Facemask

August 18, 2020. There's a virus plaguing the world (Covid-19), and although Queensland isn't doing too bad, masks are not compulsory yet, other states are doing worse (Victoria), and some countries are in the grip of it.

Amongst my exercises and doctors appointments etc., I thought I'd make a slightly better mask than what is available. Not that I need it, but it is something I can do, and it kept me occupied.

I concentrated on available materials, and functionality. So this mask may not be the prettiest, but the materials are easier to come by, and it can be made my most amateurs. Though not tested, I suspect it is probably better than no mask at all.

What is needed:

  1. Polypropylene shopping bag (cloth, NOT plastic!). And preferably with sufficient unprinted surfaces to make a mask (or two). Note: Polypropylene is mostly waterproof too.

  2. Cotton fabric. Dense enough, but not dense enough that you cannot breathe through.

  3. Sewing machine, or needle and thread to sew.

  4. Shoe laces.

  5. Other: If you dont have access to a sewing machine then needle and cotton thread will do. In fact if you're as bad as I am in operating a sewing machine then needle and thread may be a lot better. Online access for downloading pattern, printing out the pattern, or access to a printer (I used Officeworks).

Gathering the materials:

Get a cloth bag from your local supermarket. These are usually polypropylene, waterproof, but breathable. Make sure there is enough surface area without print. Because you cannot breath through the printed sections.

I found the 'cloth' bags to be too rough on the faces sensitive skin, so I also used some cotton fabric for the inner layers. For this I bought table mat-like material made of cotton at a local opp shop.

You may need a sewing machine, or a needle and thread to sew the materials together once cut.

Pattern: I went to http://craigturner.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/mask_dimensions-Rudy-Fernandez-comment-on-blog-post-3.pdf and http://craigturner.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/mask_Nodimensions-Rudy-Fernandez-comment-on-blog-post.pdf to get my patterns from.

Craig has a youtube video using an iron and sometimes glue to make his masks. Without any stitching at all.

However that won't work with cotton material, and using solely polypropylene may work, but I'm not sure of virus penetration (due to absence of cloth) and also I found either side of the shopping polypropylene a bit too rough on the faces sensitive skin.

But the pattern is good!

When I made my first one, I found the sewing machine a bit unwieldy, and the stitching was all over the place. But the second one turned out a bit better.

Also with the second one I used the paper clip as the nose contouring apparatus. And also on the second one I used shoe lace instead of polypropylene tie. Turner uses elastic head tying, but I'm wary of those as they can snap, and I think my shoe lace idea is slightly better. Though you may prefer the elastic option.

So first step you need is to disassemble the shopping bag. I at first painstakingly removed the stitches. You can use what's called a quick-unpick for that.

But having done that, it's probably not necessary, as you can just cut out the parts you need. Eg leave out the edges.

And I had also cut out the pattern, downloaded from Craigs's page.

Mark and cut out the patterns