Great Night’s Sleep Eye Mask Pattern & Tutorial
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If you haven’t already seen my post on why I wear an eye mask to sleep, you can read it here. If you have read the post and are eager to make your own eye mask, here is the tutorial!
First, a note on your supplies. You’ll need several small pieces of fabric to make this eye mask.
I’ve accumulated a large stash of fabrics of all types of materials, patterns and sizes. (I’ve actually put myself on a fabric diet until I am able to use up some of what feels like a never ending stash.) Luckily, I have plenty of fabric to choose from when working on a project like this.
If however, you don’t have a large stash of fabric, before you hit the fabric store, check your rag/mending pile and the thrift store.
You may notice that the silk used in this pattern is from a silk scarf I bought at a thrift store. I’ve used pieces of it in a few projects, and there is still plenty left – in fact I could probably make a dozen eye masks from this single scarf. The black fabric I used was the sleeve of a men’s dress shirt. I salvaged the sleeve (and most of the rest of the fabric from the shirt along with the buttons) when the collar became too worn to be presentable anymore.
If you do choose to purchase your fabric new, remember you can have most fabric stores cut a piece as small as a ¼ yard – this will be more than enough to make your eye mask.
Here are the supplies you will need:
- Silk fabric (or other really soft fabric you would like to have against your face for around eight hours each night) – 10” x 6” piece
- Black cotton fabric – 10” x 6” piece
- Quilting cotton (pattern/color of your choice) – one 10” x 6” piece and one 26” x 1⅝” strip
- Quilt batting (the sheet batting, not loose stuffing) – 10” x 6” piece
- ½” Elastic – 12” length (slightly more or less depending on the size of your head – see sizing information below)
- Thread to match your fabric choice
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You can do this project by hand, but it is much faster and easier if you have a sewing machine. Additionally, you may find that a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and pattern weights come in handy.
Before you begin, print out the pattern for the eye mask. Make sure you chose to print actual size on the Adobe Acrobat print settings. There is a one-inch square on the pattern for you to reference when printing to ensure you have the pattern printed at the correct size. Cut out the pattern (cutting to the inside of the black outline) – it includes your seam allowance.
Now use your pattern to cut out one each from the silk fabric, black fabric, quilting cotton, and batting. I have found that the easiest way to cut out my pieces is to lay the fabric on a self-healing cutting mat, place the pattern on top, use pattern weights to keep everything together, and then with my rotary cutter, carefully moving around the pattern, cutting out each piece. I would not suggest trying to cut multiple pieces at once, take the extra few minutes to ensure each piece is cut as accurately as possible.
Layer your pieces as follows: batting, black cotton fabric, silk – right side facing up, quilting cotton – right side facing down. If you have a feline (or small human) helper, you may wish to put a few pins in this stack now. Set to the side.
Fold your strip of quilting cotton in half the long way and sew with a ½” seam allowance to create a long tube. Turn your tube right side out (the easiest way I know to do this is to attach a safety pin to one end and dive that safety pin into the tube. Then as you ease the safety pin along, you will be able to smooth the fabric, turning the tube as you go.
To get a custom fit, measure the circumference of your head following where the eye mask will sit (keep in mind how you wear your hair while sleeping). The finished eye mask is 8½” so you will subtract that from your head measurement. You then want to subtract between ½” and 1” depending on how tight you would prefer your mask. What you have left is the length of your elastic.
The equation is: X (head circumference) – 9 or 9.5 (eye mask + negative ease) = Y (length of elastic)
In the event you are making this eye mask for someone else, unless you are dealing with a very large head or someone who sleeps with their hair in curlers, 12” should be a good length for an average size head.
Attach your safety pin to one end of the elastic and slide it through the tube you created in the last step. This will be a snug fit – the pattern is designed so the elastic does not slide around in the casing. You will also notice there is a considerable amount of bunching of the casing, this is intentional first to accommodate for stretching the elastic and second to provide comfort (preventing elastic from digging into your head) when wearing the mask for several hours at a time. A trick to keep the elastic from sliding all the way through is to pin it to the opposite end of the casing as you begin to feed it through. Once your safety pin makes it all the way through the tube, pin the elastic to the other end. Do your best to ensure your elastic is laying flat within the tube and is not twisted.
Bring back your stack of eye mask fabrics (if you placed pins in this stack earlier, remove them now), and slide aside the quilting cotton on top. Lay your elastic strap on the silk layer and pin, centering each end on the marks shown on the pattern. Carefully sandwiching the strap between layers to prevent it from being sewn into a seam, replace the quilting cotton (right side down) on the stack, and pin the edges of the eye mask together. Sew around the edges, again with a ½” seam allowance. Go slowly as there are several curves to navigate in the pattern. Make sure to leave a gap of around 2” for turning. Use back stitching at the beginning and end of your stitching to provide you with some additional stability when turning.
Once you have sewn all layers together, turn the eye mask right side out. The easiest way to do this is to grab the strap and pull it through first, then working one side at a time, pull the rest of the fabric through. You should now have the right sides of the quilting cotton and the silk fabric both facing out and the batting and black fabric sandwiched inside the mask. Your strap should also be on the outside of the mask.
Tucking in the gap where you turned the eye mask and pinning the fabric in place, you can either hand stitch the gap closed, or sew all the way around the edge of the mask, giving it a little more structure and closing the turning gap in the process. Tie off your ends from your edge stitching and using a needle, pull them inside the mask before trimming to prevent you having visible loose ends. Your mask is now finished and ready to help you get a great night’s sleep!
Here are just a few notes on the pattern:
- The black fabric is added to provide additional darkening. I would not suggest skipping this unless you choose to use a heavier and dark colored fabric for one of the visible layers.
- Test your fabrics before washing, however, I have found that my eye masks do well with hand washing, and hang drying. During the washing of a test swatch, your pressure points are fabrics bleeding and ensuring your silk fabric stays soft and supple after washing.
- You can swap out other fabrics for the quilting cotton on the front and strap. Just keep in mind that the strap will be touching exposed skin above your ears, and depending on the fabric choice it might not look as crisp as the quilting cotton.
If you have some sewing experience and a sewing machine, you should be able to complete an eye mask in under two hours. If you have the materials on hand – you could be just a few hours away from better sleep tonight! You might also use this eye mask during savasana in your yoga practice as well as for your yoga nidra sessions. Personally, I prefer an eye pillow which provides extra weight for those activities (pattern to come), but if you would like something which won’t fall off when you move, or you do not enjoy the extra weight of an eye pillow, this is a great option!
Wishing you fun creating something you can use to make a small change with a big impact in your life!
