DIY Valentine's Day Inspired Sleep Masks!

When I shuttled myself up to Aggieland last August to start the whole college business, I gained an absolutely beautiful room! I’m slowly building up wall décor for this space, but lucky for me, I get to skip a whole wall! Why you ask? (And this is even luckier.) Absolutely giant windows!!! They are incredibly beautiful and make everything feel so airy and fun. The only problem then is that when it starts getting light outside, my brain goes, “time to wake up!” Early rising like this would be an awesome thing, except for the fact that I regularly stay up far too late! So as we blissfully glide into spring (yes, that it what the transition feels like to me), I decided to whip up some fun sleep masks for that rising sun in the early morn!

DIY sleep masks aren’t really new, a quick Pinterest search will show you that, but I’ve been dying to try out my own embellishments. And then a day full of hearts and pink and love and stuff comes barreling towards me so I said, “why not Valentine’s Day inspired sleep masks?” (Check out me and my dialogue tonight. Obviously, I am now a fiction author.) I mean talk about a fun and personalized gift!! AND I get to once again use the fabulously sparkly glitter fabric I purchased for my Bright Side/Monday Side Pillow—it comes in so many colors! Yayyyy!

You will need:

A sleep mask to use as a pattern or this nifty template I made ya

1/4 yard black satin fabric

Glitter fabric sheets in the desired color (You could probably also spray on glitter with a product like this one!)

Scissors of the craft and fabric persuasions

Scrap fleece

Fabric glue (I used this brand)

Needle ‘n thread

Sewing machine

Fold over elastic (also nifty for a DIY Elastic JournalClosure *shameless self-promotion* or hair ties)

Step 1

Click here to download a sleep mask template and print it on computer paper! Or if you don’t like my overall shape, use your own mask as a template (or in my case my sister’s mask)! A quick Pinterest search will also get you what you desire and you can create the embellishment templates in a word processing program! All those are 2.5” in height, just to give you all the options you could possibly want.

Step 2

Cut out the mask template from the computer paper. Fold the satin parallel to the selvage to the height of the pattern and pin on the template, then cut both layers at once! (You can trust me, it’s pretty easy.) The fleece will also be cut from the shape inside the seam allowance if you would like to do that at this step.

Step 3

Trace and cut your embellishment from the glitter fabric! It is actually easiest to cut with regular scissors, for the record. Make sure if you are using certain letters such as “L” or “C” that you trace and cut these face down, or they will come out backwards!

Step 4

Attach the glittery embellishments to the right side of one of the satin pieces. I put just a little glue in the center to tack them in place, then made a running stitch by hand around the perimeter of the shapes to be all fancy-like! I would also recommend tacking down the points of a letter such as the x with a needle and thread even if you decide to glue everything. Otherwise, these points tend to stick out and look awkward, especially when the mask goes with the curves of your face.

Step 5

Cut your fold over elastic so that it comfortably stretches around the back of your head from temple to temple. Mine ended up being 13.”

Step 6

Now you will stack and pin your pieces for sewing. Start with the unembellished satin piece, right side up, followed by the elastic, also right side up. Since the elastic will be wider than the mask, you can go ahead and pin the ends down straight across from one another. Place the embellished satin piece face down on top, and pin everything together, sandwiching the ends of the elastic between the two satin layers.

Step 7

Stitch it all up, leaving a 2” gap at the top for turning, and using a narrow seam allowance.

Step 8

Notch the curves of the sleep mask by cutting out little triangle shapes. This will make everything lay out more smoothly and beautifully at the end.

Step 9

Turn the mask right sides out and push out the curved edges, then iron them on a low setting from the unembellished side to get pretty, clean curves (without melting your glitter vinyl).

Step 10

Insert the fleece piece you cut earlier and smooth it out between the layers. If it is too bunchy, you may need to trim it down a little. Once its’s in place, slip stitch that gap closed.

Step 11

Now take a gosh darn nap, because you worked very hard and have something pretty to help you out!

One of these babies is soon to be on a trip to Ohio to wish my bestie a very Happy Valentine’s Day—sorry for the spoiler Theresa dear! Sweet dreams love!

I do have to say that this little guy is so SO comfy! Between the satin, fleece insert, and fold over elastic at the back, this is one of the comfiest sleep masks I have ever tried on. I mean I might be a little biased because I get to look a little like my favorite emoji now, but I’m not completely lying! And it is well suited for that very beautiful and very bright window.

Some other cute variations on this idea include animal masks, the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s eyes, or the addition of puns and other lovely words! What kind of sleep mask would you put together? Maybe one with emoji eyes?! (I mean, really, they’re emoji eyes.)

Stay lovely,