Agnostic.com

9 9

How to Sew a Medical Face Mask with No Elastic

Nurses said the elastic on medical face masks hurts their ears. In this video, the mask has fabric ties. Doctors also complain about the elastic, they said.

Today I donated a box of N-95 respirator masks to the hospital. Nurses were very appreciate. They were standing outside, checking people's temperature before letting them in the hospital.

When wildfire smoke chokes the town, I use an N-95 face mask. Smoke triggers my asthma.

In storage, I have plenty of soft cotton fabric from clothes I made for my daughter when she was little. And extra flannel from making Christmas stockings.

Will make face masks for clinics and hospitals. I plan to send a face mask to my daughter and keep one for myself.

LiterateHiker 9 Mar 27
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

9 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

3

Made my first one today- used elastic though... I also inserted floral wire so that the mask would fit to the nose.

@JonnaBononna

Great idea! Four questions:

  1. What thickness of floral wire did you use? I have the thin kind.

  2. Did you pad the wire?

  3. How did you anchor the wire so it won't shift?

  4. How long is the wire? Just over the nose or longer?

1

My mom has been busy seeing them too.

1

Thanks for this. It augments the fancy, fru-fru one I sent earlier.

2

Another benefit to not using elastic is that they can be washed at higher temps.

MizJ Level 8 Mar 27, 2020

@MizJ

I washed and dried the fabric and flannel today, so it's clean and fresh.

@LiterateHiker Washing kills the virus so they can be used again 🙂

You can wash in Clorox 2 to disinfect

1

Great idea!!

2

You are great.

I have built six surgical masks out of sheets and given them to a nurse. Plan to make a few more masks and start wearing them if I go into a store to purchase anything.

For the last three masks I added a packet in the mask where you can add filter material. I took apart a large allergy furnace filter (miserable to carefully remove the filter from the metal mesh) and cut out sections to fit inside the masks. This made the masks much more comfortable and (I am hoping) more effective in removing air-born nasty. Air smells better through the filtered masks so my fingers are crossed as to their effectiveness.

1

A very worth while project

2

I have already sewn masks for myself and high risk friends. I found a whole bunch of packaged fabric tape in my deceased mother's sewing area that I can use for the ties which speeds up the process. I have a wonderful GP that I will give some to and the local hospitals as well.

MizJ Level 8 Mar 27, 2020
1

Great.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:476566
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.