My husband Ray wanted a mask that looked like his own face!
Here's the method we used to make it.

See the Sewing/Crafts section of my main Table of Contents for other sewing projects.

I asked Ray to describe how he took the photos and got them printed. Here is his response, together with the ‘story’ of how the masks came to be! Ray gave me permission to share his words here.

Getting the photo right
The hardest part of making my ‘face’ face masks was getting the face image right. I took photographs of my face in various lighting using my professional photography equipment, being careful to light all sides equally, then picked out the smile I liked the best. I brought this image into a Word document and sized it approximately right, then printed it. I compared the initial print to my face in a mirror to determine whether the image size was too big or too small, then adjusted the size up or down and reprinted. I did this several times until the size was exactly right, interpolating between sizes.

Getting the face coloring right
Then I started working on matching the color. I tweaked the hue, saturation and brightness repeatedly, printing each and holding them up to my face to compare the color. I continued this until I had a printout that was exactly the right size and color.

Ray's first mask used an inkjet printer
Once this was done, I took some white bed-sheet fabric, used a temporary adhesive to attach it to a piece of paper. I used my inkjet printer to print my face on the fabric, then removed the fabric from the paper. I cut out the fabric face image and folded and ironed the edges, then temporarily adhered it to a mask ‘base’ which was a piece of white fabric with edges sewn over and elastic bands to go around my ears sewn into the corners.

Problems with the inkjet mask
This mask looked good, but it had several problems:

• The temporary adhesive only lasted a few days, so sometimes the edges would come un-stuck and I had to reapply the adhesive.
• When the mask got wet the ink-jet ink would run, so my face would look terrible—smudges and horrible colors—and I'd need to print another.
• It was impossible to wash, so when it got dirty I just had to throw the face part away and re-print.

Another minor issue is the elastic got more and more stretched out over time, so I ended up having to shorten it so the mask would stay on.

Finding a DTG (Direct-To-Garment) printer
I used these inkjet-printed masks for several months while I searched for a DTG printer who could make indelible fabric prints for me. There seemed to be none in town, so I did a web search and found 3V Tees out of Atlanta. They were hard to contact and communicate with—it was email only, and I think English was not their main language—but I managed to arrange to have 10 face mask images printed for \$50. 3V Tees said they needed 100% cotton to print on, and I was afraid tee-shirt material they used would be too thick for a mask, so I ordered a white 100% cotton sheet with a tight weave from Amazon. When it arrived I cut it into roughly 8.5" $\times$ 11" pieces, put them in a padded envelope and mailed it to 3V Tees, along with an exactly-right printout from my inkjet printer. Then I created a high-resolution PDF of my face from the Word document and emailed it to 3V Tees, asking them to please match the color and size as exactly as possible from the printout I mailed them.

Gluing the photo to the mask
A few weeks later, and after paying their \$50 invoice, I received ten prints of my face, all exactly the right size and color. I used temporary fabric adhesive to attach this to my mask base. Now I had a mask that didn't run when it got wet, and could be washed. But it did keep falling off. My next step was to use permanent adhesive. Unfortunately the permanent glue bled through and made unsightly spots in the front of the mask. At least my face didn't keep falling off at untimely moments.

Asking Carol about sewing a mask
A few months later I consulted with Carol about making a mask where the face was sewn on instead of being glued on. We batted around a number of ideas and came up with a design that looks great and is comfortable too. This morning I tried on the prototype and was excited about how well it looked and fit. The new design [instructions on this page] uses elastic that is pre-tensioned so it seems much less likely to stretch over time. She’s going to make two more for me using the new design. Thank you, Carol! [You're very welcome, Ray!]