Making a DIY face Tube Mask has become the top stay-home activity during the novel corona virus outbreak whether it’s for your own personal use or to donate to healthcare facilities. The CDC now recommends wearing a face covering any time you go out in public. On top of that, medical face masks for healthcare workers are running dangerously low due to the rapid increase of COVID-19 patients filling up hospitals and the fact that many consumers purchased personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep at home. The Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab reached out to medical professionals, sewing experts, and fabric suppliers to pull together everything you need to know about making face masks at home, from sewing tutorials with a fabric pattern to guidelines from hospitals.
Hospitals are asking for donations of N-95 respirators (the CDC-recommended masks for healthcare professionals working with infectious patients). But these efforts aren’t enough to keep up with the demand for N-95 Custom Mask, so businesses and good samaritans are taking it upon themselves to sew masks for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers working on the front lines of the novel corona virus. The PPE supply has become such a crisis that hospital workers are turning to social media to ask for hand-sewn surgical masks. Facebook groups, YouTube channels, and Instagram accounts are popping up with crafters banding together to figure out how to make homemade masks and get them in the hands of healthcare professionals. If you own a sewing machine, you can join this movement — but there are some important facts you need to know first.
How to Wear a Cloth Face Covering
Side view of an individual wearing a cloth face covering, which conceals their mouth and nose areas and has a string looped behind the visible ear to hold the covering in place. The top of the covering is positioned just below the eyes and the bottom extends down to cover the chin. The visible side of the covering extends to cover approximately half of the individual’s cheek.
CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. CDC also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure. Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance.
