More Mask Making

DD Emma emailed me late last week with a request for masks. She works in a care facility in Columbus, and both her building and others in her corporate group face a shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment).

Get this: the subject line of the email said "In Need Of Fabric" - Emma knows. Believe me, she knows!

Then in the email: "If you have or know others that have fabric that can be donated please bring it to the corporate office." 

She and I both had a good chuckle. I mean, really. She is well aware of how much fabric resides in this house!

I told her I was perfectly capable of making masks for her and her co-workers. No need for shipping it elsewhere.

Guess how I spent my weekend? Yep! A batch of 30 masks! Add these new ones to the 14 I had last week and I'm up to 44. (Sometimes I can do math!)

I was stopped in my production last week  due to a lack of elastic. After issuing a request to my various groups of girlfriends, I am now fully stocked and back in business. One friend, Rhonda, brought me pony tail elastic - 9 packages with 75 in a package - good grief! I will be making masks into the next decade!! That is 675 ties or 337 masks using 2 per mask. (Ack! More math!) However, I am going to have to reconfigure my design, as the ponytail elastic is short. A design upgrade is in the works. I won't be letting these go to waste, that's for sure.

I watched a few video tutorials on making masks. This method was one of the simplest. Cut two pieces of fabric at 9" x 7". Add one piece of interfacing of the same size. The elastic is cut at 7" - two per mask. Attach the ends of the elastic in the corners.

The stack shown here is sewn together and ready to be turned right side out. I have left a 2-3-inch gap in one edge for turning.

These are turned and ready to be pressed. Then I pin three pleats on each side and top stitch all around which closes the opening and hold the pleats in place. Do a final press and it's finished.

I delivered 10 to my neighbor and good friend Dorothy. She is food service director at our local school district and is out in the community delivering meals to students 2 or 3 days each week. Lots of exposure in this endeavor.

A second delivery of 10 went to a young couple - the husband is doing his medical residency and even though they know these are not medical grade masks, they are useful as barriers to airborne droplets. They have a toddler and one on the way, so you can imagine their need for caution.

And all the rest will go to Emma. I will have over 50 to take to her. My assembly line currently  needs more interfacing to be cut, and then I will be back at the sewing machine.

Through all of this I am doing a good bit of scrap removal. I am pulling fabric out of the drawers which would have taken a long, long time for me to ever get around to using. This has been good for me.

And I hope I am doing some good for others.

Stay safe, dear readers!

Happy Quilting, Friends!