Medical Disclaimer: This is our best-educated guess at a solution to helping people avoid Covid-19 during this global pandemic. As with anything you read on the internet, please consult with your doctor. As of May 28, 2020, the information from the CDC is that masks can help reduce the spread of the virus, new things are being learned daily so use YOUR best judgment.
I haven’t sewn anything in over 20 years, particularly not something as tricky looking as a cloth mask, but the Covid-19 Pandemic has caused many of us to dig deeper and learn new skills, or embrace old ones you thought you forgot. My hubby has been an essential worker from the start and with my auto-immune issues & age, I’m at higher risk than most so I realized he was going to need to use all methods possible to stay healthy for both of us. So… after having him wear bandanas for a few days we realized that was just not very effective so I pulled out that Brother Sewing Machine I bought at Costco years ago and set out to find the best pattern and methods to make him some masks.
There are literally 1000’s of pages with patterns, sewing tips, advice on materials so wading through all that took me a week or more. Locally a group of mostly women were called to action to sew masks for our hospital staff as along with most of the world, we didn’t have sufficient PPE to protect our most important assets in the fight against the Coronavirus.
They asked for the pleated masks made from 4 layers of cotton. My simple sewing machine just couldn’t handle that so I had to find another solution. After reading ALL of the information out there, I knew that more layers of cotton really wasn’t doing anything for filtration so more research.
