Darty Mask with a single neck elastic/tie

5 July 2020
Questions? Find me on Twitter at @kerri9494.


two facemasks made with the pattern on this page

Just take me to the pattern.

I designed this mask pattern to help with the problem of needing to put mask ties behind or near people's ears. Folks with hearing aids, cochlear implants, even glasses can struggle with so much stuff going on with their ears. Some people don't have ears. Some people have ears that don't like having elastic wrapped around them. This pattern makes a comfortable mask that's a bit poochy in front -- that's by design, because it needs room for the mouth to move. It has a single elastic/tie that goes behind the neck. Nothing near the ears at all.

I use quarter inch seam allowances.

How does it work? There are four darts in the pattern, that create a roomy pouch for the face, while fitting closely at the nose and chin. The darts allow the sides of the mask to come to a point just below the ears, which pulls both the fabric in the nose area and the fabric in the chin area close to the face, while eliminating gappy sides.

I highly recommend using a strong nose wire with this pattern. Look for double-wire tin ties if you want a nice, strong, sewable nose wire.

I use elastic and a cord lock, but you can use anything for the tie around the neck -- a shoelace, string, a slice from a t-shirt, pretty much anything that you can tie.

If you make this mask, I'd love to hear from you! Post a pic or comment on Twitter, tell me what worked and what didn't...I'm open to adjustments! It fits well on several of my testers, but every face is different. You can find me on Twitter at @kerri9494.

I hold the copyright on this pattern, so please don't copy it and sell it. I'm giving it away for free because I think it's important that things like this be freely available to people who need it.


The pattern

The image of the pattern below is sized to 8.5" x 11". When you print it, be sure to print it at 100% to get a typically adult-sized mask -- "some clipping may occur" and that's fine. For reference, the vertical fold line should be just about four inches.

If you want to make a mask for a smaller person, you may want to scale the printout to about 80%. Or smaller, depending on how small the person is.

To download the image, right-click on it and then choose "Save Image As" (if you're using Chrome -- other browsers will say something slightly different). Make a note of what directory it's being saved to, so you can open it and print it.

black and white sewing pattern for cutting out

Right Click ↑ On Pattern Pic and Save the Image