DIY Sleep Mask

Recently a photographer friend of mine asked me to do chair massage at an event she had planned.  The idea was to provide a pamper yourself day to promote her new Boudoir photo shoots.  At the event there will be free facials, massage, hair/makeup, and a Boudoir photo shoot for the customers.  I decided to attend the event, but I needed a promotional item to send home with the customers to remind them to think of Optimum Health Pain Management Center for all their massage and acupuncture needs.  I was trying to think of something that would go great with the pamper you and boost self-esteem theme. 

What would fit that better than a sexy satin Boudoir sleep mask to catch up on your beauty rest.  Add to that a tag with my business logo and web address, et voila you have a great marketing tool to keep them thinking about you every night when they use their new sleep mask.

Now I just needed to make them.  So I looked it up on my handy Pinterest boards and came up with a project that would be quick and easy.  I also found some pics of other sleep masks that had been fancied up with lace trim and beautiful, sexy fabric.  First off though I just made a basic one to see what it would look like when finished.  That way I don't waste expensive fabric if it doesn't come out right.  I can always modify it and add the finishing touches later.

DIY Sleep Mask

 

Step 1:  Print out the pattern (click here).  The pattern for the mask was found here at The Wonder Forest.  Now I know, the pattern looks huge, trust me it's not.  It will come out much, much smaller after you sew it all together.

 

Step 2:  Once you have your pattern printed, pin it to your fabric and cut it out (you will need a front, back, and inner fabric).  I used a fancier, pretty fabric for the front face that everyone will see, a satiny soft fabric for the piece that goes next to your face, and then I used some quilting batting to make the mask fluffier, but you could also use interfacing or felt just to give it added strength.  I pinned the pattern to all three fabrics at once so I only needed to cut once, but you could also cut out each individually if you prefer. 

It should look like this when you are done cutting them out.  You need one cut out of each fabric.

Step 3:  After you have them cut out you will need to put them together for sewing.  Start by placing the outer face right side up.  Then if you are attaching an elastic band to fit around the head place the elastic piece on top of the outer face, matching the edges to the raw edges of the fabric.  Next you will place the inner face of the mask right side down on top of the elastic and outer face.  Finally you will lay your inner fabric on top of that.  We are sewing the mask together inside out so that when flipped right side out the seams will be hidden.  Therefore, you will need to leave a small area unsewn in order to flip right side out.

Note:  If you are sewing on a trim to the outside you would not need to hide the seams and could, therefore, stitch it right side out to begin with.  For detailed instructions see the original post above.  You could also add some lace at this point before you sew if you wish the edge to be hidden.

Step 4:  Stitch around the edges of the mask, trying for as small a seam allowance as you can.  Here I used a 1/4" seam allowance which turned out to be too big and the mask came out a little bit too small.

Stop sewing about 1-2 inches before you get to where you started.  You will need this gap to turn the mask right side out again.

 

Step 5:  After you have finished sewing the mask together, flip it right side out through the hole you left in the seam.  You did leave a hole, right?  After you flip it I recommend using a chopstick or pencil, etc. to push the edges all the way out for a nice clean look.

 

Step 6:  Now you need to stitch up your hole.  You can use a ladder or slip stitch to close it up.  Alternatively you could also top stitch along the entire length of the mask.

 

If all went as planned it should look something like this, except I couldn't find my elastic so yours will have an elastic band to fit around the head and hold the mask on.

 

 

That's it for today.  I will post some updates of the embellished masks later on.  Until then, wish me luck.