Superhero Masks March 19, 2013 – Posted in: Tutorials

I have very little experience with boys and boy things. I have 3 nieces and 3 daughters, so when Sofie started getting invited to boy birthday parties at school this year, I was at a loss! I love to give a handmade gift along with a store bought one when I can, just so I can give them something a little more personal.

So when one of our best friends had a party in February, I went looking for an idea of what to make him. I’d stumbled on these amazing superhero masks from Cutesy Crafts several months before and knew this would be it! In about 2 hours, I whipped up these awesome little masks!

I already had all the felt and elastic, so it was a super easy project! I used her templates and had a blast putting them together. There were a few times I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to make them the cleanest, so I’m going to share my tips.

I used 2 pieces for each mask. I cut my elastic about 13″ and sewed it to the back mask piece using coordinating thread at 3/8″ seam allowance, assuring the elastic would have 2 seams on each side and would stay put. I also left a tail inside the mask to make sure it wouldn’t unravel and get pulled out.

For some of the masks I assembled them before sewing on the other pieces. So I would pin them together and sew around the eye holes first using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Then I’d sew around the perimeter, also at a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Then I’d trim up any places the felt stuck out from the back to even up the pieces. For the Hulk, I then sewed the black hair and eyebrows, using black thread on the front and the green in my bobbin so it blended in to the back. If I’d sewn on the black before putting my mask front and back together, he’d have a green seam through his hair, or I’d have to stop halfway through sewing and change thread color.

For Spiderman, Ashley cut her pattern piece and marked on the felt as she went. But I decided to just stitch over the paper and rip it off. This made it go very fast and the lines stayed true to the pattern piece.

Also, I did just the front felt piece of Spiderman then assembled the rest, using red thread to sew around the eyes and the perimeter of the mask.

One thing I did think about when I started tracing was how to add the “wing” pieces to the masks. You’ll need to cut your mask pieces out with those shapes, too. So for Thor, for example, I cut the 2 main pieces and sewed the mask together. Then I took the grey helmet piece and sewed the details on with black thread, then placed it on top and sewed around it to attach it to the mask.

So each mask took a little bit of thought as to how to best assemble it, but the finished product was fantastic! My girls loved them and have been begging me to make more, though I have a feeling they’ll choose Doc McStuffins and Minnie Mouse over Batman and Wolverine!