Sew a Medical Face Mask

Construction fairly simple. Actually easy to sew one.
Image by Juraj Varga from Pixabay

Any sewers out there?

In the Houston area, several people are working with TxRx to sew medical face masks out of tightly woven 100% cotton.

If you're in the Houston area, you can sign up with this Google Docs form.

Supplies will be delivered to you, and the finished cotton masks will be picked up.

If you'd like to volunteer, do a Google search for your local community to see if anyone has organized this.

Be sure and check Nextdoor if you're a member of that online community. That's another source for finding where to volunteer and also to find patterns.

Even if your sewing skills are barely basic, you can make these because it's just straight stitching. All you really need is a sewing machine. If you have that, chances are you have some fabric and thread. You can even clean out your closet and cut up a couple of cotton shirts for fabric.

Find Patterns Online

Image by Willfried Wende from Pixabay

Patterns and directions abound on Pinterest, websites, and YouTube. The supplies are simple.

Fabric, tightly-woven cotton, thread, and thin elastic. If you have no elastic, look for videos that show face masks with ties.

Some masks are composed of only 2 layers of fabric—a nine-inch strip that's wide enough to fold in half lengthwise. Some have an inner layer. All are easy to make.

You can volunteer to sew dozens of these or simply make some for your family and friends. Best of all, they can be laundered in hot water and bleach. So yoy might want to use color-fast, bleach-safe fabrics.

Videos I Liked

Watch how a cotton mask is made here. This video I found was the most helpful. It's by Erica Arndt on YouTube.

As a nurse commented on Erica's video: "...we were thinking if need be we could wear these over our N95 mask and take them off after patient contact and don a new fabric mask over the top again. This would prolong the use of the N95 masks. We would deposit the fabric masks throughout the day in a bio-hazard bag for laundering. We'd go through a lot, but they would be re-usable!"

Other good videos: Tutorial on How to BATCH sew masks for hospitals! by Thoughtful Creativity.

How to Sew a Face Mask with Filter Pocket and wire to shape top by Leah Day.

Takeaway Truth

Making something like these is a great way to feel you're doing something proactive during this Stay At Home time.