How to make a face mask for your local ER, EMS or for yourself

My husband is the medical director (and an ER doc) for a rural hospital. Many ERs around the world are overtaxed right now, and they don’t have enough PPE. (Personal Protective Equipment). They are wearing masks non-stop, but they are only getting one disposable N95 mask to use for the duration and one (non-N95) disposable mask per day. My husband got a basket of handmade masks dropped off last week and it boosted morale. But... they didn’t all fit quite right and they used elastic over the ears. That has fit issues and it also bothers their ears in a rather short period of time. So, I posted a Facebook post with some tips. A bunch of people asked for me to do a pattern of the masks we are making.

I am not an expert. I am not a seamstress. My mom sews quite often. I am doing the best I can and trying to help. Your local ER is giving out masks to everyone who checks in—and the mask shortage may only exacerbate. But a lot of people want to help. So I hope this helps. Here are our steps.

Please keep in mind that multiple sizes of mask is super helpful. My hubby is large. Others are larger. Many many are smaller. And there are a variety of ways to do this-and many other patterns. Here’s ours but don’t think it means yours won’t be helpful!

Materials list:
Pins (flat pins for sewing)
Sewing machine and thread
Bias tape (or fabric strips!)
Cotton fabric (or something that holds up to washing)
A filter of some kind (we used washable coffee filters. I’ve heard vacuum bags are awesome and close to N95!)
Scissors
Iron and board if possible
Measuring tape
Wire/twist ties/pipe cleaners/tomato wire

Okay step one: cut the main mask fabric. We cut in 8.5x14.5” rectangles. We used cotton fabric. You could use anything that washes well. Also. I’d recommend making some an inch bigger on all sides and some an inch smaller all around. We varied our sizes some so that docs and nurses and EMS personnel can find some that fit their face. :)

Step two: optional nose piece. One of the issues is that masks need to fit tightly around the face to be effective. I’ve heard people use twist ties and pipe cleaners, and I bet they work fine! But we had a bunch of tomato twisting wire we got at the dollar store. We cut them in 7” strips and doubled it over. Then we sewed a 4” strip of bias tape along the inside of the back of the fabric square along the crease. I think the videos show it much better than I am explaining it.

Step Three:  After you make the nose piece, you will need to pause to do the straps that will tie the mask. We had bias tape and it is super easy and makes great ties. I took the double and sewed it, the single and sewed and folded it over, etc. then my daughter cut it into 16” ties. You need four per mask.

Step four: after the nose piece and strings are done, you get to do the hard step. We integrate the coffee filter and strings to the mask here. So we take the filter and put it on the bottom. Then we line up and pin the ties into the corners. And you sew around it all, backstitching over the straps or ties and leaving a 3” space at the bottom to turn it inside out. Here you can use a coffee filter, or a double piece of fabric, or a vacuum bag. Whatever you have that works. Make sure the person you donate to knows the material and whether it’s washable. If it’s not, you’d need to engineer a pocket. :)

Step five: trim the coffee filter and turn it inside out.

Step six: sew around the whole mask, backstitching over straps

Step seven: pleat and sew pleats

And done!

All the moms with older kids lied to me

I vividly recall the time before I had my first child. I couldn't wait to have a baby, start a family and become a mother. It would be magical. It would be life changing.

I was right about one thing. It changed my life.

But I didn't realize how bone-wearyingly exhausting it would be. I also didn't realize how very little positive feedback I would receive.

Don't get me wrong. I loved my babies, and I have loved being a mother. But it was NOT magical. There was too much poop (and attendant constipation, dirty diapers, blow outs, etc etc etc), too much spit up, too much crying (SO MUCH CRYING), too little sleep, and perhaps hardest of all. . . I began to count time in tiny, unpredictable blocks. I was never sure if I could sleep, or make jam, or accomplish anything at all before a baby called me back to immediate service.

I was invited in those early days to a play date. Mothers there had children ranging from newborns all the way up to pre-teen. For many of them, they had several children, including a baby.

[I should preface this with a caveat: I do not handle babies well. When I am not getting six hours of sleep, I am crabby and borderline depressed. When my house is a mess, I want to curl up and cry. When my plans are derailed, I do not handle it with aplomb. And I never, ever, successfully nursed. Those things may have colored my view on all of this. For those of you who do handle it well, BRAVO! But I think there are a lot of people out there like me. Babies and toddlers are HARD.]

I asked at one of those play dates (while sitting there, thinking, "Why did I even come to this? It's so much harder to care for my colicky newborn at a park than it is at home!") "When does this get easier?"

The mothers gathered around me laughed. "It doesn't," one of them said. "It only gets harder as they get older."

That was a horrible lie.

I don't think they meant to lie to me. Motherhood is taxing and it is always difficult in many ways. But I was in the middle of drowning. I was asking if someone could toss me a life preserver. I wanted to know when life would feel like LIFE again, when I would have someone to tell me I was doing a good job, when the diapers and the drudgery and the constant mess clean-up would ever end. They told me that as my children grew, my difficulties as a mother would also grow.

Now cut to today. When people find out I'm an author, and that I put out eight full length novels, edited three rounds, polished and launched. When they find out that I do it indie, so I make my own covers, I create and run my own ads, and I manage. . . well, everything. And then they hear that I have two horses. Five kids aged 3-12. Church responsibilities. That I'm a lawyer who still works. When they hear I have chickens, cats and a border collie... they say "HOW!? How do you have time?"

To that, I will always reply, "My life is so much easier now than it was when I had one newborn. When I had a newborn and a toddler. My life is so much easier now that my children are older."

Because it's absolutely true.

Today I was out sweeping the very messy barn because the vet is coming today to float one of my horse's teeth. I didn't want him to judge me too hard. :P And my son came by, as he always does, on his way out to the bus. He saw me sweeping and. . . he grabbed the other broom. He swept until he saw the bus, and then he sprinted out to catch it. This is the same son who cares for his dog. He unloads the dishes every morning. He bathes and dresses and reads stories to his three year old brother. He loads the dishwasher at night. He practices piano, violin and does his homework without being asked. He reads morning noon and night because he loves it. His lowest grade in Pre-AP/GT classes at school on his progress report was a NINETY-SEVEN.

I'm not bragging. I'm telling you: the hard, exhausting, bone-wearying work that you do as toddlers PAYS OFF. And you get to SEE that happen! It is glorious! It is fulfilling! And yes, life is busy. And yes, they ask you questions that are harder to answer than, "Did they have the color blue when you were a kid?" And you have hard decisions to make all the time. Does he get an iPhone? When? What rules will you implement? When do you trust and when do you monitor? How do I respond when he makes mistakes? (And they make mistakes, large and small!) How do I teach him about the gray in the world? (Black and white is easy!)

But they grow up. They start helping YOU. They tell you they love you. They bring you poems dedicated to their love for their mother. Your heart soars.

And they wipe their own bum. And if you're lucky, their little siblings bums too.

So to the mothers out there in the trenches. To the mothers with a newborn. With a toddler. With two toddlers. You hear about my zoo, and you say, "I don't know how you do it. I can barely handle my (one, or two, or three.)"

Here is my message: Your life is as hard as it's going to get. If you can survive this stage, if you can hold the line, teaching your children that if you say something, you mean it, enforcing bedtimes so your children learn a routine, IT IS ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE!

You are struggling? That's okay! I struggled in a very similar way. It's exactly what happens when you're right where you are. But the rainbow is REAL. It's there. At the end of that very long tunnel.

Hang in there. It will get so much better, and so much more beautiful one day at a time. I promise.