"The One Sleep Eyemask to Rule Them All" 2.0 - New and Improved!

So, about four and a half years ago (has it really been that long??...Gosh, I'm old...), I made a pattern for what I deemed "The One Eyemask to Rule Them All." You can find it by clicking ---> here. (Actually, you need to click there if you want to try this project, b/c it includes the pattern I used. And it's free.) 

Anyways, if you read that last post, you will learn that I am a really strange sleeper. I CANNOT sleep with any light nor sounds of any kind. I also...prefer to have my ears covered. I know. It's weird. Guess what. It's okay. I fixed the problem by buying an ear-covering-eye-mask in Korea when I lived there years ago. So...I'm not the only one! Someone else has this problem too!

Anyways, all that to say...my former mask--patterned after the Korean mask--was alright, but fell short in one major area: I woke up every morning with deep creases on my face made from the red binding I'd added around the outer seam.

Okay...so...why it took me four years to revamp it, I don't know, but anyways, the point is I did it, so without further ado, let's get to the new project.

To rid myself of the weird creases every morning, I decided to choose 100% silk satin. Silk has long been lauded as a luxury fabric and for good reason. Not only is is durable while being lightweight and aesthetically beautiful, it also is a great surface on which to sleep. (Remember when I made that silk satin pillow case? No? Well, click --> here then.) Anyways, I made a silk pillow case from an old prom dress that I never wore and couldn't sell online. I've been sleeping on it every night since I made it, and it's fantastic. Best pillowcase ever! My hair is far less frizzy with less breakage and I have fewer breakouts, just to name two reasons for why I am such a believer in sleeping on a silk surface.

A word about 100% silk satin. It's a luxury fabric. That means if you go to the fabric store to try to track it down, you are going to pay a pretty penny for a tiny bit of it. Instead of that mess, consider finding an article of silk satin clothing from the thrift store. The top below is a tunic that I actually bought on sale at a retail store, but it doesn't fit me very well. I had tried to sell it on Poshmark. It sat there for about a year with no takers, so I gave up and decided to repurpose it for my sleeping purposes. I'm glad I did. (You can see that I already cut a sleeping mask out of the bottom hem at the start of this project. That's because I wanted to trial run this project before promoting it to make sure it actually worked. Boy am I glad I cut that stupid shirt up! I love my eye mask! So...this project is really my making a few more masks that I can alternate when one of them has been washed and is hanging to dry.)

Okay...so...for reals this time, let's talk about the project and how you might replicate it.

You need: silk satin (if you can't find 100% silk satin, try just 100% non-satin silk. If you can't find 100% non-satin silk, try a polyester satin. It's not as good, but it's better than moisture-stripping cotton.). You also need black-out fabric. I used extra curtain fabric. It doesn't have to be curtain fabric, but curtain fabric is really really good for this because it is very opaque. You can easily test fabric by holding it up to the light. If it doesn't allow light to pass through, use it!

You also need: elastic, Velcro, glass beads (substitutes will be mentioned later), and....a stapler!

First, cut out both fabrics using the pattern in the link I already gave you at the top of this post. You need to add a seam allowance around it. I eyeballed about 1/4" around. You can see in the pictures below.

Then, with the right sides of both fabrics together, pin them.

Cut a two lengths of wide-ish elastic. (There are four in this picture because I actually made two eye masks at once.) These are roughly 6 inches long.

Open the sides of your pinned mask and stick the elastic in. (You can actually do this before you pin the fabric together in the first place.)

Then, stitch around. Make sure to leave an opening at the top middle of your mask so you can turn it right-side out. The picture below shows me back stitching over the elastic. I did this to assure the elastic was secure in the side seam.

Then, cut little notches around the curviest parts of the seam. This helps it lay better when it's right-side out.

Turn the mask right-side out.

Okay, first of all, see how there is an opening at the top middle of the mask? Make sure it's the TOP of the mask you leave the opening in and not the bottom. 

Okay, so get your pattern back out and notice where the lines are drawn. This sections off the "ear" parts from the "eye" part.  Put pins on either end of that line.

Then, just stitch straight from one pin to the opposite pin.

Then, turn it upside down and sew about a 1 to 1 1/2" line straight up the middle. This is where the mask will hit your nose and nose bridge.

Turn it back around and measure about 1 to 1 1/2" out and above the nose line to make eye lines. You may want to actually hold the mask to your face (BEFORE PINNING!!!) to see where your eyes hit in relation to the nose line. 

Then, stitch roughly 1 inch lines.

Okay, so now let's discuss filler options. You know how fancy spas have those eye masks that have fancy things in them like lavender and seeds and whatnot? So...you can totally use lavender...or rice...or seeds...or whatever. I used glass beads and here's why: Because I wanted to be able to throw my masks in the wash! Glass beads have a nice weight to them, so you get that spa-like feel, but you can also wash your mask in your weekly laundry and it won't get gross bacteria buildup or...mold! Ick!

A word about glass beads: They are awesome, but I do have to say that glass retains a colder room temperature than...say...cotton or lavender or other fillers. So, it's really nice to put a glass bead-filled eye mask on in summer. It's very refreshing. However, right now it is winter and so I will say, it takes a few minutes against my skin for the glass beads to stop being so dang cold. If you are a light sleeper, this can rob you of those first crucial moments when you are trying to fall asleep, so...what I do: I read the Bible before falling asleep. While I'm reading, I put the eye mask under my body, so it can heat up for a few minutes. Then, when I put it on my face, it's not so jarringly cold and it feels quite nice.

Okay, so, as I said, I made two masks at once. I actually tried to fill the other one with poly-fill stuffing. Well, after I filled it, I held it up to my face, and guess what...I could still see light peeking through the bottom. When I held the glass-filled one up, I could manipulate the beads to block all the light out. Also, the fact that the beads have weight keeps the fabric down, so less light comes through....Suffice to say, I pulled all the poly-fill out and filled the second mask with beads as well. 

If poly-fill works better for you, though, go ahead and use it. Use whatever filler you want.

Then, sew the top "filling" gap up.

Okay, so now comes the adding of the Velcro. Almost all Velcro you buy nowadays comes with a sticky backing. I'm not sure why companies think this is a good idea. First of all, sticky back Velcro is not permanent, no matter how sticky it is. It comes off in just a few washings. Furthermore--and if you sew at all, you will hear me on this--it's SUPER annoying to sew through! It gums up your sewing machine and the gum NEVER comes off your needle! Then you try to hand sew it, and guess what...same problem: You have to throw your needle away because it's covered in gum.

I am going to save you a ton of time and heartache with a simple hack.

First of all, take the strip off the backing...

Then, fold the edge of the elastic down toward the side that will receive the Velcro.

Stick the Velcro on over that fold...

Then, COMPLETELY BYPASS THE SEWING and use a stapler!

That's right! I said a stapler! Staple it just like I have it below and your mask is done! No messed up sewing machines. No unsalvageable needles. It's permanent, washable, and it takes three seconds! 

So here is the finished mask. Hurray for light/cold ears/crease-free sleeping!

The End!

Re-fashioning: How to Integrate a Non-Stretchy Collar onto a Stretchy Dress

So...I'm not a huge fan of "swing" dresses (Think: Lularoe) because I am pear-shaped and they tend to make me look frumpy. However, I found one this past Christmas that fits me really well.

It gave me a silhouette idea to make a dress I'd had in my mind for awhile: To incorporate the collar of this dress tunic below into a different garment. It is one of those "cold shoulder" tunic/top/dresses that can't make up its mind as to what it is. Anyways, I really only ever bought it because of its collar. I hated the rest of it, and I wore it with white pants once, and it DESTROYED my pants! 

The dye came off!!! So annoying!

....Anyways, I digress...

Let's get to the actual project...

So I had this really cool graphic fabric based on the comic strip "Blondie." It is actually supposed to be for making stretchy book covers, but. . .I found it at a thrift store a few years ago, and I've been wanting to make a dress out of it for awhile.

So what I did was to fold the swing dress in half, fold the fabric in half (matching up the pattern on both sides with pins as I folded it in half--you'll find out why later), and laid the dress on top, smoothing all the wrinkles out.

I knew I didn't want the dress to be too long, but I wasn't sure how long it should be, so I cut the bottom hem out quite a bit longer than the swing dress. You can always take away later. You can NEVER add back!

Then, I cut around the rest of the dress with about 1/2" seam allowance.

Then, I did the same thing for the sleeves.

Okay, so my pieces are cut out here. The first order of "bid-ness" was to sew the shoulders together--But! As I have pointed out before from studying the inner workings of my other clothing: When fabric is particularly stretchy, clothing makers add a bit of elastic to the shoulders. This is to keep the shoulders from stretching way out of shape as the garment hangs off your body. REALLY IMPORTANT!!

So, I cut out pieces of elastic to fit the shoulder seams

And I went ahead and pinned the shoulders together along with the elastic so I could sew them together--as Marie Kondo would say--"in one fell swoop." (NOTE: Don't stretch the elastic here. Just sew it straight onto the shoulders.)

Go slowly. You really need to keep your wits about you when you sew stretchy fabric. Make sure your foot pressure is not too heavy, and imagine you are pushing the fabric through slightly. DON'T PULL ON THE FABRIC OR YOU WILL BE SO SO MAD WITH YOURSELF!!! 

(Use a blanket stitch if you don't have a serger.)

This is with the shoulders sewn together.

Okay, so this part I had to really think about...how was I going to integrate a not-so-stretchy collar onto an EXTREMELY stretchy dress.

Well...there is always more than one way to skin a cat, but...my motto is "Work smarter, not harder!"

So the first thing I did was to fold the collared dress in half--or at least the collar and zipper part. Now...it was REALLY IMPORTANT to keep the zipper intact with the collar b/c, while the dress was stretchy enough to pull on over my head, the collar opening was not! So...I would need the zipper intact to get in and out of the dress properly.

So, I cut the collar and zipper off the dress/tunic/shirt thing and made sure to leave about a 2" margin around it all. Remember...I had never done this before and was kind of learning as I was going...so if you do the same, you NEED to give yourself some WIDE margins in case you have to change something.

So then I laid the collar on top of the dress on my dressform. (NOTE: The next set of steps is almost literally IMPOSSIBLE to do if you don't have a dress form! You can't do it with the dress flat on the ground, b/c you need a body to hold the shape, and you can't use a real person's body b/c you will definitely stick them with pins! If you don't have a dressform, the only other thing I can think of is to safety-pin a pillow to the shoulders of a hanger--put a bra on it if you need too--and then hang your garments over that. Then, hang the hanger at shoulder level so you can work on it. 

Still, using a dressform is really the best way.)

Here is the back....(I took this picture b/c I was stalling for time...I still wasn't sure what to do.)

Okay, so then I pulled myself together and started folding the margin of the collar up, about an inch, and pinning it to the dress.

I continued around to the back. Okay...this is another reason why you need a dressform: Stretchy fabric stretches out as it hangs on the body, so you have to hang it on a body to make sure that the non-stretchy fabric will match it. This is kind of like...draping...a little bit.

Another note: You don't just pin willy-nilly. You constantly have to make sure that things on the top and underneath are flush and even. So take your time. It's better to unpin and repin something than to rip stitches out!!! (Oh Lord...I want to make that abundantly clear!!)

Also: This process is much easier BEFORE you put sleeves on so you can reach underneath and shift things that need shifting. I have the sides of the dress pinned in this picture to help me feel out the shape of the finished dress, but the only things actually sewn at this point are the shoulders.

So here it is all pinned down.

So, if that seemed like a lot of work, it was totally worth it, b/c now all you have to do is top stitch all around it in one step! This saves a ton of time, actually. 

(If you don't sew, you have no idea what I'm talking about...)

Not bad at all. Is it perfectly even? No. I can tell you where all the mistakes are. But you know what? Who cares! It's not worth taking the stitches out to redo it. (The picture above looks like the stitching is all stretched out, but it flattened out once the dress was finished.)

Okay, so now, all you have to do is open the zipper. . .

. . .And then cut the underneath fabric down the zipper. . .

. . .And cut away all the extra margin/seam allowance from inside.

Okay, the rest of the steps are pretty standard. . .Blahblahblah. . .You pin the sleeves on. . .

. . .and sew them down. . .

Then you pin from the inside of the cuff, up to the armpit, and then down the side to the bottom hem. Sew all this in one step.

Okay, here's a little trick: Remember how I said that I made sure the pattern of the fabric matched on both sides when it was folded? That was to make sure that I was cutting both the front and back of the dress out so that the stripes would match up on the sides....(Well...these aren't really stripes. They are actually just spaces between book covers...but for my purposes, they are stripes!). 

Anyways, as you are pinning your garment, pin the stripes together perpendicularly at the top of each stripe. Look at the picture below? See how that pin is perpendicular to the seam and runs along the top of the white stripe? I'm lifting the bottom of the stripe up, so you can see how the stripes meet.

Almost done! Just need to hem! Okay...here is yet another need for a dressform. I have it set to my measurements and to my height. See how something is a little off on proportion? This happens when you have a patterned dress that is long sleeved and has no waistline. Also, the collar is very high. All these elements cause the dress to seem a little frumpy. If the sleeves were shorter, the hemline might be okay where it is, but I want the dress to have the high collar and long sleeves. That means, I need to make the dress a bit shorter to stay out of Frumpsville!

This is precisely why I don't buy a lot of Lularoe. . .

In the meantime, see how nicely the stripes match up on the sides?

And even on the sleeves!

Okay, so at this point, I tried the dress on and played with the hemline till I saw what I wanted. I noted how short I wanted it to be and then laid the dress flat to pin it. Once again, I didn't just pin willy-nilly! For one thing, I made sure the back hem was 1/2" longer than the front (for "butt rise"), and I also measured the length from the armpits to the hemline on both sides to make sure everything was even. In other words...If I had measured up from the bottom--say...4"--the finished dress would have had a wonky hemline. It's better to measure from the top down, than bottom up, when you hem.

The finished dress.

Collar looks great!

Back looks good too!

The End!