I took a rather long hiatus from my normal crafting activities (and this blog) due to the pandemic and my focus on sewing masks. Shortly after the pandemic hit, masks were in short supply and there was suddenly an urgent need for those who could sew to make them. I can sew, so I went in to mask production mode.
In the beginning it was crazy. I bought whatever gender-neutral fabric I could find. Elastic was nowhere to be found, so I sewed straps. Friends donated fabric and thread when I couldn’t find any. It was a true community effort. I found a hospital-approved tri-fold mask pattern, and proceeded to make several hundred masks for my friends, family, and to donate to hospitals, vet clinics and the like.
After it seemed that all my friends and family had something they could wear, I switched over to being more creative. I started out by designing a more fitted mask. (And it evolved as I went.) I added a “pocket” to hold a nose clip so the clip could be removed. I was able to get my hands on elastic and figured out a way to make it adjustable with O-rings. Then I started getting really creative by piecing the fronts of the masks of the masks together like a quilt to make things like dinosaurs and puppies. I loved the creative aspect of the design, if not the reason for it. Check out a few of my favorite below!