Quite a while ago, I pushed myself too hard making a new hat design, and ended up with tendonitis in my left wrist (my dominant hand). I had to completely stop doing any knitting or embroidery, and I discovered how many ordinary household activities required the use of my left hand! Eight months later, with some great physio and much less hand-straining activity altogether due to the pandemic lock-down, the wrist finally healed enough that I tried a bit of machine sewing — urged on by the need for non-medical face masks for my family.

I had to pace myself, so couldn’t get into production work, but I made 11 masks for family, and wanted to share my experience of the 3 patterns I’ve tried. Since I didn’t want to go fabric shopping during the pandemic, I used fabrics & elastic from my stash. I ran out of elastic pretty quickly, but then I salvaged elastic from a fitted bed sheet that had worn out. I do love to re-use what I can — this elastic was fairly soft, 1/4” wide, and I ended up folding it lengthwise & sewing it with a zigzag stitch to make it 1/8” wide, which is much more comfortable to wear. All of the following patterns are good, but you’ll see that Design 3 is my personal favourite.

Design 1: The Olson Mask, which is the fuchsia mask pictured in the centre above (pattern https://www.unitypoint.org/cedarrapids/filesimages/Coronavirus/Olson%20Mask%20with%20Pattern%20v4.pdf and instructional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnVk12sFRkY ) — designed by clinicians from Unity Point Health in Cedar Rapids Iowa, for volunteers to make for the hospital. It is fitted, has a nose piece, has a pocket for a filter, and uses elastic ear loops. It is very good, but I found that it was a bit small and didn’t slope into the face quite enough (the hospital workers would use it with double-sided face tape to seal it to the face). I made several of these masks for my husband & daughter & me, they work fine, but I did keep looking for another design to try.

Design 2: The Rosie mask, a pleated design which is the turquoise mask pictured on the right side above (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THkdyBD8mTY for pattern and instructions) — it also has a filter pocket & nose wire, but has ties to go around the head. I made this one for myself, and tried it on but found the fabric ties much too annoying (slipping out of place and being too easy to painfully tie up bits of hair in the bow). Also I found the pleated design made for a bit too much extra fabric that got in the way of breathing (maybe I’m just not great at adjusting the pleats, or maybe this mask is better as an outer layer over an N95 mask). So, I cut off the ties & added a casing to be able to have elastic ear loops. I’ve worn it a couple of times since then, and it’s fine — it covers all the needed areas very well. The added casing with elastic ear loops also makes it sit much closer to the cheeks so that air doesn’t escape out the sides.

Design 3: This is the mask I’ve been happiest with so far, it’s the Best Fit Facemask by PrettyHandyGirl (tutorial & pattern https://www.prettyhandygirl.com/best-fit-facemask/ ). It is the flowered mask on the left in the pictures of the three masks together above Design 1, and I’ve shown two more masks in navy dragonfly and light blue chambray fabrics in the photos just above this section. The mask is similar in shape to the Olson mask, but it goes up a bit higher under the eyes, is nicely fitted under the chin, and the very best part is that it has adjustable ear elastics. The pattern has two sizes: large & medium — so far I’ve made a large for my husband, nephew & brother-in-law, and a medium for me. The designer’s advice about fabrics, nose wires, and elastics is very helpful. I had used pipe cleaners for the nose wires in the Olson and Rosie masks, but with this mask I used coffee bag bendy ties, which I find hold their shape better than pipe cleaners. The ear elastics are made adjustable by passing the elastic ends through a craft bead which can then be moved to shorten or lengthen the loop — a brilliant idea that works very well! The only change I made to this pattern is that I made the lining to just cover the cheek ends, with the filter pocket overlapping a bit (I took this idea from the Olson mask pattern) — I didn’t want to make a full lining and then a filter pocket over that, as I think that 3 layers + a filter would make it too difficult to breathe. This is definitely the most comfortable and best fitting mask of the three designs, I highly recommend it to other makers!

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