Personalize Your Face Masks

Here it is November and many sewists have spent time making masks these past 9 months as we try to lessen the impacts of this global pandemic.

This summer, Elizabeth ordered some premade cotton-knit 2 layer face masks and dyed them using the ice dyeing techniques we have talked about before.  Search the label ice dyeing on this post to see old posts where we mentioned ice dyeing.

After dyeing some masks she got to work using thermofax screens to add images.  She tried adding an owl from our collection which had previously worked well on a woven cotton but found that it was too detailed and just looked blob-like on the knit mask fabric (top left)  Since less detailed images seemed to work best she tried some of the screens in our collection which were hand drawn and had thicker lines.  She was also particularly pulled to the words that could be added either alone on a mask or over top of another image.  

As these masks were premade and included some gathering around the edges it wasn't always easy to get the image into the space without a wrinkle or two.  This was exacerbated by trying to use the screen a second time once paint was blocking the view of the image.  Thus, she did a lot more screen cleaning than normal. Screening fabric first and then sewing the mask is an alternative if you sew.

If you have a simple line drawing you think might look good on a mask, send us the image sized for the small screen and see if you can make your own personalized mask.  This cardinal came from the Graphics Fairy, a free source for vintage, public domain art work. 

This is a dragonfly that Sue drew on a piece of paper with a black pen.  We can make a screen from your drawing so long as the image is black and white.

A favorite is when you can screen two images and have one as a foreground and one as a background such as these daisies and then add a sentiment or positive word on top.

Different fonts will give you different looks so play around and see what words you can fit in the size of the mask you are using.  There are so many to choose from just in Microsoft Word alone.  Above, the word "Flourish" is in a font called "Casteller". Most of the fonts we used are in the range of 65-120 font size but that would depend on the length of your word and the size of the printing space available on your mask.  Enjoy personalizing your mask with your own work.  We would be happy to help you.  Visit our Etsy shop to see our screens and order a personalized screen. Right now there is a 20% off sale through December 3, 2020. 

If you use a word though, by careful when you put your mask on because you might be walking around with your mask on upside down!  How embarrassing is that?