Tricia's Face Masks

Considering what's been happening in other countries, I suspect it's only a matter of time before we either have to wear face masks when outside, or at least before it's considered very bad manners not to wear one. I know that medical opinion is that they don't protect us very much, but there is some suggestion that wearing one protects other people if you happen to have the virus and don't yet realise it. And, given the lack of disposable masks available for those who really need them, I thought I'd see if there were suggestion on making your own!

I found one blog entry which is fairly easy to follow (although I gave up trying to measure my way through how to do the pleats and just did them by eye.) The link is: https://buttoncounter.com/2018/01/14/facemask-a-picture-tutorial/

The owner of the blog uses them to counter pollen during peak allergy season, and there's no suggestion that they're virus-proof, but they should slow down the movement of water droplets which are thought to be the main transmission method between people.

Of course, I don't have a sewing machine, so I hand stitched everything but here's what I came up with.

The top mask was my first prototype, and I started it before I found the tutorial I linked above. It's just a single layer, and probably not very effective, even given the limitations of the mask. The others use the tutorial - the white one is mainly made from a very old flanelette sheet, while the others are made from pieces of polyester cotton I got for a completely different purpose! I have made some using ear elastic as in the tutorial, but my husband didn't like the idea of that, so I've also made some that will need to be tied. The cord for those is actually elastic that came out of my mum's sewing box. The elasticity is completely gone, but for the purpose, it works!

I actually used the white one when I went for my walk this morning. It does make it harder to breathe and it gets quite wet too, but that's my experience from when I've had to wear one while volunteering in hospital. The biggest issue is that it caused my glasses to completely steam up!