During the past two Wellness Fridays, I was able to continue my sewing journey and try new skills. On the first Friday I was eager to start my next project, a skort, however, I ran out of navy blue thread that I needed for the project, instead, I made masks for my mom and I.

Ever since the pandemic’s start, we have been collecting reusable masks whenever we see them being sold. My mom always complained that most of the masks we found did not fit her comfortably. Using one of my masks that I found the most comfortable, I traced it on paper in order to create a pattern. Using the pattern I cut out 2 pieces for each layer of the and sewed them together, leaving the two ends open. With the ends on either side, I was able to stick the ends of the elastic, measuring them to fit comfortably, and sew down the side to hold them in place.

The masks I made

After a trip to the ‘sewing street’ where I got the navy thread I needed, along with some invisible zippers, knit fabric, and embroidery thread, I was able to start my project for the next wellness day. This time I was not able to follow a tutorial to learn how to make it, which made it a greater challenge. Fortunately, I owned a skort similar to the design I wished to create so I traced the pattern using the measurements and shapes of the different elements. Another challenge I faced was what fastener to use because I did not have an invisible zipper foot, needed to sew the zipper onto the clothes. I decided to use buttons because I learned how to sew the buttonhole from my last project and they could be hidden by the skirt. After a lot of attempts and using the seam ripper to take out mistakes, I was finished.

This project was definitely more structurally challenging than the last because I had to figure out which elements were meant to go where without the aid of a tutorial on youtube. However, I was able to apply some of the techniques that I had learned from the last project and I am very happy with the final result.