As this social isolation gor prolonged to about 3 months in Ontario, I though was going to be useful to sew masks for myself and the people I know. Already some organizations are collecting home made masks for home care facilities and hospitals have asked people to sew masks for them, and as I have a lot of left-over fabric from older projects, I though this could be a nice creative project to keep my hands busy on the side (I cannot eat bread, so that’s not something I can joing to do! But sewing is fun and my fabrics have pretty entertaining textures!). If you don’t have quilting fabring already in your home, you can either chack with local organizations (see links at the end of post) or repurpose something you don’t use anymore: a friend of mine reused her 29 years old pregnancy dress into a few masks for her and her family of 4!
I started with the OLSON mask from this Tutorial from Unity Point Central. The video is really good and helps to understand fully how to make one mask. Download the Olson Mask pattern here: https://bit.ly/UPHMask
I know this kind of mask may not be great if you’re trying to do hundreds of them, either for donation or selling if you lost your job, but for a small batch and inexpert people is great because the 3 parts patten is very easy to undersatnd in comparison with some other tutorial out there.
As I started to watch more tutorials, and tried the mask on, I made a few adjustments: I caved in a bit more under the eyes (See the 2 pictures, as the mask was too tight under my eyes, I lowered down the line) I added a extra sewing line under the nose bridge so I could have the iron tie held in place (it was floating around before) and I sewed the center piece line’s extra bits to the center, so it wouldn’t frail with time.
I also did a Extra-Large pattern for my husband as he’s 6 Feet 4, and the mask was too short for his face. I’ll try to upload that soon.
You can download the patterns here below.
Here what Health Canada Say about prevention and risks of Corona Virus and about using home made masks
A way to do the OLSON mask with a Serger from my friend Annie Lam: on her Instagram or on Facebook
This is from Cambringe University and compare various materials efficacy for home made masks
Here Some useful info if you want to develop a mask-making and distribution program in your area, including what material to use if you want to insert a fileter in the mask, plus other patterns links too.
The sewing Army Facebook Group is a great resource for these making home made masks.
A video using HEPA filter for home made masks
On the left the modified mask and on the right the OLSON mask
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