Filti Face Mask Tutorial

This is a paid collaboration with Filti but all opinions are my own.

Hey everyone! I’ve got an awesome new fabric product to share with you all today, and I know you are going to love it as much as I do. Filti recently reached out to me and offered to send over their brand new mask making material for me to try out. But why Filti? What makes it so special?

Let me tell you! This company is best known for their reusable HVAC filters but when they noticed a need for face mask material they put HVAC filter manufacturing on hold and kindly stepped up to give us this amazing product.

Filti’s mask material can filter up to 95% of airborne particles coming through the mask, making it a great alternative for making masks. Even better, all of their fabric is manufactured and sold right here in the USA.

For those of you who are curious about what this material is made out of: The fabric is constructed from polypropylene (not fiberglass!) spunbond nonwoven with a Nanofiber fine filtration layer and a surface layer of polyester nonwoven. There you have it!

You can purchase this fabric on their website. The smallest amount you can buy is 21 square feet (or 2.3 yards) for $29.99. This will give you enough material for 50-80 masks depending on how you decide to use it. You could easily go in on this with a family member or friend and divide the fabric in two to save on cost. But really, that’s a great price.

I put together a quick tutorial for making a mask out of Filti fabric. There are so many other ways you can do this, but this particular way made the most sense to me and I thought I would share it with you all! Let’s get started!

Disclaimer: they do not recommend washing this material, so keep that in mind when making plans to make masks. That being said it works really well for making disposable filters to insert into cotton masks that can be washed over and over again.

Step One:

Cut out a piece of Filti Material in your desired measurements. I’ve found this measurement is different for everyone. I have a smaller and more narrow shaped face. For my mask I cut a rectangle measuring 8″ tall by 9″ wide.

Step 2:

Fold the top edges over to the wrong side of the fabric (the white side is the wrong side, and the green side is the right side) at 1/2″ and pin in place. Sew along the raw edge to secure.

Step 3:

This is where we create that accordion look. Evenly divide the mask into thirds, and create two folds along the wider part of the mask. I found each fold to be about 1 1/4″ each. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Eye ball it or use a ruler.

Pin the folds in place. The mask should be about 3 1/2″ tall at this point for reference.

Step 4:

Sew right along the edge of the pleats to hold them in place.

Step 5:

Fold the side raw edges to the wrong side at 5/8″ and pin in place.

Step 6:

Edgestitch along the raw edge of the fold.

Step 7:

Using 1/4″ elastic, cut to your desired length. (I cut mine 9 1/2″ long- this may need troubleshooting to get the best fit for you). Cut two for each side of the mask. Attach a safety pin to one side of the elastic, and insert into the casing on the side of the mask.

Step 8:

Sew the raw edges of the elastic together using a zig zag stitch. Hide the sewn elastic edges inside the casing. Try on and adjust length of elastic as needed. I started at 11″ and sized it down to 9 1/2″ for the perfect fit.

All finished!

Filti mask material is also great for inserting into cotton masks with a filter opening. It’s not recommended to wash the filti material so this allows me to easily wash the cotton masks and insert a new piece of filti material to make the mask wearable once again. Here are a few masks I made recently for my kids, and I left an opening along the bottom to insert a filter. I cut a small piece of Filti material and inserted it right inside the mask. My son is considered high risk because he has asthma so I’m very grateful to be able to give him this added level of protection, all thanks to Filti!

Thanks for reading along, I hope you all love this product as much as I do. Thanks you Filti!