Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Face Masks for personal use

Over the last month, I have sewn & donated about a hundred masks to local hospitals. Now I am taking a break from that to address requests for personal-use masks.

EACH MASK IS UNIQUE - NO TWO MASKS ARE ALIKE
place order at
alittlesewing.com


LARGE

LARGE

LARGE size fits adult men

MEDIUM

MEDIUM

MEDIUM fits adult women

SMALL - fits big kids, age 7-12

SMALL
X-SMALL, fits little kids, age 4-7

X-SMALL, fits little kids, age 4-7

Features:

  • Stretchy tie is made from strips of soft 100% cotton knit, making it comfortable to wear for long periods. If you prefer loops around your ears, just cut the tie into two pieces & tie them into little loops.
  • Large & Medium sizes come with nose wire channel. I use 16 gauge craft wire - pipe cleaners work, too.
  • Washer/Dryer safe.

I also have a few pleated masks left:
Here's where I'll be:



5 comments:

  1. Hello world - I have not used this site for blogging in quite a while. Now, I've just realized that when I post, emails go out to subscribers! oops!!

    When the lockdown started, I had sewing plans and I spent the first week of it sewing stretchy black pants that look good (but are really secret pajamas) so I could be comfortable, but still feel like I was dressed for work. As soon as I saw the need for face masks, I got a little excited because I had a nice stash from a brief foray into quilting back in 2012-2013. I enjoyed buying that fabric and I enjoyed sewing patchwork for a while but as a hobby, it didn't stick.

    I have enjoyed playing with those fabrics - combining colors, combining prints and it has kept me from going crazy. LOL.

    I am an introvert - I recharge my batteries in solitary activities. So, I am made for quarantine. But ... yeah, it is weird and it is our jobs to adapt. One way or another we all face this challenge: we've got to figure out how we live in this new weird difficult situation. We need to be kind to ourselves as we give it our best effort.

    In order to sew all the masks for hospitals, and then for family & friends, I actually took vacation days. Today is my last day of vacation, and it was a big help for me personally, to take that time to indulge in the personal challenge of sewing all my quilting stash (supplemented with some shirtings). My husband helped with his expertise in efficient manufacturing. I am not the fastest sewer - perfectionism gets in the way of high productivity. But, I am happy with what I accomplished on my days off and I will continue sewing masks until I run out of material. By the way, I've noticed it is getting harder and harder to buy cotton fabric online. And I got an email from sewingmachinesplus.com yesterday explaining why shipping times are taking longer. Of course, upcycling mens shirts would be a good source of fabric, but wait, we are in quarantine. Can't go to the thrift store. Oh well.

    I no longer have fabric in pieces large enough for the pleated masks preferred by Johns Hopkins Hospital (I work in Johns Hopkins IT, so supporting my own peeps is important to me).
    Now, I'm in the stage where friends of friends are looking for masks and I am happy to help. I get texts, emails, messages on Slack, etc. So I decided to put the information on a webpage and refer people to that.

    Then, I wondered if there was an easier way to streamline this and Shopify came to the rescue. I set up a little shop, using the Shopify platform (and their free 90-day trial) to allow me to sew instead of track down addresses, etc. As I am also a CPA, I am not bothered by sales tax; I can take care of that and stay legal.

    You know, I miss blogging from time to time, but I do wonder WHERE DID I EVER GET THE TIME TO BLOG SO MUCH?? Remember those days? We all had so much fun with our blogs in those early days. Now it's a whole new generation out there doing their thing. I'll tell you one thing that is different now - I don't put so much of my life on social media anymore. I came to understand the downsides of social media and it turned me off so much that I just prefer to live my life offline.

    But it is nice to think about the fun times with the blogosphere. Does anyone even call it that anymore?

    :)

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  2. How wonderfully kind of you! That's such a heartwarming gift for the folks blessed by your thoughtful unselfishness. Jewels in your crown in Heaven.

    Great idea to use T-shirt cotton strips for the ear loops.. they would be really soft and comfortable on the ears for periods of time. Unfortunately, I don't have any such tees or light cotton knit, so I was looking around the cave and spotted foldover elastic. Gonna try that cut in half as the 1/4" elastic felt really stiff and harsh.

    All the best .. I bet you could now sew them in your sleep.

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  3. Oops. Forgot to sign. ~Joy~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BTW, I tried cutting the foldover elastic in half, too fiddly and it started to go to threadiness, if that's a word. Too unworkable, but I sewed the 5/8" foldover in half and am using that, and it's doing well .. very soft on the ears.

      Also, just found this interesting video from Amy Barickman from Indygo Junction patterns and Prym-Dritz, etc. company with lots of good tips for the elastic for masks as well as worthy source ideas, including your tee shirt yarn idea. She also gives the link to Prym-Dritz's 2 pdf printouts of various styles of facemasks and instructions. Very worthwhile video.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5H22cITN6Y

      Cheers and stay well,
      ~Joy~

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  4. The efforts you are making for the welfare of society is commendable. Keep up the good work.

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    blue bed in a bag

    ReplyDelete