New Face Masks. 9.12.2020

 I still use the home made, pleated masks that I have been making.  They are not a perfect fit on the sides.  Also, the sewing machine has some challenges with the multiple layers of the folded pleats, and sometimes skips stitches.  It probably doesn't help that I added a light, nonwoven interfacing as a liner, and the inside fabric is cotton kitchen towel, which some studies showed to be very good as a viral filter.

This pattern is quite different.  The fit is much better.  I made one that had ripstop pants fabric as the outer layer. The mask looked great, very professional, but it wasn't breathable, which is a problem.   I made these new masks with batik cotton quilting fabric outer layer, light interfacing liner, and kitchen towel inner layer.  This filters smoke very well, and is breathable but probably the upper limit to how thick I can breath through comfortably.  This makes a good mask for both wildfire apocalypse and coronavirus apocalypse.  I'm not sure about plagues of locusts, frogs, or zombies. 

I'm having a difficult time loading photos.  I'm using Ipad.  If they don't work out, I'll need to edit later. (Edited 9.15.2020)

The materials - this was some batik fabric that I bought to make a shirt.  There was some extra.  The NY Times article that I read stated that cotton batik fabric is the best, along with "tea towel" which is kitchen towel.  Later articles state a nonwoven filler is helpful, so I added a nonwoven interfacing.

I cut to the downloaded pattern from the link above.  I ironed the interfacing onto the inside aspect of the batik fabric, before cutting.

I followed the article instructions, pretty much to a T.  It was very straight-forward.  I used two food bag twist ties to make the metal nose strip, which is sewn inside the mask before final assembly.  I also used polyester shoestring for ties, cutting to fit and sealing the cut ends with a butane lighter, so they don't fray.

This mask has an excellent fit.  It seals much better at the sides, compared to the pleated masks that I was making.  Those mask pleats were also difficult to sew, whereas this mask doesn't have pleats, so no problem.

The inside of the mask, showing the tea towel fabric.  That is quite comfortable.  I think these masks filter out a lot of the smoke particles in the current Pacific NW worst-air-quality-in-the-world situation due to wildfires.  I feel much less short of breath and lung tightness when wearing this mask outside, compared to not wearing it.