Life Under Cover

I started out the morning with, as it turns out, somewhat overly ambitious plans for creating a practical if not fashionable face mask out of little blue plastic-lined puppy pee pads.

It was not a good look for me. No, you will not be seeing the photo. Consider yourself fortunate. It looked way too much like I was wearing a disposable diaper on my face.

But I was on a roll … So, with YouTube for inspiration, and a strong desire NOT to drag my sewing machine out as incentive, I dove into the world of DIY cloth face coverings.

BTW, that seems to be evolving as the PC term; “cloth face coverings” rather than masks, at least for the myriad of patterns available for such things, made from everything from paper to t-shirts to bandannas, crocheted and knitted, as well as more ordinary cotton, polyester or linen cloth face masks. Oh, and don’t forget the puppy pee pads – I certainly can’t! That idea can from You Tube as well.

My second attempt has, so far at least, turned out to be my favorite. Not exactly a fashion statement, but at least it’s a color I like and wear quite often, so clashing with my wardrobe won’t be a big problem.

This cloth face cover is made out of the bottom third of a cotton T-shirt, using absolutely nothing except a pair of scissors and a bobby-pin. Yes, they still make bobby-pins. Who knew! It’s a bit cumbersome, and I felt like a bandit when I tried it on, but it has three major advantages.

First, no sewing. Yay! Second, the concept is pretty ingenious and comes together in about 15 minutes, including a pocket for a filter, which is recommended. Third, I finally have a good use for all those perfectly good, size-large t-shirts that don’t fit me anymore.

If I can find the YouTube page again, I will link it since it’s a different (and IMO, much more practical) version than similar ones I’ve seen – but I’ve searched for the last hour and can’t seem to find it again. Anyway, here’s De the Desperado! 🙂

OK, you can stop laughing now! It’s actually pretty comfortable. Since the material is doubled up, there’s a secure place for either a filter or even an N-95 mask inside. 👍🏼

The Governor of Alaska announced last night that he wants everyone to comply and wear some sort of cloth face coverings when out in public areas starting today (although he stopped a hair short of making it mandatory) – and I needed to pick up a prescription. Jerry and I both fall under the “high-risk category, so we are taking this seriously.

Anyway, one face cloth just isn’t enough and, although I like red, it simply does not go with all of my clothes. Besides, there were plenty of online patterns to choose from. So, I pulled a clean gray cotton T-shirt out of the drawer and chose a different pattern. Interesting! This design uses the neck of the T-shirt as a natural over-the-nose bridge, allowing the wearer to pull it over the head.

Hmm … a smaller shirt size would’ve worked better for me. This ended up too large, although it may work just fine for Jerry.

OK, enough with the t-shirts. I saw several links to face coverings created [it seemed] very simply from an ordinary square bandanna. I thought I’d go patriotic with my theme …

Well, the bandanna was a basic tri-fold design with two big rubber bands over the ears, but I honestly felt like it could easily fall apart and slip off. Colorful … but I’ll keep that one as an emergency back-up.

I took a break for lunch at this point, grabbing some time to relax from my face mask endeavors and get some work done on the scarf I started knitting the other day.

Oh wait. Hmm. There’s a thought.

OK, it looks like tomorrow I may have to break down and pull the little portable sewing machine out after all. Sigh.

Stay safe, my friends. And, fashionable or not, please either stay home (my preference by far!) or choose a pattern and protect yourself and others. This virus is going to be here for a while.