I’ve started making cloth masks for donation. The first step was to take inventory of my fabric-I haven’t done much (any?) sewing in the past two years, so I don’t think I’d actually touched any of my fabric since I moved into this apartment. It turns out that I probably have enough linen to last me a lifetime, mostly in white but also in some other colors, and quite a lot of wool. (I really need to find a project that uses up my scrap wool, because I have lots of wool scraps, and I find them so hard to throw out!) My cotton supply was almost non-existent, consisting of some quilting cotton with knitting sheep on it, some 4x4 prints of my sheeps and other critters, some un-hemmed handkerchiefs and some blue paisley that was originally supposed to become a curtain.
I used the blue paisley for the front of the mask, and for the back I cut up a flannel bedsheet. I had no elastic, but gobs of ribbon, so these get to be tied masks. I went with the pattern my mom was told to use for the local hospitals at home, which is fairly simple, without a pocket for a filter. My mom has been putting wire at the top, to help shape the mask around the nose, but since I don’t have any wire…
The paisley fabric was enough for 68 masks, and I’ve got it down to just under 12 min per mask. I’m really proud of my efficient ribbon cutting skills-I skeined up some of the ribbon, and then cut the skein into 4 pieces for my long ribbons for the top of the head, and 6 pieces for the shorter ribbons at the bottom. Each mask I originally cut at 6.5” x 9” (my cutting guide happens to be 6.5” wide, hence that measurement), and the ribbons are 12’ and 18'‘. Each of the pleats are between 0.5” and 0.75” deep, and the finished masks are about 3” tall.