Valerean

As Omicron is now surging we are maintaining our personal lockdown. No celebrations, no guests for dinner, just my guy and me for the holidays. We still wear our masks and social distance; never once stopped doing that. My handmade masks, which had been working fine for almost two years, are starting to pop some seams now, and the elastic is wearing, so I have to make some new ones. If anyone needs more, do let me know. The pandemic hasn't changed my life all that much. I take certain precautions that I didn't before Covid, like masking and staying away from everyone in public, and we stopped dining in at restaurants (not counting a couple of times over the summer when we felt our vaccinations made it an acceptable risk, and still wore our masks inside anyway.) My biggest problem is my guy, who buys into a lot of the conspiracy crap he hears on talk radio. The other day I got a little dizzy while we were shopping at the market, and he told me to take my mask off becau...

Dr. Fauci is recommending we wear two masks now when we go out, so I've been using a disposable paper mask with a nose seal under my homemade cloth masks when I go to the grocery store or run absolutely necessary errands, aka the only time I have contact with other people. Yesterday, for example, I went to the tiny post office in my town to mail a package to Mom for Valentine's Day -- that kind of necessary. Although there was no one there I still put on my two masks before I went inside the building, and told my guy to wait in the truck. It's not uncomfortable for me because I have a small face. I do need to make some bigger masks for Kat and her Dad to accomodate the paper mask under the cloth one. Also, a reminder from your friendly free mask maker -- if you need more or larger cloth face masks, just let me know how many and what colors you want. I'm your supplier. :)

Last night I spent my sewing time making new masks for Katherine and Edward; they both favor black but the original masks I made for them back in March are wearing out due to frequent washing and wearing. I expect others I've made will be doing the same. I've been thinking about making a crazy quilted mask for myself. I know, frivolous, but it would be an interesting challenge to make one that is as functional as it is arty. That and a couple of my own masks are starting to wear out. :) Also, just to remind my friends of my standing promise: for the length of the pandemic if you need cloth masks, I'm your girl. I can make them in virtually any color or pattern; large or small, with ear elastics or ties, etc. If you're worried about asking because of my hand problem, the work is all done on the machine, so it doesn't aggravate my arthritis. It's probably the most pain-free sewing I do. So just let me know what you need. :)

Because I suspect we'll all be using cloth masks for at least the next several months, if not the rest of the year, I've organized and streamlined my process of making them, and will be making a few every week so I can keep my promise to be your free mask source. :) Here are three that I made last night with the standard patterns, which I'm keeping in ziplock bags marked with the sizes: If I can fit a wearer in person I can also alter the patterns to the dimensions of their particular features, like these that I customized for my daughter's long face and small nose: I'm first washing all the fabric I use for the masks, and then hanging it to dry before I iron and cut to pattern: I'm also sorting through my fat quarter collections to find some attractive prints to use for the masks, like this Coats & Clark bundle: If I end up with a surplus, which I likely will, I'll donate them.

Over the weekend I reached out to neighbors and friends to see if anyone needed some cloth masks. As it's very hard to buy them right now almost everyone said yes, including our next-door neighbors. So I went into production. Along with five plain elastic masks I customized this pair with pocketing for one pal: For the pocket I did a lengthwise split along the inside center, which should allow the most room for filtering materials. These are tie-on masks (my first, too) made of cotton chambray for a pal's doctor husband, who is working on the front lines in the city. These will be for when he's not working. Chambray is a little denser than my quilting cottons, and the denim look of it should go with anything: For the ties I cut 1" X 17" strips of broadcloth, ran them through my bias tape maker, and then folded the two folds over and sewed a single row of stitching down the center. I was also finally able to order some 1/4" white elastic fr...