In our last blog we talked about making cloth masks to help service workers, family members, and neighbors protect themselves from the coronavirus. Several of the products we sell can be used to make face masks with ties. This is useful for people who sew who may have enough fabric but have had a hard time finding elastic. Face masks that tie are also preferable in some ways than those with elastic.
Sewing Face Masks to Help the Effort
When we look back at the COVID-19 epidemic, there will be a lot of difficult and frustrating things to remember, but one of the good things will be how people pulled together for each other and soldiered on. Frontline workers and those in essential industries kept working. Many people at home stayed busy making a difference by sewing face masks. They sewed all day and sometimes into the night, and they made do when they ran low on things like elastic. They created new patterns and taught others how to sew too. We’ve seen a lot of customers purchasing our ½-inch and ⅝-inch cotton #501 natural tapes and twill tapes as material for mask ties.
One of our customers, W.C. Carpenter, has been making use of our cotton binding and donating them to people in need! They sent us these pictures of their work and the final result. Impressive!
A really nice thing about making face masks is that this is the perfect beginner sewing project. There are some more complicated face mask patterns available, but the simplest ones involve cutting rectangles and sewing them together in straight lines. If you can cut, pin, and sew a straight line, you can make a mask.
Here’s what you will need:
- High quality 100% cotton fabric
- Binding tape or twill tape
- Pins
- Thread
- Scissors
That’s it! Here is a great tutorial (with pattern) on how to make a two-layer, rectangular mask with a filter pocket. The type of mask allows you to add a piece of filtering fabric to make the mask more effective against viruses.
Face masks with ties aren’t harder to make than masks with elastic, and they should hold up longer. This is important because they will have to be washed as protective gear. Elastic loses its elasticity over time, but ties will continue to work as long as the mask itself lasts. Some people prefer this type of mask because they think it’s more comfortable, especially if it has to be worn for many hours. Elastic can cut into the skin and pinch.
If you would like to make face masks for yourself or others and need quantities of cotton binding tape or twill tape for the face mask ties, Bond Products has the supplies you need. Call us – we will be happy to help get you started.
