Thursday, April 2, 2020

Pandemic - Face Masks

Making Face Masks so we can venture outside.


1st batch of Face Masks

Tapes/Ties are made from 1.75" material folded over twice and Ironed into strips.

Mask is made from two layers of fabric 10" x 7", sewn with 3 pleats.

This size fits Adult Male, it's just too big for my wife (a retired Nurse of 40+ years) and way too big for Kids.

Pirate material is left over from a previous boat project.
Blue is left over from another boat project 15 years ago! 

Tape is made from material a buddy from HISC gave me when he was clearing out.

Working on Medium and Small sizes this morning.


Changed tack slightly. Rather than waste any of the material for the ties, I cut a bunch of them, sewed together and then folded them. That way I can cut each one to length and not waste the end of each strip.

Making the ties is the most time consuming part. But the stores are all out of elastic, so for now it's Ties.

The material was donated, so I'm putting it to good use.












I use a 25mm binding maker which speeds up the ties manufacturing, but still a long task.

Then I sew them together at 45ΒΊ and trim the seam allowance to make easier to pass through the binding attachment.

The binder folds over the two edges to create a standard width binding, then that's folded in half to create the ties.

The new method results in a very long strip of tie material, about 5 yards, it's unwieldy to handle much more than that.

Then the long strip is cut into pairs. 42" for the Male Adult masks and 38" for the Junior Masks,




Here's some of the 'Lobster' material that I had puchased for the boat window curtains, I have plenty, enough to do the windows is left over.













Finished Junior Mask, only two pleats but still has the nose piece, it's just a straightened Paper Clip with the ends turned over to prevent them piercing the material (they are also inside of 6 layers)

After they are sewn, they are pressed with the steam iron and ready to launder.







Latest finished batch of six.

the fabric is cut to 8" x 6" for the Junior version.



I'll make one more version. Female/Teenager using 9" x 7" fabric. I have some stars material that I can use.

I'll post an update when the first batch of F/T masks are done.


Stay safe everyone.

Latest Batch.

So far distributed to family and friends (neighbors)

Next batch will go to distant friends, just need to get the appropriate addresses.

Probably have enough materials for about 50. Made 20 so far.

Purchased new blades for my Rotary Cutter - game changer!

Purchased spring clips for holding materials together (pleats) kinder to my hands ( 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎)

I have templates for 3 sizes now.

More later.


Another Batch,  13 made today.

That used up all of my material for the Ties :(

Delivered some and Mailed some to Family in Florida. Neighbors and their family. 

Thought I had an issue with my machine, turned out it was the Posi Drive Pin not quite in place

No comments:

Post a Comment

Got questions or suggestions about our boat, our sailing or our adventures?
Leave a comment.

Thanks.