Home made mask Mark III

STOP PRESS. Covid measures take over cancer blog.

Following requests from a few people, I'm going to set out how I make the Mark III mask - tada! Original instructions came from the US CDC website - I have tidied up the sewing  of this double-layer mask and added a face shape. The basic design (Mark I) seems to do fine for husband and grown-up son but soon comes off my nose - not the only case of basic design for personal protective equipment not fitting women. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html   

1. Find some new or old material - close-woven cotton or polyester-cotton. I've been using dress material scraps and bits of old shirts.  If the material is new, wash it to remove fabric dressing chemicals and pre-shrink it. Press it so it's nice and flat. NB. There is another (non-sewn) design on the CDC site for using t-shirt type knitted material.

2. Choose your fabrics for an inside and an outside layer - they could be the same or stylishly contrasting. Outside, I'm going to have a fabric with a small pattern and inside, a plain white fabric. Cut a rectangle 11" x 6.5" for the outside and a rectangle 10" x 6" for the inside layer. (Tip the first: Try to match the edges to the right-angled arrangement of the fibres in the fabric - this is called keeping to the straight grain and will help the fabric keep it's right-angled shape as you work with it. Tip the second: if you plan to  make several masks, you could make a template out of cereal packet cardboard then just draw round it onto the fabric before cutting - save endless faff with rulers.)

3. Arrange the smaller rectangle in the  middle and on top of the larger rectangle, with the wrong sides together - you're not going to see these again. There should be a 1/4" excess along both long sides and 1/2" excess along the shorter sides. You need wider allowances along the sides to make the channels for threading the elastic through.

 4. With your iron on steam (and minding your fingers), press the first narrow edge of the larger rectangle so that it folds over the cut edge of the smaller one.

5. Then fold again so you have a pressed hem that encloses the cut edge of the larger rectangle too, Repeat on the other long side. (Tip: if you're likely to burn your finger tips doing this, you could pin and/or tack these edges first, then press.)

6. Now it's time to get out the sewing machine and run a line of straight stitching along the edge of each hem.

7. The next bit is less exact and involves pressing in a fold that runs across the mask. So far I had just been eyeballing the fold and this has worked out fine, so not something to get too worked up  about.
Key things
- the fold is closer to the top of the mask than the bottom;
- from the outside, the edge of the fold points towards the top of the mask;
- for some reason I find it easier to make the fold and press it in place from the outside/wrong side.
I've just done three masks. They came out slightly different sizes due to size of available material and variation in seam size etc. I've made three key measurements on the outside/right side of the three masks and taken the average for each:
- from top of fold to top of mask = 2.9cm (range 2.6 - 3.4cm);
- from top of fold to bottom of mask = 7cm (range 6.7 - 7.6cm);
- depth of fold = 1.4cm (range 1.2 - 1.6cm).
I think all of these will work - not an exact science!

8. You can then press in the sides. As with the top and bottom, press the outside fabric allowances over the inside fabric allowances, once, and again, to make a neat channel

9. Then machine or hand sew along the edge of the channel - sorry didn't take a picture of that! You will be going through thicker layers of fabric now, so go slowly if necessary to avoid breaking a machine needle. Keep to the edge to allow a decent channel to thread the elastic through.

10.