Viral Masks

Right away I'm gonna apologize for the sloppiness of this post. The pictures are not color corrected, cropped or watermarked. The text will be fast and perhaps have errors. The reason for this is I have been asked to share how I make masks to help limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus and I slapped this post together fast. Maybe one day I'll come back and clean this up, but for now you have my apologies.

Directions

The CDC is now recommending face masks be worn:

 "in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission."

There are alot of mask tutorials going around out there. I'll admit, I hesitated a long time before jumping into the fray mostly because I wanted to find the right pattern. If I made masks to donate, I wanted to make sure they were useful. The tutorial I found was distrubuted by my local hospital on exactaly what they needed for home sewers. For a copy of the directions I used click HERE.  This is what I call fast and dirty stitching. I pin very little and I don't bother with pressing seams at all. I'm lucky my dad offered to iron the material I pulled out of the washer or I might not have even done that much. Speed and Quantity is what I'm after.

What you will need:

• A sewing machine with thread
• Prewashed 100% cotton material
• 8"x14" piece of cardboard for a template
• Scissors (Or rotary cutter and mat. I'm out of luck. Mine busted just before quarentine and I had to make due with regular scissors)
• Pins
• Tape Measure
• Dinner Fork
• Instructions
• Something to make ties with (elastic if you can get it. I'm using cotton muslin cloth)

A 8x14 template will help speed you along if you are making many masks. I'm making them for all my co-workers so the template helped me A LOT. A pizza box lid was nearly the perfect size.

Fabric cut to size. This was just a regular quarter yard, not a fat quarter, so this is the only way the template will fit. If you don't want your design to be sideways like this one will be, turn it 90 degrees. You can almost get 3 masks from a quarter yard of fabric if one is a little smaller, but only 2 from a fat quarter, but you can twist it to make your pattern right side up.

Fold in half (WARNING! I took the picture wrong. It should be RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER! Not wrong sides as is pictured above. Sorry!)

Corrected Photo below. Right sides together.

I've been using a zig zag stitch. This is fast and dirty stitching and I wanted to make sure the stitches covered all the folds I would be sandwiching together. I also haven't been bothering with any backstitching till the very end. All these seams will be covered by another seam so I'm not worried.

Long side stitched up.

Turn it inside out now so the RIGHT SIDES are now facing out.

Slip the material thru the middle tine of the fork and twist the fork so the material twists into a fold.

Smooth the fold and slip the fork out. Each pleat should be about an inch big.

Pin the pleat in place and make one mor just below it. Pin new pleat and pin the folds flat on opposite end too.

Face part of the mask should be between 3-3.5 inches wide. Too wide? Take the pleats in more. Too narrow? Pull the pleats farther apart.

Sew the ends and and pull the pins out. Trim up the excess fabric.

Cotton muslin has a wonderful feature. All you need to do is make a tiny cut the size you need. In this case my muslin is 36 inches wide and I made a tiny cut 2 inches in.

Take ahold of the fabric firmly on both sides of the cut and pull. Muslin tears in a straight line. You now have a 2 inch strip of fabric 36 inches long.

Fold the muslin in half and pin to your face mask.

Fold both raw edges of the strip to the center.

Then fold the strip in half so that the raw edges are INSIDE the tie. Before sewing it down, bend the tip up just a little bit to get the raw end sewn down too. I couldn't get a good pic of the starting fold, but 2 pictures down you can see the fold at the end. I also gave it a little backstitch.

When you get to the mask part make sure the raw ends are tucked inside and the strap is folded over the mask. You should be sewing thru ALL pieces of the mask. Your machine's feed dogs (the part that pulls the fabric thru the machine) might struggle a little thru this part so feel free to gently pull the finished strap on the other side to help the cloth get thru. Be careful not to pull hard or you might break your needle.

At the end of the strap, bend up the tip just like you did at the begining. You can also give a little backstitch on the bent up pieces if you so desire.

And here's your finished mask! It ties behind the neck and behind the head above the ears. Pull the face pleats open to cover your nose and chin.

Every instructional I write really should start with Step One: Remove cat from sewing table.

and Step 7: Remove OTHER cat from sewing table.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has some good tips on using masks but I want to reiterate a few important ones:

• Avoid touching the mask while using it, if you do wash your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub
• Be discarded or washed after every use
• Should not be worn damp or when wet from spit or mucus
• To remove the mask: remove it from behind, do not touch the front of mask
• The wearer should immediately wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds after removing the mask

My Little Pony Fair Bag

Time for a little break from the Supernatural Quilt. I wasn't planning on going, but suddenly the opportunity to go the this year's My Little Pony Fair popped up. Ponies are definatly more my sister's thing but I do enjoy them myself as well. She's busy painting a tote bag for the fair so I decided to make a bag as well. This one was made in just a few hours and is based on the unicorn Glory. A white unicorn with purple hair with a blue streak in it. That's why the bag is white with a purple and blue flap. Her symbol (or cutie mark as its known in the pony community) is a silver shooting star with purple tails. After I put the star on I realized that the tails wouldn't show up on the purple flap so I outlined them by sewing down a larger white shape first. I like it so mu h I prolly should have outlined the star too. If I had time I might have too, but we are leaving to go to the show in just a few hours and I still need to pack and do ky nails. I am offically out of time. This is the first time I've ever done applique too. Gotta run! Hope you all like it.

My BoHo Dress ~ Part Two: Construction

I don't usually use patterns, but I also didn't want anything to go wrong with this dress. I had a vague idea that I wanted to wear the finished product (if it turned out) to the Chicago Printer's Row Fair. In 3 days. Dunno why I gave myself so few days to do it. But I had it all worked out. Day one would be shopping and planning, day two was cutting and sewing, and day three was dying and embroidery. It seemed so easy.

Day One: I bought a pattern for 3 bucks. I like the b dress but I want a more open neck line, fuller skirt, and handkerchief hem. I bought the cheapest cotton muslin I could find, 3 bucks a yard. Knowing I was gonna heavily modify the pattern I got 6 yards but only used about 4. I might make a shirt or skirt out of the rest. I also picked up a couple small packets of Rit Dye. All told it came under 25 dollars. Less because I had so much muslin left over, I didn't need to buy 6 yards for the one dress.

Here is the pattern I mostly used. I went with the "B" style dress on the left, but didn't use the sleeves and changed the neck, skirt and hem.

And the back of the packet. It says I didn't need much more than 3 yards, but I like to over estimate that by a lot.

I always have a hard time laying out the pattern pieces like the instructions show you. It never fits quite right. I was supposed to be able to get 3 long pieces across, that didn't happen.

After cutting out the pieces I pinned a piece of scrap paper to it with what the piece was and the number it was listed. This helps in telling front from back pieces because they all look so much alike.

All the pieces waiting to be assembled. I cut it all out in one night and used the next morning to sew it.

Day Two: This day nearly called off the whole project. I love my sewing machine, but it is very old. Its a big heavy metal Singer, the kind meant to last forever. Well lately I've noticed the foot pedal hasn't been as responsive as it usually is. I took it apart and found that the cord that goes to the pedal splits into 2 wires that slip over these 2 metal tabs inside the pedal. One of those tabs was hanging by a thread and about to break off. I've known this for a while and was just very ginger about handling it. Don't bump it, move it very gently. It chose this day to break. Now I know we own another plastic sewing machine, but do you think I could find where we stored it? Of course not. We also have 2 treadle sewing machines, but I don't know how to load the bobbin, and it stores so little thread it has to be loaded a lot. If I broke that or messed up the tension Dad would have a heart attack. The treadles are kinda his babies.  If I had to hand sew the whole thing I would never have it done in 2 days. So I McGuyvered my sewing machine with a bit of tape to hold the wire in place.

SAFETY WARNING! DON'T DO THAT AT HOME. SCOTCH TAPE IS NOT MADE TO HOLD WIRES IN PLACE! I DID IT OUT OF STUPIDITY AND DESPERATION. THE FACT THAT IT WORKED DOES NOT MEAN I EVER INTEND TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU.

Here is the assembled dress by the end of Day 2. I had hoped to start dying it that day too, but the sewing machine fiasco set my time table back quite a bit.

Wicked Witches

I covered the costumes I made for my coworkers, but never showed off what I came up with for myself! I didn't sew anything for myself, most of my costume was stuff I already had. Every year I end up buying a witches hat because I've lost the one I bought the year before. This year was no exception. Somewhere in my house I must have a stash of 80 hats *sigh*. This year I was disappointed because the only hat I could find that had hair attached had purple streaks in the hair. I wanted all black. This turned out well though. The cape I have in my collection is black velvet on the outside but purple on the inside. It tied nicely with the hat. Then when I wanted striped socks I found some grey and purple ones. Purple turned into an nice accidental accent :D

My makeup was so much fun to do. A bright green base, I outlined wrinkles, lips and brows in black. My prosthetic nose had yellow highlights on it so I added yellow to cheekbones, forehead, and chin to match. I got some odd looks from passing cars for sure :)

Not only did I do my outfit as the Wicked Witch of the West, I also did the Wicked Witch of the East. She was easy enough, an extra pair of striped socks stuffed with some red sequined slippers we sell at the store. I just tucked the free end under the checkout counter. Looks like she got the table dropped on her.

And a shot of all of us together. I had no hand in the Tin Woodsman or Glenda the Good Witch but they did well by themselves. I loved doing this and hope next year we do something new. Maybe Disney Princesses. Something for an ensemble to do that is mostly women.

Wizard of Oz ~ Cowardly Lion

The Cowardly Lion. How do you do that without having to make a whole huge fursuit? Well this was very easy. I found an ear headband and tail at the dollar store and made the cuffs and collar. One sheet of craft fur was enough for both cuffs and the collar. The back of the craft fur is very scratchy so I lined it with craft felt. Cut the rectangle of fabric into 4 smaller rectangles. Sew both long sides to the felt leaving the short sides open to run a drawstring thru. I should have tacked the collar pieces together so it wouldn't gap apart, but I threw this together as an after thought. I was just going to use the ears and tail, but the cuffs and collar added so much more I'm glad I made them.

You can see the collar gapping open. It's cute and can work
but I still wish I had tried to tack it together.

Close up of the stitching and where the collar gaps open.

Felt sewn to the back of the cuffs and collar.

Stitching at the bottom and under the fur.

Backside of the collar. I used some yarn as the drawstring.

Have your model wear a brown shirt and pants. A little face paint for a nose and whiskers and you are done! One sheet of craft fur: 3 bucks. One sheet of felt: 25 cents. Ear headband 1 dollar. Tail: 1 dollar. Total: 5.25.

Wizard of Oz ~ Dorothy

This Dorothy costume is what got me making the outfits for the store. When we were thinking about dressing up, Dorothy was the one we thought for sure we'd have to buy and costumes at stores tend to be more expensive. No one wanted to spend much money on this, so I decided I'd try and make one. I bought a pattern for it but ended up never using it. It turned out more of an apron than a pinafore but still works well.

Me as the Witch and a Co-worker as Dorothy

I wish I had thought to take progress pictures so I could show you what I did to the fabric and the cuts I made. It is 2 yards of a blue and white gingham check.

Here is a pattern I whipped up to show you how I cut up the fabric.

Unfold your fabric. The majority is going to be skirt. A small square will be the bib front. The fabric to the side of the square will be your straps and drawstring. On the one that I made, I made the bib front too big and it tends to gap open at the top. Learn from my mistakes :)

You will hem the 2 sides and bottom of the skirt and the 2 sides and top of the bib. Aline the unhemmed edge of the bottom of the bib with the middle of the unhemmed edge of the top of the skirt right sides facing each other. Altho with Gingham there really isn't a wrong side, but if you are using different material then make sure your right sides are together. That sounded really confusing. Here is another picture of what I mean:

Now the next part isn't really tricky, but it is odd. You will fold down the top unhemmed skirt to make a big channel. This will make the waistband that the draw string will go thru. I did it with wrong sides together, but I regret that. You should do it with right sides together so that the channel for the waistband will be inside the pinafore, not outside where you can see it. This will require that you are careful with where the bib ends up. I accidently got the bib snarled up and had to rip the seam out because it sewed weird.

For the straps I simply sewed down one long side (Right sides together if you have a right side and wrong side) and turned them inside out so the sem was inside and it was a long tube. Press it flat and sew it to the corner of the bib. Bring it over your shoulder and pin it to the inside of the skirt. Repeat for the other shoulder. Run your drawstring thru the waist band channel and you are set to go. Tie the left over bits from the shoulder straps into bow in your hair and you are good to go! Here are some close ups of the finished apron on a manikin in our backroom. Sorry for the poor lighting and all the cardboard stacked up, we are getting ready for chirstmas and it was too cold for me to take pictures outside.

Front of the pinafore. You can see what I mean
about how I regret not making the waistband
 channel to the inside of the pinafore where you
wouldn't be able to see it. I also think I made
the bib too large.

Side and back view. The straps are pinned to
the inside of the skirt with safety pins.

Detail of the shoulder strap sewn onto the bib. I like to make
this cross pattern when sewing down straps. It makes me
think that it is stronger, tho I admit that the apron will
not be bearing much weight. And yes, I know there are
loose threads everywhere. I am a very sloppy sewer. Even
more so when I am under a deadline.

Have your model wear a white blouse and
since the skirt isn't sewn up the back she will
need to wear pants as well. Add props and
you are done!