyester or cotton batting, elastic strap or head band, pins, and a sewing machine.

Cut out the SewSweetTV pattern, or one you made for yourself,  and pin it to the fabric.

Using the pattern, or first layer, cut out the coordinating fabric and two pieces of batting.

You should have 4 mask shaped pieces total...

Pin the wrong side of the fabric to each piece of batting and start at the very edge of the fabric, sew straight lines across the mask about 1-1/5" apart. I was able to fit 3 lines across the mask. Then sew perpendicular lines to make a checkerboard appearance.

*NOTE* This is where you can get creative! I used a wavy stitch, but you can do any kind of quilting pattern...

Repeat for the front side of the mask. You will have a lot of little threads hanging off the fabric and possibly excess batting, so the next step is to clean up the edge of the mask by trimming off the extras.

Now take your elastic head band or pre-measured elastic strap and pin it to the inside (wrong side) of the mask. Try not to put a lot of tension on the elastic so that the mask will lay flat when not in use.

Here's a close up view... I did several stitches forward and backward to insure that it is fixed securely. Try to stitch as close to the edge as possible.

Now, take the elastic and fold it around the edge of the mask so that its on the right side of the fabric. Repeat the stitching to secure.

This is what it looks like once the elastic ha been secured.

 Now, lay the right sides of the fabric together and lay the elastic on the inside. Be sure that it doesn't get near the edge of the mask where you will be  sewing the seam.

 Now, sew around the inside-out mask approximately 1/4" to 1/8" from the edge. Be sure that you secure the first stitch with a couple reverse stitches and leave a gap about 2" from the start of your seam so you can turn the mask inside-out.

Gently turn inside-out! 

Using your finger, gently push on the inside of the seam to pop out the curves. Check for  unfinished edges that didn't get completely sewn in. If you notice the seam was not completely sewn, then turn the mask inside out again and restitch a little farther from the edge. 

 To close the gap, fold in the unfinished edges and pin closed. Take your time, because this part may be a little frustrating to get all of the seam closed.  Then, take a step back and look at the whole shape of your mask. If it doesn't look symmetrical, you can push seam inward at that point and pin before you do your final stitch.

 Now, sew close to the edge of the mask (1/8") to make a finished seam.

And there you have it! A sweet little mask to encourage sweet dreams
(especially for a daytime snooze)...

 I'm going to hand sew a few little buttons on the front of my mask to add depth and interest. Get creative with fabric flowers, ribbon and buttons!

Sew. Sweet.