Sew-in Quick-Adjust Elastic Connector for Face Masks

Elastic connector tab designed to be sewn into cloth masks. Simply pull to adjust the elastic.

Field Tested - Mother Approved
How-To: Sewing Guide

Loop around the ears
OR
Cross bands across the back of the head.

Print with a flexible material, TPU (which includes TPE), this adds a simple T-Slot cut to thread the elastic through and simply pull to adjust.

OpenSCAD file included to enable Customization.

Story

My wife started sewing masks and giving them away to friends and relatives. Everyone loved their masks; however some said their mask was too small and others said theirs were too big.

Sizing is judged by the tension of the elastic. Too tight, and the mask is too small. Too loose and the mask is too big. If only it was adjustable...

3D Printing

I have been printing ear savers with flexible material so I decided to see if it was possible to print a flexible tab that could be sewn into the cloth.

Through experimenting I determined a grid design produced a strong flap that could be sewed through without notice.

The simple TCut VSlot I created for my first POC worked much better than I anticipated. It holds the elastic without making a knot so you just thread and pull to adjust.

Putting the two together my wife helped me tweak the parameters. She wanted a long tab so it would be easy to hold while sewing. Once we had it dialed in I printed a sheet to ship tabs to relatives making masks and published the model and OpenSCAD file for anyone who want to customize it.

Please let me know if these work out for you and share a picture of your masks;)

Print instructions

Flex Filament: TPU

Examples are:

• Solutech TPU
• Priline TPU

I've printed TPU with:

• Print Settings: 0.20mm Quality @MK3
• Filament Settings: Generic Flex (Temp adjusted)
• Printer Settings: Original Prusa i3 MK3S [MMU2 Single]

For these TPU offerings the manufacturer recommended 200-220 C and I have good luck at 215 C.