Face Masks from Quilt Fabric: Wishful Sewing

Nobody warned us there'd be days like this.

That's Day of the Dead fabric strapped across my face. It is possible that this will protect my health, and the health of those around me. Or, it may be that I have fallen over the edge of sanity, into the realm of magical thinking and performance art.

Or maybe both can be true. Reverse side: Hand fabric. If the hands weren't so tiny, I would have stitched a cross stitch on each, as a reminder to not touch my face.

That's just one of the three masks I made Sunday afternoon. The second one used this fabric:

When you wear this, perhaps no one will notice that your lips are missing. Here's how it looks after I pleated it into a pseudo-medical device. 

And finally, a roll-of-the-dice-mask. 

I couldn't resist. My emails and Facebook feeds have been jam-packed with links to face mask sewing patterns. But social media is also overflowing with expert advice stating that fabric face masks can't block COVID 19 or any other virus. Here's the summary of the arguments I read before making the masks.

CON 
- Woven cotton fabric and imperfectly fitted masks can't stop airborne viruses. 

PRO 
- A fabric mask might help you train yourself to stop touching your face. 
-If someone close to you sneezes directly upon you, droplets can be blocked by a fabric face mask. Similarly, if you spray fluids, the mask may catch some.
- A fabric mask may be better than nothing when medical grade masks aren't available.

Really? I contacted my friend Ellie who is a veteran occupational health and safety expert. What's the deal with sew-your-own quilting cotton face masks, I asked? Here's her response in full:

Cathy, the purpose of your mask is to keep your secretions from reaching somebody else. And you made something that’s washable. Use it all you want.

It won’t protect you from corona virus, though if you were around someone coughing and sneezing it would give some measure of protection from gross droplets reaching your face. And if there is any chance the outside of it was contaminated, you would want to wash it with something like Lysol or something with alcohol to kill the cooties. I wouldn’t suggest bleach because I know how beautiful your fabrics are! But to wear a mask in order to protect everyone else from you coughing and sneezing, go for it.

Then Ellie asked me to make her a couple. In short, from the expert advice I've seen and received, they can be a little bit helpful.

UPDATE: The science of masks, and hospital calls for volunteers to stitch masks for them, are now on my resource page HERE. There's also a clickable link to this page just under the title of my blog, above.

 UPDATE: My easy, fast method, geared to quilters, is in my next blog post, HERE. 

My tutorial for roomier, which takes longer, is HERE.