Lavender Hot-Cold Eye Mask

Art Gallery Fabrics is having a fun year of challenges over on the Art Gallery Fabrics Blog and the Art Gallery Fabrics Facebook page. Month 1 was to make a Hot-Cold pack of some kind, using their fabrics, and featuring at least one raw-edged applique.

I picked up three of the fabrics from their “Dreaming in French” line, which seemed appropriate for making this Hot-Cold Lavender Eye Mask. The mask is filled with rice, and a little bit of lavender to send me off into a restful sleep full of good dreams! It can be tossed in the microwave for a few seconds, or the freezer for a few hours, to give me warm or cool soothing relief after a long day. And, with the elastic band, it will stay put!

To make the eye mask, I used 3 contrasting fabrics, coordinating thread, rice, lavender, batting, freezer paper, fusible for the applique, and elastic (measured to fit the back of my head).

I started by drawing a mask on my freezer paper. I made it a little bigger to accommodate the 1/4″ seam I’ll need when I stitch it all together.

I folded the freezer paper template in half, down the nose, and then cut out. Folding it in half ensured that the two sizes stayed the same size. I then ironed the template, shiny-side-down, onto the fabric. Because the freezer paper is a little see-through, I was able to get the placement I wanted on the flowers of the fabric.

On a double-layer of fabric, I cut out around the template, then removed it. The challenge required a raw-edge applique, so I cut some shapes out of the second fabric. These were fused to the main fabric. Rather than stitch around the applique, I chose to put some batting behind the fabric (just one layer, I reserved the second layer for the back of the mask), and stitch lines across the top. This both secured the appliques and added a little interest.

Using the third fabric (the stripe), I cut 2 strips each 2 1/2″ wide. I cut one strip in half, and sewed it to the full-length strip.

The short strip I folded right-sides-together stitched along the long side, and flipped right side out, then threaded the elastic in for the band.

The long strip I folded in half, wrong-sides-together, and pressed. Using the longest stitch on my sewing machine, I stitched 1/8″ from the raw edge all the way down the length. Then, pulling one thread, I ruffled the strip.

All the parts were then pinned together, the ruffle facing the inside, and the band tucked inside. I stitched all the way around, 1/4″ from the edge, leaving a hole about 2″ at the top.

The whole mask was then turned right side out.

I filled the mask with rice, and about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of lavender. I didn’t want so much lavender that it would hurt my eyes to have it pressed on them. I also didn’t overfill the eye mask, so that it could still conform to my face when in use.