Homemade COVID-19 Protection Masks for my Sister

Since the CDC began recommending the use of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I’ve been researching the best materials and methods to use. Here are some of the key things I’ve learned:

• Elastic irritates the ears after a while, so fabric ties around the back of the head are preferable.
• Attaching straps on the sides versus top and bottom of the mask ensures a tighter fit, as does adding wire to the nose bridge.
• Several layers of tightly woven fabric provide the best protection against aerosols and droplets.
• Blue shop towels are a great option as a single-use filter for masks.

My sister works in a hospital that is providing each person on her unit with one surgical mask per week. So, I got to work on a batch of masks to extend the life of those surgical masks and provide some additional filtration.

Before I get to the method I used, here are some of the rules for mask use that I came across. If you don’t follow these guidelines, you’re missing out on the benefits of wearing a mask!

1. Wash your hands before putting on your mask.
2. Do not touch your face while wearing your mask.
3. Wash your hands after removing your mask, and promptly wash your mask or put it in a sealed container until you wash it.
4. After removing your mask, never put it back on without washing it first.

Mask Instructions:

Step 1: Cut 9″x9″ squares of fabric and arrange them right sides together. I’m using three layers – two of quilting cotton and one jersey knit.

Step 2: Pin along opposite sides. On one side, mark a 3.5″ opening in the center.

Step 3: Sew through all three layers leaving a 3.5″ opening on one side.

Step 4: Turn inside out, pin, and topstitch the steams you just created. Be sure to leave the 3.5″ opening!

Step 5: Create three pleats and pin. These do not need to be precise – don’t worry about measuring.

Step 6: Trim excess/uneven fabric on each side. This will make it easier to attach the straps.

Step 7: Staystitch the pleated sides.

Step 8: Create straps by cutting two 1.5″ strips of fabric. Each should be at least 12″ long.

Step 9: Fold opposite sides into the middle and press with an iron or just your finger. Finger pressing worked fine for me, you just want to get it started. I also folded the fabric as I fed it into the sewing machine.

Step 10: Using zigzag stitch, sew down the middle of the strap joining the two folded pieces together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 10: Find the middle of the length of one strap. Fold it in half and attach it to the pleated edge of the mask with pins, ensuring that the middle of the strap matches the middle of the pleated edge. The strap should tightly straddle each side.

Step 11: Begin attaching the strap by sewing down the middle of the strap, starting at one end.

When you get to the mask, be sure to sew through both sides of the strap and all three layers of fabric. Sew down the rest of the strap. Repeat on the other side.

Step 12: Cut three 6″ pieces of floral wire. Insert them in the hole at the bottom of the mask and push them up to the top of the mask, along the top seam.

Step 13: Pin under wire to mark its location

Step 14: Sew just below wire.

Step 15: Use the hole at the bottom to insert a blue shop towel filter. Cut towel into a rectangle. To insert the towel, grab the top right or left corner of the mask from the inside and pinch the associated corner of the towel from the outside. While pinching, pull the about half of towel into the mask, ensuring that the other corner is still outside of the towel. Then, find the other corner of the mask from the inside and pinch the other top corner of the towel from the outside, pulling the rest of the towel into the mask. Arrange the bottom corners of the towel into the bottom corners of the mask and ensure that the top edge of the towel is up against the top seam of the mask.

Ta Da! Finished mask!

Layers of Lament

We’ve been quarantined for three weeks now and don’t know when it will end. I predict that complete physical distancing will last until at least early June and that things won’t really be back to “normal” until a vaccine is widely available in fall 2021. And even so, it will be a new normal. I don’t know what the in-between will be like.

I am going through stages of grief and finding that there are so many layers of things to lament.

There is the grim reality that people are dying – that children are losing parents and parents children. That people are dying alone.

There’s the lack of protective equipment for medical staff, putting their lives in jeopardy and contributing to more illness and declining ranks of caregivers.

I lament our country’s poor leadership and the way this is being handled: the denial for so long, the lack of clarity around the extreme measures that are required to stop the virus from spreading, that states are outbidding each other for supplies, that we knew this could come, and then was coming, and didn’t prepare. I lament that major corporations are being bailed out and that those bills didn’t include protections for workers.

There are the effects that this is having on our economy – the service industry, in particular. Unemployment claims surged this week. So many are out of work and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

And then, there are those of us cooped up in our own homes. Physical distancing is it’s own challenge as humans were not meant to live this way. Working parents especially are stretched thin.

Being here at the cabin, I have never felt my privilege more acutely. Two salaries (for now), a safe haven, my two favorite people. I am leaning into this — everything I need and more — while I lament the many layers of the destruction this virus has wrought. I pray, and hope, and grieve.