As everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past few days knows, the gubmint has now decided that masks actually are a good idea and we should all wear them. Forget that for the previous few weeks they had been saying that masks should only be worn out in public by sick people and the healthy ones ought not wear them. Whatevs. I’m a rule follower, so if they say to wear a mask, I’ll wear a mask. Problem is, we don’t have any so today I’m looking into making them, like millions of other Americans. Not that I plan to be going out any time soon — we are taking the Stay Home order very seriously. The last time I left home was 10 days ago and that was for an essential item. I took only my credit card into the store, picked up the item, paid for it without touching anything but my own credit card, left the store, then used a generous amount of Purell. When I got home I threw my clothes in the wash and took a shower, even though I was only in the store for about 60 seconds because I know exactly where the vodka is and was able to walk straight to it.

If you google DIY face masks you will find over 20 pages of hits. When was the last time you looked past the first page of search results? There are dozens of different patterns, from masks made out of bras to those made out of vacuum cleaner bags, because most vacuum cleaner bags have HEPA filters. The other day I located my vacuum cleaner and discovered it is bagless, so I won’t be showing any of those. Because there is just so much information out there, I decided to help you out by sharing what I found. I’m not making any claims about how good any of these masks are at keeping you from inhaling the corona virus. I’m just passing on the most useful information I found. Now you already know what I’m going to say: This information is worth what you paid for it. And since you’re not paying a red cent, go ahead and click on the ads that appear throughout the blog. Each time you do I will receive about a tenth of a cent which is pretty close to what my talents are worth in today’s market.

CLOTH MATTERS

If you are interested in making your own masks, you should know that you can’t use just any cloth to make an effective face mask. In short, it has to do with how porous the fabric is – a fabric with a loose weave lets in more tiny viral particles than one with a tight weave. One article I read said the best masks are made of two layers of cotton with a thread count of at least 180. If you are like me, you want to use whatever you have around the house, not only so that you won’t have to go out, but also because you finally have an opportunity to do something with all of those little scraps of fabric you inexplicably save after every sewing project. You know darn good and well you will never do anything with them, but you just can’t throw them away. If you are trying to find something good about this whole debacle, this is one — that we are all cleaning out our sewing cabinets for a good cause.

My friend Candice gave all of her fabric and elastics away to a woman who is making masks for a doctor’s office, so that’s another option. Of course, that was before the gubmint started saying we should wear masks, so now Candice and her three daughters are stuck at home maskless, having nothing with which to sew. But they are keeping busy selling and delivering orchids for a local purveyor who was stuck with about a zillion of them when everything closed. When I cleaned out my sewing cabinet I found these three pretty pots to put them in, so that’s another good thing about cleaning out your sewing cabinet as they are making me very happy as I sew.

So how are you supposed to know what the thread counts of your saved bits of fabric are? You hold it up to the light. If light shines through, so will the virus particles. A comment under one of the videos that was supposedly left by a PhD Microbiologist said fine men’s shirting or high thread count bed sheets work well. But if you have shopped high thread count bed sheets recently, you know they cost about $60 for a pair of pillow cases, so the high-end men’s shirt with a ketchup stain or ring around the collar might be the better option.

Some sites say you can use a bandana, which I have done in two of me no-sew examples, although I’m not sure the cotton weave is very tight. Same with the recommendations I saw to use tea towels or dish towels. I have seen a lot of mixed information about T-shirts. Some sites say use cotton quilting fabric or a cotton T-shirt. Other sites say do not use T-shirts. The CDC actually has instructions on how to make a mask out of a T-shirt which I show you below. Some instructions have you leave a pocket in which you can insert a filter, like a piece cut out of a vacuum cleaner bag or a coffee filter. Some say that you can use interfacing (the fabric you use to make things stiffer when you are sewing) because it works as a filter. The one thing I’m pretty sure you should not use to make a face mask is a dry cleaning bag.

BANDANA

Of course, the easiest way to cover your nose and mouth is by tying a bandana around your head, Billy-the-Kid-style, but I can’t get over what a sinister look this is. It concerns me a bit that there has never been a better time to pull off a heist than now, but we have plenty of other things to worry about than that. In this option you fold the bandana over twice and then down from the top to make the right size, so maybe that provides enough filtration. The big opening at the bottom is a plus because you can lift it up to eat and drink, but that also means an ugly little virus can jump up there too.

NO-SEW MASK: T-SHIRT

I saw face masks that are described as “no sewing machine required,” but there was a lot of hand sewing required, and that’s not for everyone, so these next two examples don’t require a single stitch. Here is the CDC mask you can make out of a T-shirt. All you need is a T-shirt and a pair of scissors. It took me about 2 minutes to cut this one out and I think it would last about that long, as it stretches out of shape the minute you use it. Considering you can see my face through it, it doesn’t exactly pass the light test. But I reckon if the CDC put it on their website, they must think it is better than nothing.

NO-SEW MASK: BANDANA

This YouTube video shows you how to easily make a true no-sew mask that I think is pretty efficient. If you find YouTube DIY videos tedious because of all the explaining and talking they do, you will love this one. There is zero talking and it is only a minute and 42 seconds long as the demonstrator lovingly folds the fabric Marie Kondo-style. The only trick is that you need to have a couple of hair elastics, which are not something you see floating around my house, although that could soon change. I expect my hair is going to be long enough to braid by the time this is over. I haven’t gone three months without a haircut since I was in college and you can see what a good look that was.

I used a bandana and regular rubber bands to make this no-sew mask. The bandana measures 19” x 21” which is, if anything, a little too large. I also used plain old rubber bands since we don’t have the nice hair kind. I timed myself from when I started folding to when I had it on and it took 1 minute and 38 seconds, so this is a pretty darn good option if you aren’t invested in the whole sewing thing. The fit is pretty good on account of the pleats you fold into it.

My sister Janelle, who lives out in plague-ridden California, proudly made another version of a no sew mask using the blue-footed booby scarf she picked up in Galapagos. Just between you and me, I don’t think she folded it right, because it doesn’t have any of the pleats that make the mask fit your face well. I can’t think of what her picture reminds me of but it’s something pretty scary. Like an apocalyptic movie where aliens come down and turn the bottom half of the faces of old ladies in Pasadena into upholstery cushions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MASK

The New York Times has an article about how to make your own face masks that they are generously offering outside of their paywall. It includes a pdf with detailed instructions that you can download and I thought they seem very clear. I was getting ready to make one of these to show you, but had already started getting bored with sewing, so I decided to borrow the photo my friend Nancy shared of her masks on Instagram where she posts as @cocoroosmom. Her blog is about a miniature apricot poodle who gets to go on golf trips all over the world, apparently helps her mother sew, and has more followers than I do just because she is a cute dog. Nancy made these masks using what she called a modified version of the New York Times instructions. She cautioned that, if I were to use their pattern, I should cut the ties wider because 3/4” is too small to fold and stitch. I agree. In the Kaiser Permanente mask example below, the ties were made from 1 3/4” strips and were no problem to sew at all. For an even easier hack, use prepared seam tape or shoe laces. Elastic that goes behind the ears is always an option but elastic has gotten harder to find than toilet paper so I don’t recommend that.

Photos courtesy @cocoroosmom on Instagram

THE KAISER PERMANENTE MASK

This mask is really getting around, in large part because it was cited in the NBC news piece about making face masks and it is pretty much a first page hit on Google. It took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to make, but part of that was because my bobbin ran out of thread when I had about 10 inches left to sew, which is about the most annoying thing that can happen to a seamstress. Plus I made it during the cocktail hour, so there were occasional sip breaks. I think I could knock the next one out in 30-45 minutes, now that I know how.

Here is a downloadable pdf pattern with instructions, and it is very clear and easy to understand. I honestly think my sister Norah could make this. I think using the plaid fabric was pure genius because it made cutting the fabric for the ties and folding the pleats incredibly easy. This pattern has an extra double pleat just below the nose that helps it to fit the face really well, even when you have a prominent proboscis like mine. I added a hack, which was to insert a long twister seal at the top so that it can be conformed tightly to your face below your eyes. This makes it much more like a surgical mask you wear in the hospital. Here are the instructions for my hack:

The other thing I did that the instructions didn’t call for was to line it with a different color. I did that not because it is a fashion statement and could, theoretically, be reversable, but because many patterns say it’s a good idea to use a different fabric on the inside and outside so that you will always know which is which. If you have to take the mask off and put it back on before it has been washed, you need to make sure you are putting the inside against your face, and not the contaminated outside. I learned shit like that in nursing school but most people would probably call it common sense.

THE OLSON MASK

This Olson Mask is pretty fancy schmancy and confounded me for a while as I tried to figure out what in the hell the instructions are trying to tell you to do. Suffice it to say these instructions are not the easiest to follow, but there is a video that you can watch that explains what it is meant to do. I just didn’t have the patience to watch it because it is 18 minutes long and has talking, talking, talking. It turns out it is meant to hold a HEPA filter, but they say you can use it without the filter. This is a mask people can make for a particular hospital in Cedar Rapids and, after the hospital receives the mask, they apply tape to the inside that makes it stick to the user’s face for a close fit. You can also insert a twisty tie like I did on the Kaiser mask and it’s easy to keep replacing that because of the opening for the filter. You just slide a pipe cleaner or twist tie inside the mask at the top and you don’t have to sew it in place.

I think this mask has a little bit of a Freddy Krueger feel to it, but it’s because I made it out of white fabric. This mask took right at an hour to make, in spite of all the figuring out I had to do because I was too impatient to watch the video. The only hacks I made to this design were that I lined the front with interface fabric because I had read that it’s like a filter, and I used T-shirt fabric on the inside against the face where the optional filter goes. I thought that would be extra comfy. But the real reason why I made this design was because I thought it would lend itself well to being painted with fun designs. If I’m going to be wearing one of these masks to Kroger I darn well want it to look interesting. Here are some of my ideas, from the ridiculous to the more ridiculous.

BUT SERIOUSLY

While I show you these masks so that you can make them for yourself and your family, there are many very good people who are making masks for healthcare workers and I think that is a wonderful thing to do. Before you go making one of these designs to donate to a hospital, consider checking with the hospital to see if they have a favorite design you should follow. Finally, EVERY site you look at reminds that wearing a mask is not a substitute for careful social distancing, washing your hands and not touching your face. You don’t need a mask if you don’t leave home and honestly, that is the best thing to do. Keep washing your hands for at least 20 seconds throughout the day and work hard to stay healthy. I can guarantee that reading this blog from beginning to end is 100% safe, so forward it to a friend.

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How to Make Your Own Face Masks