If you want to make a SIMPLE, BASIC mask I’ve posted my instructions below. This design does NOT have a nose-wire, nor a filter, but both are easy enough to add. (I plan to add a couple of extra slides explaining how to do these things.)
I’ve been “on the fence” about wearing face masks during this crisis, although from the very start of the lockdown here in France I did say I expected that would be the way out… I was hoping for some miracle – a modern, technical textile, widely available and endorsed – along with an “ultimate” design – and at that point I knew I’d start mask-making… As it is, that hasn’t happened, but Italy is now insisting on masks being worn when anyone leaves the house, and I think France will follow. In our area, Charente, they advertised for volunteers to help sew a total of 350,000 which are to be given out at the start of May. So, on Tuesday last week I went out – for the first time since 17th March! – to collect fabrics and pattern instructions.
The following day – and on Thursday morning, Jon and I made 63 masks. I changed the design slightly so it didn’t require zig zagging, and the design is neat and – as far as it goes – functional. However, the cutting out and pressing of 126 ties – each one 1m x 4cm – took forever! I’d have happily contributed many, many more of they’d supplied bias binding or any type of tape.
Here’s John modelling the prototype:
Attaching that time-consuming binding:
