My Maskerade Journey (*blog post in progress)

CARE...DARE...SHARE

BC CDC (Centre for Disease Control) - MASKS Update

As we are amidst a Pandemic globally so why not...

Came across Tom Bihn's idea of sharing his designs and taking the Open Covid Pledge

*Inspired By:

The creative Turban/Beard mask designs from Sunnie Delilah (UK) 

The innovative adjustable Ear loop with Lanyard concepts from Tom Bihn (Seattle, USA)

Started making masks end of July as we ran out of the disposable ones and thought to myself, this ain't rocket science. So, I pulled up my sleeves and my sewing machine from the storage room and off I went about reverse engineering the last disposable mask we had. I even re-used the ear loops and the nose wire for the first prototype. 

Then came the Olson mask and I loved it, took that challenge on and produced many.

Initially, it seemed that I was quite late to join the sewing party...but, as they say: "It's never too late for kindness". 

Revived my lost hobby of sewing and took up volunteering my spare time to making custom face masks for family, friends and our UBC community via donations and my first University Neighbourhood Association's Community of Caring Grant. 

Advantages of working and living on campus at a research university is that there are a lot of dedicated people working tirelessly on advanced projects that are willing to listen and provide guidance. Came across an article regarding best fabric material & style and reached out to the researchers behind the study - Dr. Jane Wang, from UBC Faculty of Medicine. She tested my sample masks and gave me constructive and qualitative feedback. She also introduced me to the "Protecting Frontline Workers (PFW) + The Free Mask Project of Vancouver" Group. 

I donated my first set of dozen masks to the PFW group using a popular mask pattern shared in the group: 

Popular pattern: Reverse Nose Fold - Improved Pleated Face Mask By Sophie Passmore

Then came a request that I couldn't say No to...Dr. Wang asked me to make 15 Turban/Beard friendly masks for Dialysis patients at the Abbotsford Hospital as they are required to visit the hospital 3/4 times a week and provided me with all the fabric material. So here it is fellas...this is what I've been up to...it's a lot of inspiration from those who are leading the way in making and creating new things based on need.

Turban/Beard friendly Mask with Ties

Left the newly received material in the garage over night

Now that's a lot of material that came in the bag

Trying to figure out which fabric to use for inside and outside...

TEMPLATE (probably 10th Iteration) as I wanted it to fit within the 8 1/2 " x 11" normal paper size and 

did not want to waste any precious fabric, so the perfect wave separating the main mask from the pocket was born =)

Material cut outs: 

Main mask (double layer of fabric for Inside & Outside cloth with fold on nose/front section)

Pocket (single layer of fabric for Inside and Outside cloth)

Sew the curve nose section for both main mask with cloth inside out and straight seam on pocket cut out

Spread out the two main mask fabric pieces like a sandwich for a cozy fit and statrt pinning the top nose section and the sides. Insert the pocket with the right side out folded, matching the colours. So, when this is all reversed, it looks matchy matchy 

Fold the inside layer in order to reverse mask once done sewing

Secure it all using pins and clips

Sew the top section and the bottom section

Reverse inside out

Voila, it's starting to take the shape

Sew the sides for a finished look

Insert the head ties with a cord lock

On to the second version with nose piece insert:

Got feedback from Dr. Wang: "How about adding a channel through the perimeter of the bottom section of the beard pocket for a tighter fit? " 

Me: Sure...let's try that and it worked perfectly.

Mask...Sleep...Repeat!