As we learn to work through The Time of Coronavirus, it's my hope that mask-wearing will become more about health than politics. As always, we can make a personal choice and live what we believe.
Masking has been around long enough now to start to get a grip on the information and make more informed choices. I found data on the filtration efficiencies of different types of masks. The source is www.turn-keyenvironmental.com/breathing-masks-are-not-equal.
Coming in most efficient at 89.6% is the notorious and now high-value N95 mask. All three of the men on our cul-de-sac found these in their workshops, Ron only recently. He had two. I'm wearing the used version. We're saving the unused one because.
Next up at 33.3% efficiency are surgical masks. All of ours are still in the box because.
Least efficient at 6.1% are dust masks. We have plenty of these around.
On the low side of in-between at 11.3% efficiency is the cloth mask in its various permutations.
Two quick-and-dirty no-sew bandana styles.
The bandita bandana.
The slightly more elaborate version, folded and attached behind the ears with elastic bands.
This is the Million Mask Challenge, or maybe it's now the 100 Million Mask Challenge, version. When the CDC decided maybe we should mask, everybody with a sewing machine started making masks for family, friends, healthcare workers, strangers...anybody. Ron's sister-in-law Carol Ann is part of that movement and sent a couple for Ron and me.
I've been in a mask-wearing situation a grand total of 3 times since our stay-at-home orders started March 31, and these versions have served me well. However, I believe I will be wearing masks in public for a long time, and I have in mind that eventually I'll have a selection of stylin' masks to match my wardrobe. Like Queen Elizabeth!
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Several versions have evolved and there are more tutorials for DIY mask-making on-line than you can wade through in a life time. I've looked at my share; all of them are pretty straightforward to make. I decided it was time to fire up the sewing machine and try my hand at a couple of versions I like.
The first version I tried is a fitted mask. The Fabric Patch quilt shop in Ephrata, WA (www.thefabricpatch.net) has numerous tutorials, and referred me to a pattern designed by engineer Jesse Killian. He went nutty in the engineer way, and made patterns for narrow, average, and wide faces, plus numerous sizes for variations of a couple of face measurements. I measured and chose a pattern size.
If you think this fabric looks like an apron I recently made, you're right! There are two layers of fabric for each piece.
Each half is sewn together together at the middle, then the halves are sewn together for two layers.
Though the pattern is for two over-the-head elastics, for some reason I decided I wanted it to just go over my ears. Yeah, that's a different pattern. Jesse would have been shaking his engineer head at me!
Elastics fixed. However, not being an engineer or even much of a measurer, I measured incorrectly and the mask was much too large on the sides. I put a couple of darts in to adjust the fit. Jesse's got a headache by now!
Not being an experienced mask wearer, the try-on of this mask was pretty much a goat-rope. First, it took me several tries to realize there was NO WAY I could get this mask on or off without removing my glasses. I tried, repeatedly. Poor glasses! Next, putting those elastics on over short hair resulted in this craziness. Yeah, hair sticking up all over, then needing to be pulled out from under the elastic and smoothed down...
The end result was good enough, but that's about too much fussing for me!
Next I made this version, called a 3D mask. The first tutorial I watched happened to be by a young Vietnamese woman. Her demonstration was clear and the translations were pretty hilarious, so I stuck with it. This mask takes a single piece of fabric of the size on the left. The first step is to fold it in half, as on the right.
Corners are cut off and it's sewn, leaving the two sides open.
Then turned inside out.
Folding and more stitching.
Elastics sewn in, more folding and stitching.
The final result.
Ask me if I learned my lesson about the glasses for the try-on. Nope. I thought with the over-the-ear version I could leave them on. STILL NO! Poor, poor glasses.
Right now I'm liking the 3D version best because it's easier to put the elastic behind my ears than over my head. The first version can be made with ties instead of elastic, and I'll probably end up making one of those for comparison. But I need to gain some experience. I need to wear them and see how I like the fit & breathe-ability of each of them over time. I need to get the glasses thing nailed down. The off and on thing for sure. But after the mask is on, there's some fiddling to get the glasses situated for the progressive prescription to be in the right place.
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at
twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest
thing in life is to keep your mind young.
----Henry Ford
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