DIY face coverings — this season’s must have accessory!

From this week, people going on to our campuses are being asked to wear face coverings in most circumstances, unless they’re exempt. So, a good supply of face coverings will be a new university kit essential.

25 Aug 2020

To save you money, to be kind to the environment, and to tap into your creative talents, UCA Fashion technician Valentina Elizabeth, is here to share her top tips on making fabulous face coverings to rock around campus. Here’s a quick how-to video tutorial to get things started:

 

What you’ll need:

• Pieces of fabric 42cm by 22cm — depends on how many masks you want to make!
• Two pieces of elastic no wider than 5/6 millimetres wide (0.5cm) and 16cm long
• A pair of sharp scissors to cut fabric, and pins
• Sewing machine/needle and thread
• A print out of the pattern on the left!

Valentina says: “Your fabric should be 100% cotton, ideally. You can use a different fabric for your top layer but the inside fabric which will sit on your mouth and nose definitely needs to be cotton.

“Also, to make the fabric a bit more protective, you could put interfacing on the underlayer of the main fabric to retain the shape. You can see this in the video — it’s a black piece of fusing added to the back of the fabric.”

These face coverings are comfy and machine washable and we recommend you make four or five so you always have a clean one to hand.

We’re excited to see your creations — with all the beautiful fabrics out there, the possibilities on what your face coverings will look like are endless!

Please share your face coverings with us on our twitter and instagram accounts, and use the hashtag #wearingiscaring

For full guidance on the use of face coverings on UCA campuses and exemptions, please visit the Coronavirus FAQs on our website.