Free From Quarantine and Mask Making

So two weeks have gone by. Our 14th day of quarantine was on Thursday. In all that time, the only times I left the house were to go for walks in the neighbourhood and to deliver something to one of my stitching friends, keeping a safe distance away. I hadn't started the car since January so I wanted to make sure it would start and wanted to give it a bit of a run.

Yesterday morning, I got up very early so I could get to Metro (local grocery store) and take advantage of the 7 - 8am senior shopping hour. Everything was well stocked from what I could tell. At least everything I wanted to get was available except for ground beef. "X"s are on the floor at the checkouts to delineate 2m distancing. I was in and out of there pretty quickly.

The lack of traffic was eerie. I felt quite emotional. These are such strange times. And they won't be over for quite a while. I'm figuring the summer will be pretty much a write off.

Before my visit to the store, I had viewed several YouTube videos on making face masks. Up to that point, we had been discouraged from using them because healthcare facilities need them and they are in short supply and they didn't want us hogging them all. Also, the cleanliness of the mask is defeated by touching it and people have a tendency to touch their faces all the time. However the thinking has changed in the last couple of days and homemade masks seem to be in favour now.

I finally settled on a modification of this pattern I found on a Hobby Lobby video. I do not in any way support that company. The owner stole antiquities from Egypt ( which ultimately turned out to be fakes - ha ha) and won't allow his employees family planning meds or devices to be covered on their health insurance with the company. But I digress.

Fabrics should be pre-washed and dried on high heat for maximum shrinkage. I cut up a shirt destined for the charity bin and an old pillowcase. They both had been washed and dried many times.

The only modification I made was using two different fabrics, cutting the lining fabric 8" x 8" and the outer fabric 8" x 7.5". I then cut the lining in half, put the right sides together, and sewed on the long edge, 3" in from each side leaving a 2" opening. This opening can be used for inserting a HEPA filter later if you can scrounge one from a clean vacuum cleaner bag or dismantled filter from a humidifier.

Then I put the two fabrics together and sewed 1/2" seams along the top and bottom, in the same direction as the lining opening. then anchored the elastic beside each of the seams and sewed the side seams closed. At this point, I took a 2.5" length of paper-covered twist tie like the ones that come off cilantro or broccoli

and inserted it in the top seam allowance between the two fabrics. I tacked it in place with fabric glue. After turning the mask right side out, pressed it and stitched around the twist tie.

I then made the pleats as indicated in the video and top-stitched all around the mask, reinforcing when going over the elastic ends.

Skip's is the same as mine so I put our initials on the inside lining with a Sharpie. The opening for the filter (if I can ever find filter material) is concealed in the middle pleat.

They cover very well.

The twist tie molds nicely to the nose and prevents glasses fogging up. Plastic-covered ones that come with garbage bags would work even better. I tried a length of wire and didn't like it as much. Pipe cleaners would also work well. Yes, the metal will probably rust but that won't harm anything.

When I wore it yesterday, I had to consciously remember to NOT TOUCH MY FACE. My nose started running in the supermarket but I just sniffled quietly to myself and DIDN'T TOUCH THE MASK. I took it off as soon as I got out of there and washed it when I got home, ready for the next use. It can also be steamed with an iron to kill any virus.

I was very fortunate to have enough of this elastic in my stash. With wider elastic, it can be cut in thinner strips. I have seen covered hair elastics used as a substitute but they are quite tight around the ears but would be OK for kids' masks. The mask would have to go all the way to the ears, though, to compensate for shorter elastics.

An alternative would be to make long ties so they could be tied behind the head and neck.