I was tasked to make a mask for a church event. It was our annual cultural event and it usually has a pretty good turn out and amazing food. I was so overjoyed and honored to be asked and then came the worrying. The worrying that I would disappoint every one. The worry that I wouldn’t be as good as everyone expects me to be. The worrying that I’m not actually that talented. But you know what, I remembered one thing. I know what I’m capable of and God works wonders through us. I always forget to pray first before worrying and this just delays any progress. God helped me through and I eventually started working on the first mask.
It was pretty challenging at first. Looking through countless photos and ideas on Pinterest didn’t give me a clue on how to start a crocheted mask that would stay on a person’s face. There was no method or instruction on how to give structure to a mask made out of yarn. So I began with taking a regular sheet of printer paper and printed out a generic mask. Then I traced that out onto cardstock. I then started changing it around to fit my face. There was lot of trial and error on this because these masks had to be sturdy and allow the person wearing it to be able to breath as well. So the masks couldn’t be full face masks.
I’m actually forgetting one crucial piece. I forgot to tell you guys what the theme of the event was. Our Pastor wanted to hold a sort of Masked Singer competition with four contestants from our church. No one was to know who was participating and it was all hush hush. We met at night on zoom for meetings and at night for rehearsals. It was really exciting and so much fun to be a part of it all.
Back to the masks…
Here are the images of what I did for the lion mask. I didn’t take any pictures for the others because I was rushing a little to finish everything and I didn’t even think of pictures at that point. I was asked in January of 2024 and then had to finish sometime in September. Silly me thought that I had so much time. Little did I know I would be rushing until the end. I was too naive to think that I had so much time that I didn’t work fast enough at the beginning and started slacking off.
The snout of the lion was the trickiest. I had to make sure the singer’s face was covered but to also make room for breathing. Don’t ask me how I figured it out. I can’t really tell you what was going on in my head at the time but I just started forming pieces of cardstock and eventually came up with the image above for the final template. I had to make several of these so I put the image into my Cricut and it did the cutting job for me so the shapes were uniform. Thank goodness for the Cricut because at some point I was sooooo done with cutting and the Cricut does such a good job at it.
So then I was thinking that this event was in the Fall but it was still warm at that time. What if they start sweating? I didn’t want the color of the cardstock to transfer onto their faces so I had to think of something. I decided to cut out felt to place on the back of the masks. I hot glued them onto the edges so they would still be comfortable enough to wear for an hour or so.
Then, of course, came the crocheting. I used single crochet for most of the mask. Unfortunately there was no pattern. I just made sure that I fit the shape of the actual mask. This step was definitely tricky but I managed to make the shapes fit. Then I glue those pieces to the top of the mask to cover up the cardstock. I tried to pick a cardstock color that matched the yarn so that if the cardstock was showing, it wouldn’t look too weird.
I had to glue the felt after I shaped the mask so that it wouldn’t be bulky on the back. So the thing I didn’t realize…that the fuzziness of the yarn around the eyes would need to be trimmed. One of the singers wore it and it was poking her eyes. I felt so bad. I started cutting the pieces of yarn fibers so they wouldn’t poke her and make her uncomfortable. Since this mask was the first I made, the yarn around the eyes got a little more worn than the others.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any other pictures. I just have pictures of the finished masks. These were definitely a labor of love. So I didn’t mention before but I did have the choice to do anything I wanted for the masks. I had free reign on what the masks would look like. I could have done something abstract. I didn’t have to make animal masks. And then I thought, why not make animals that represented our faith. So I chose:
- The Lion. The Lion is a symbol of Jesus. The lion also symbolizes bravery, nobility and strength.
- The Lamb. Jesus is also the Lamb. This symbolizes Jesus’ suffering and triumph over death.
- The Eagle. The Eagle is used to represent the apostle John. Also, the Eagle is used to represent God’s care and strength.
- The Fish. When Christians were persecuted during the Roman empire, they used the Fish symbol (the Ichthys) to recognize churches and other believers. Also, it was part of the feeding of the 5000.
The following are pictures of the “works in progress” for the Lamb. This one might have been the most time consuming mask because of the loops of small chains I had to make all over it. I wanted to make the mask super fluffy looking like an actual Lamb.
Here’s what the final masks look like on the singers and on my kids.
I am so ever thankful for being chosen to make these. The experience helped me think out of the box and I was able to help make this event a success. Let me know what you think of these. Which one is your favorite? Would you ever make one for yourself? Maybe for Halloween. As always, thank you for reading and have a great day!
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