Corona Face Mask

My father is working as a doctor. They’d ordered supplies but were still waiting for them to arrive. So my mom and I made them some face masks till they got official ones.

These are NOT medical masks – they don’t protect you from covid-19! BUT they help to protect others.

Materials:

We experimented a lot – I will mention these steps. Perhaps it’s helpful to avoid our mistakes ;-)

- 2 layers of thin fabric OR 1 layer of thick fabric [it’s a question of the density of the fabric – if it’s densely woven less particles can pass through. It’s a better particle filter. We tried more layers, but that’s too hot…]

- 1 layer of thin fleece (for ironing)

- Bias tape (3 cm work great) – should work with stripes of fabric as well (we had enough bias tape)

- Seam tape to sew a pocket for a wire to fix the mask to the nose

- For a wire we used freezer bag clips; we tried to cut an aluminum tray into stripes, that works as well, BUT neither can be washed in a washing machine… that’s why we use a pocket. Just remove the wire before washing.

- elastic band (length: 25-30 cm)

Tools:

- sewing machine

- cutting board and rotary cutter

- pins

- scissors

- iron and ironing cloth

- thick but truncated needle (to pull through the elastic band)

We used an old OP mask to measure:

- 20 cm x 18 cm (remember 2 layers of thin fabric)

- cut the fleece a little smaller: 18 cm x 17,8 cm

- Cut the seam tape

o Width: 2 – 3 cm

o Length: 8 – 9 cm (depending on the length of the clips)

- Cut the bias tape: measure after you folded the mask

Position the fleece in the middle of the fabric (on two sides there is a seam allowance of 1 cm fabric without fleece)

Put the seam tape between the two layers of fabric

a. Underneath: fabric (without fleece)

b. Middle layer: seam tape

c. At the top: fabric with fleece (the fleece should point upward – we will turn it inside out later)

Fix with a pin

- Sew the three layers together (the seam tape should just be grasped)

- Open (to check the seam) and fix the seam tape to the fabric with the fleece

- close the layers again and sew the lower bottom

- turn everything inside out and iron it

- Fold the mask in the middle (you can fix it with a pin)

- Push the flap up (remove the pins) and pin the loop to the fabric

- Fix the other side with pins (check, if the folding is at the correct angle)

- Fold another fold above the middle (it should be near to the upper seam, but not overlap with the rest of the folding) and fix it with pins

- Do the same thing with the lower seam

- Sew the bias tape to the side of the mask

- pull the elastic band through with the thick needle

- put the freezer bag clips (we used 4 of them) into it’s pocket

And here is the finished face mask!

Use it wisely to protect you and those around you!