How to Sew and Tie Dye A Cloth Mask With Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour

In her DMs alone, the demand has been staggering. But she can only make around 40 masks a day by hand. “You wouldn’t believe my inbox right now. I go home and start crying because I can’t make all of these,” she says. “By doing this and actually seeing the demand, it’s so much bigger than one city and so much bigger than one person. It can’t just be my thing to make a mask anymore. We all need to start doing it.”

Below, Taymour’s shared a guide to sewing these masks in the hopes that people will not only make them for themselves, but that they will donate as many as they can to Masks4Medicine. For at home tie dyes, she suggests using turmeric, artichokes, and beets, which are the easiest to get the color out of (this will get you pale yellow, green, and deep red dyes, respectively) but you could also use onion skins, coffee grounds, or avocado skins.

If you just want to sew a mask, here’s how:

Step 1: Cut 2 rectangles of cloth 6” x 9” and two smaller 1.5” x 36”.

Step 2: Sew the rectangles together on the 9” side only.

Step 3: Iron the strips to hide the seams.

Step 4: Turn the rectangle inside out and pleat with an iron.

Step 5: Sew the strips along the pleated 6” side. And you’re all set—You made a mask!

How to tie dye at home:

Step 1: Chop whatever raw organic materials (artichoke, avocado skins, or turmeric) you’re using and bring to a boil in a pot of water. Let simmer for an hour, and then strain it and set aside.

Step 2: Prepare the fabric to soak up the dye by rinsing it under cold water. If you’re using plant matter, you need to add one part vinegar to four parts water and bring the fabric to a boil in this mixture.

Step 3: Add the fabric to the dye that you made in Step 1. Simmer until it’s reached the color that you want (if you want it to really soak up the dye, leave it overnight).