Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Face-masks

Seems like everything has changed almost overnight, not only here in NC, or the US, but around the world, everything has happened so quickly. When things started shutting down and we first heard about the use of face masks to curb the spread of covid-19, I found a pattern online and made a couple to wear when I ran to the store or post office. Then my small church group decided to make gift baskets for health care providers at our local hospital and I was asked if I might make some face masks to include? I was happy to do that, my dil is a nurse in the intensive care department at her hospital, and was also expecting their first baby and my first grandchild! So I really wanted to do whatever I could to keep them safe and healthy and help "flatten the curve". The next thing I knew I was getting requests from everywhere! I ended up making a couple of hundred face masks, some even for a missionary group in NY. I think the sweetest reward I got was when the leader of the group sent me a video with a very young little girl thanking me for sending "yiddle" (her precious way of saying "little", so adorable!!) face masks, 'cause she was little and her face was little too. That video made all those hours of sewing worth every minute. I hope my small effort helped to save some lives of health care providers and also patients. Here are a few pics of some of the face masks, it was actually fun to get to do some marathon sewing for a while!
 Some of the first ones I made, I like this pattern as you can use either elastic or ties.
 Each face mask has a filter pocket in which a disposable filter can be added, such as a blue shop towel or coffee filter.
 A variety of colors chosen by one health care worker for guys and gals!
For the NY missionaries, I used some fun kids' prints for the little ones. Good thing I had a nice stash of fabrics to choose from!

I actually "killed" my sewing machine with all this marathon sewing! The last night I was trying to finish the kids' masks above, I was so tired but was trying to finish up the last few. When I went to wind a new bobbin there was some loose thread on the spool, and too late I saw a bit of it disappear into the motor of my favorite vintage machine! So right now it's not working very well at all, I'm going to have to take it to a shop. Luckily I have a back-up portable I can use until I get ol' Lucy up and running.

Oh, and I am also the proud grandma of a healthy baby boy! Carter Ray Clontz was born on April 30 and he and his proud mom and dad are doing great. He is so precious, I've seen him once and we hit it off right away! Ok he was only a week old but we got along just fine. I can't wait to go and see him again! Meanwhile my new pattern designs are being inspired by him, check out my "Baby Buddies Blankie" and "Baby Buddies Softies & Backpack" on my Patterns page of my web-site!

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