If you would have told me a year ago that I would be sewing a stack of cloth masks for my family, I would have thought you were crazy! But here we are. I am finding there is a shortage of elastic now that everyone is making masks, so I had to get creative when making mine.

I bought some stretchy headbands and cut them up into strips to make my ear loops. They work great and are so soft on the ears!

I was able to get four pairs of ear loops from each headband. However, that would vary depending on the stretch of the headband fabric.

I used Made Every Day’s Fabric Face Mask free pattern to make my masks. The only change I made was to do ears loops instead of the around the head ties.

I hope you try this is you are having trouble finding elastic to make masks or if you just want to try something that is softer on the ears! What is your favourite fabric mask pattern? I am going to try the 3D fitted mask style next.