I have now made 5 fabric face masks.

[conuly]

I task I am already heartily sick of, let me tell you. For reference, I've been making rectangles roughly 4 by 10 inches, with straps of about 10 inches apiece at each corner. That covers my nose through chin nicely, though I've had trouble working out the best thing to do about the straps, fabric-wise.

Also, I am not sure if, when they say "pillow case fabric" they mean "bed linens" or "demolish a pillow".

Also also, definitely you don't want to use PUL or iron-on transfers as an extra layer here, because those are plastic backed and you won't be able to breathe. I'm not sure why we have to spell this out for people, but I've seen enough people asking this question that I feel I ought to.

Comments

[lightbird]

That's great. I am unfortunately not crafty at all and really never learned to sew properly, so even the YouTube videos won't help. I checked Amazon and the earliest the cloth ones would arrive is mid-April.

I'm thinking I can try wrapping a plain old scarf around my nose and mouth for the few times I need to go out (grocery, pharmacy, and limiting those) and hopefully that could work. And maybe look for someone local who can make them - I'm one of the lucky people who can work from home and get full salary during this time, maybe I can help out someone who isn't.

[conuly]

If you send me your addy I can mail you ONE mask.

[lightbird]

Thank you so much for the kind offer! After I left my comment I spoke to a friend who advised that she has some and is making more. She is sending me a couple so I'll be okay. :)

Stay well and safe.

[conuly]

It's a tedious job, but it does give me an excuse to sit on the couch and watch Netflix, so it's not all bad :)

[lightbird]

:D

We all deserve to sit on the couch and watch Netflix.

[muninnhuginn]

Thank you for that link. Very interesting and potentially useful.

I'm pretty certain they mean the pillow case you put onto the pillow, not the fabric part of the pillow itself. So, presumably, a fairly close woven cotton or poly-cotton fabric.

Thinking about it, I have some rather fine skull prints and pirate prints in cotton....

[lavendertook]

Bearing potentially bad news: cloth masks may not be a good idea according to this NIH study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/?fbclid=IwAR33AWjIeyYhl-CAXRkR6LmOzYJEwFhhVn5h1kRakRU7dwECdYLVwN0Oi60

[conuly]

As they note, for ethical reasons there was no control group that didn't use masks at all. Additionally, this was all in a hospital setting where the medical mask group got two masks per shift and the cloth mask group was instructed to wash one mask every day - I suspect 8+ hours a day might have slightly different results than the occasional 30 minute shopping trip.

I'd like to see other studies that, hopefully, address those issues.

[lavendertook]

I hear you. This study was pointed out on FB by a fandom LJ friend who is a respiratory nurse, so that put more weight on it for me, but that's only an appeal to authority I'm making to you since it would be a friend of a friend, so do with that info what you will. Yes, more studies would help.

[lavendertook]

Addendum: Some commenters explained to my friend that the cloth is to be a filter mask cover that would be removed and washed after each use two the filter mask could continue to be reused and she OKed it.

[conuly]

Yes, I'm certain that washing makes a huge difference, as well as not wearing for the full 8 hours.

[dragonyphoenix]

The materials discussion is cracking me up because my Dad has decided to wear an entire pillowcase. He's cutting out holes for eyes and has some elaborate scheme with rubberbands to attach his eyeglasses outside the pillowcase. Part of the reason he likes it is that he can have it come down to his shoulders leaving less of himself exposed.