Face mask questions

[PaulineJ]

Unlike some others who have commented I am rather well endowed! I looked up the link, thought thats a good idea to make a bra mask, and got some out of the drawer.

No good whatsoever!! The shape is wrong, also most of mine have a lacy top, just where the nose would go!

Back to the drawing board.

Regards Margaret

Made me think of this: ( 2009 Ig Nobel Prize for medicine)
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/10/ignobel_prize_winners_include.html

[LizzieL]

Forget the bras, don't bother with the complicated Burda patterns I sent a link to earlier

the Government says we can all use t shirts

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering

after all with all the pasta and bread flour we've all been stockpiling, we're too fat to wear them as T shirts now

[josey]

https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/service/alle-meldungen/meldung/pid/auch-einfache-masken-helfen/

I downloaded the pattern from Burda. I wonder if you found any instructions in English? There are explanatory pictures, I can speak some German & have Google translate but just wondered if there were any instructions already translated. Thanks.

[LizzieL]

I used Google translate and got enough instructions I could just follow for the shaped one (which I made first). The one cut from a rectangle, I made afterwards and just worked it out from the pattern and the photos - where to put pleats and hems

[Gillg]

If you want the instructions translated from German I can do this for you.  Just scan them and either post here or send me a private message.

[guest189040]

The NHS Staff you see on TV or in the Press wearing masks are wearing one of two types.

The pleated Blue or green ones you see are Surgical Masks and their purpose is to protect the patient from the Medic, their use for protecting a Medic from a patient is questionable but the ethos

"it is better than nothing"

is probably true.

The seond type is the FFP3 which often has a button on the front with 3M showing as they are one of the main makers of these facemasks.  They have a much better seal than a simple Surgical mask and will probably give better protection for the wearer.

A much safer system for the wearer is a powered hood where filtered air is blown into the hood which is therefore at a greater air pressure than it is outside the hood an dthus the protection for the wearer is greater.  The belt worn air supply unit is battery powered and includes replaceable filters which will stop a virus getting through.  You may see the odd Medic wearing something of this kind on TV News shows, the problem is that last time I had to buy something like these it was a few hundred pounds.  Very careful handling and use is required.  I have had to wear one of these myself and they do get uncomfortable within the hood after a period of time so they are not ideal but they are proved to work.

At the moment I carry a Neck Sleeve that I can use as a facemask, it includes lycra and hence gives a snug fit when pulled up over the nose.  A tissue over the nose could help in offering extra filtration.

I spent 25 Years working in the NHS and had cause to work inside every location within the Hospitals including some well lets just say, places they do not show on TV.

Stay safe and do not be a guinea pig in the governments second spike experiment

[josey]

Thank you all.

LizzieW, thank you or that translation, the bit I found confusing from the pictures was to do with the insert, which hardly seems to be mentioned.

GillG thank you very much for the offer, I will work from LizzieW's file.

Colin Lamb, these are only considered as face coverings, not masks for clinical protection purposes. As far as I am aware, face coverings are to prevent the wearer from putting aerosol [infected or not] into the surrounding air.  The neck sleeve sounds a good idea, I have one somewhere in my walking gear.  The pattern above has a wire inserted to help close fit.

ADDED: I am making these from an old shirt [close textured cotton] & have realised I can use a section of the button band to make a back-of-the-head ear protector where the elastic will hook onto the buttons instead of behind the ears.  Even with that bright idea I still wouldn't do well on the Sewing Bee transformation challenge 

[bykerlads]

I made a face covering/ mask following instructions in the Times. Very easy, no sewing, using an old T shirt.
Result was Ok but the strings are a bit of a faff.
Much better I discovered is to cut off the T shirt sleeve, pull it down over your head, wear it round your neck until needed. Then pull it up to your eyes. The stretchy tubular form stays in place easily.
Wearing glasses and maybe 2 layers of sleeve would give better protection.

[nanny jan]

Has anyone used an old sock to make a mask? There are lots of videos on YouTube.