A few simple changes let you wear your love of Nintendo on your figurative sleeve and literal face.

Once upon a time (three months ago), paper face masks used to be easy to find. All you had to do was pop on over to your local drugstore and pick up as many as you needed to keep allergenic pollen or common cold germs out of your respiratory system.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed all that, though, with shoppers snapping up stores’ stocks immediately after the masks hit the shelves, if not staking out the mask aisle before a shipment even comes in. In response, many people have started making their own reusable cloth masks, and while that’s definitely less convenient, on the plus side it gives you the chance to express yourself in ways no mass-market disposable masks ever could.

For example, Japanese Twitter user @ikasu_mask_OL recently created a mask design that looks just like a Nintendo Switch!

@ikasu_mask_OL says the basic construction is pretty much the same as making any contoured cloth mask that arcs in the center for a better fit around the bridge of the nose. She recommends the patterns from Japanese craft supply chain Yuzawaya, such as this one.

However, there’s a key difference for @ikasu_mask_OL’s Switch masks. While the lining is two sheets of muslin fabric sewn together, the same as with an ordinary mask, the outer-surface layer is four pieces of double gauze instead of two, with black pieces for the center and two other colors for whatever shade of Joy-Con controller you want to emulate (the original blue and red in the example below).

Then it’s just a matter of sewing the four pieces together, attaching the liner and outer-layer fabric, and adding the elastic ear straps.

Of course, at this point the mask, as stylish as its tricolor design may be, still doesn’t quite look like its video game hardware inspiration. To really complete the look, @ikasu_mask_OL adds felt faux analog sticks and face buttons to each side of the mask.

And with that, it’s done!

▼ Game/mask on!

@ikasu_mask_OL’s creativity was immediately showered with praise from other Twitter users, half of whom say their kids would be thrilled to wear a Switch mask, and half of whom say they want one for themselves. Unfortunately, @ikasu_mask_OL stresses that she’s not in a position to sell the masks, since they’re unlicensed fan creations, but she does encourage anyone who wants one to try making their own, which so far has inspired at least one fellow Nintendo fan to replace the blank black “screen” of the Switch mask with a scene from smash hit Nintendo series Animal Crossing.

Not a Nintendo loyalist? Don’t forget that you can still indulge your gamer passion with a custom Dragon Quest mask. Either option is a great one, because in a world where masks have become a critical component of any going-out outfit, why not have one that looks cool?

Source: Twitter/@ikasu_mask_OL
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