Duckbill Face Mask

While out grocery shopping today, the nice lady in front of me at the till did not believe I made my mask myself, after I repeated it 3 times, she complemented me on a nicely made mask.

I made my mask without a existing pattern. I made my own pattern, and I like to share it with you. I also just finished a new mask to document the making process.

Most people I’m seeing with homemade masks are wearing masks modeled after surgical masks. These masks are often touching the lips, and only the part of the mask in front of the mouth will be working as the filter. With this duckbill model the whole surface of your mask will be a functioning part of the air filter.

• Fabric, something tightly woven, if you look through it at a light source you should not be able to see any holes. I’ve read kitchen towels and blue shop towels are recommended, I’m using vileda naturals all purpose cloth.

• 2 shoelaces or strings, I’m using 90cm shoelaces

• Needle and thread

• A sewing machine, or you could sew this mask completely by hand

• A strip of metal, +-10cm, for moulding the mask around your nose. I cut out a strip out of a plate of thin and easily bending aluminium, I added some holes to sew it into place. You could also use wire.

• Scissors for cutting fabric. Never cut paper with these, not even patterns, use scissors made for cutting paper instead.

• A pattern. You could print mine. If you print mine, you can cut it out, I’m using the biggest hexagon, if your head is smaller than mine, use a smaller one. If your head is bigger than mine you will have to draw your own pattern.

Copy the pattern onto your fabric 2 times, and cut it out.

Fold the fabric in half, and really press down on the fold line so that it is well visible and it will stay visible .

Choose the piece you want to use as the top of the mask, and sew the metal strip or wire into place

Put the two folded pieces of the mask on top of each other with the shoelaces in between, and thread them them together by hand, so that it will not move while sewing your mask with the machine. If your parts do not line up exactly, now is the moment to cut them to size.

You can now put in a straight stitch with your sewing machine, and afterwards remove the thread from the previous step

Now you can finish off the edges, I did a simple zigzag over the edges

I put cord stoppers on my shoelaces. But if you don’t have those, tying a bow knot works just as well.

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I never took any sewing lessons, I just learned by watching my mom. So I’m definitely no expert, if a more knowledgeable person has any comments, I'm all ears.

I’m no covid-19 expert, I’m also not a mask expert.

If you can translate this instructable to be able to reach more people you are free to use my pictures, just please mention this instructable as your source.