“I made some face masks yesterday,” my friend Dawn said to me (over the phone, of course.) “And right now, I’m sewing a dress out of the same fabric, so I’ll have a matching dress and face mask!”
Yes, the cloth face mask trend has swept Lancaster County along with the rest of the world. Quilters and dressmakers are rising up with scissors in hand and sitting down at their sewing machines with a new purpose— the humble homemade face mask, fighting COVID-19, the new invisible enemy of humankind.
It all started for me at work when I had to create a tutorial about how to sew face masks for a local healthcare organization. Then the CDC and our state government recommended people start wearing cloth masks in public places.
Finally, several family members asked Mom if she could sew face masks for them.
“Okay,” I said last Saturday. “Let’s pick out some nice cotton fabric scraps, wash them, and just sew a whole bunch of face masks.”
Mom pulled out cardboard boxes with scraps that were leftover from sewing dresses and quilts. “I’ll make some flowered ones for the little girls. And we’ll make solid color masks for your brothers.”
“I think 100% cotton is considered the best.”
“Look, if you blow through this fabric you can tell it’s not woven very tightly.”
“This is a nice color, but it’s too thin.”
After the selecting the scraps that seemed most suitable, I filled up the washer and then hung the material out to dry. No one would want to wear a mask with a musty fabric stash smell.
Once the fabric was dry, we start cutting and sewing. Mom mostly made pleated face masks, while I experimented with the rounded masks that have a seam in the front middle.
I even tried making one of those no-sew face masks out of a bandanna and hair bands, but it felt really uncomfortable, so it was back to the sewing machine.
Actually, if you can piece a quilt or sew a dress, sewing face masks, especially pleated ones, is easy.
I know cloth face masks have their skeptics. But I think:
- They stop saliva from flying all over the place.
- They keep you from touching your nose and mouth.
- It’s respectful in crowded public places these days.
When I tried wearing my mask around the house, I soon discovered that my glasses fogged up pretty quickly. A google search later, I learned to fold up a tissue and place it between the mask and the bridge of my nose . That cuts down on the fogging.
The escaping breath means my homemade mask isn’t airtight, of course. But I know it’s filtering at least some of the air since I can feel it flutter when I inhale. Also, the carefully placed tissue gives me extra incentive not to fiddle with my face mask.
On Tuesday, I volunteered at Blessings of Hope, which is a “food bank for food banks”, a ministry that takes donated food from corporations, then repackages and breaks it down into manageable amounts and distributes it to food banks and needy families. (If you want more details about Blessings of Hope, you can read what I wrote about it here and here.)
Blessings of Hope is an organization born for such a time as this. With restaurants and schools shut down, the amount of food available has grown rapidly, and so has the number of people needing the food.
The evening I helped, we packed 650 food boxes. I was one of the last people on the assembly line, and my job was to put in Mike and Ike candy. The sugary treats were in green single-serve packs. “Just put two big handfuls in each box,” said Fanny, the woman in charge.
I looked at the waiting stack of Mike and Ike boxes on a pallet and I understood why they wanted so many going into every box.
There were about fifty volunteers at the food bank, and while I knew we had a good purpose, I was glad to be wearing a mask. Blessings of Hope does screen their volunteers, but I know they have lots of people in and out.
I’m not very worried about the virus myself, since I’m pretty healthy. But I live with my parents, who are in their sixties and had tuberculosis many years ago.
After the packing was over, all volunteers were allowed to buy food for very low prices. I decided this was my chance to save Mom some grocery shopping, and bought whole chickens, hamburgers, frozen pizzas, potatoes, salad greens, red raspberries, chocolate milk, and raw milk, rescued from a farm like the one I wrote about last week. No Mike and Ikes. I was going to get some to take a picture for this post, but I forgot, which is okay because I really don’t like Mike and Ikes anyway.
I waited until I was out at my car to remove my gloves and face mask, then used my hand sanitizer immediately. (Several years ago I got some small bottles of hand sanitizer for a gift, and now I’m finally using them!)
Next week, I signed up to help pack lunches for healthcare workers in NYC.
I sewed a face mask for my sock monkey, just for fun.
I wrote about the time I made the sock monkeys with my nieces in this post here.
This Easter weekend, instead of a huge family gathering and church services, I’m just having a quiet weekend at home. Perhaps I’ll sew a dress… with a matching face mask!
Have a Good Friday and Happy Easter!
Blessings, Susan
Thanks, Susan, for the tissue trick. I was wondering what to do about my glasses steaming shut. It’s not very conducive to successful grocery shopping!
You’re welcome, Margaret! No, you definitely want to be able to see where to push the shopping cart and read the “Limit 2 of X product” signs.
I like the monkey with the mask and the morning glories !
Interesting news about Blessings of Hope .
My morning glories vines were starting to wrap their way around my tomato seedlings so I had to stake them.
Blessings of Hope is certainly a busy place right now. I’m glad they were able to move into their new building a few months ago.