When you start a blogging site, you then must remember to post something! I can’t guarantee they’ll all be interesting but – hey! Isn’t that what blogging is about?
With all the recent events that are going on in the world, I’d never have thought a pandemic would have been one of them. I think most people will say they did as they were told and stayed at home. Maybe did their one hour walk a day (and their poor dogs probably had at least 3 depending on the number of people in the house) and pretty much kept themselves and their families safe. It did mean that we all got to spend more time together (like it or not) and made the most of what we had or could have if we could find it.
That being said, it did give me more time to do more sewing, as long as I could get some fabric I was a happy girl. I helped my cousin make a set of scrubs for a local care home from a pattern she found online, though for this I did end up using my husband’s green cotton photo backdrop (you know the green screen you use in the background for filming and photography) – I still need to replace that!
Like most of us when we go looking for something, google is our first port of call (along with Amazon) but when you’re looking for fabric, unless you know exactly what you want it can be quite difficult. Most of us know what we like, especially when looking for clothes, you’re looking for colours, styles, size and comfort. When you’re looking at fabric you’re looking for inspiration.
I’ve been buying patterns recently with the intention of making them, but I’ve also been buying fabric – sometimes the two don’t often work together. So for a while I kind of left them all to one side, and bought some off cuts of material, sample bags of fabric, fat squares etc. My intention was to use these as practice pieces – you know a buttonhole sample here, a collar sample there – just to get me back into the swing of sewing again, I am really only an amateur with a textiles GCSE after all.
Then last week the government announced that you had to wear face coverings on all public transport, and some shops may request you wear these too. I decided to find a simple face mask covering that I could make with the odds of fabric I had. Utilising google (again) I found a YouTube video that was pretty straight forward and even had a pocket in so you could insert a filter.
As a friend pointed out to me, you don’t need to put anything too fancy into it just a piece of kitchen roll will give you a little more protection if you felt you needed it.
So there I was initially making few masks, as my family & Friends live in London I thought these might help with their journeys. I’d use up my fat squares and off cuts, trying to be a little more imaginative when it came to picking a fabric for my dad, I don’t really think Pink floral is his colour!
I’d made about 30/40 masks and posted them out to everyone with a little note explaining what I’d done and hopefully they would help them in their journeys to work or the shops. Then I realised I’d forgotten a few people, then a few more and then I’d run out of my fabric off cuts and elastic.
This actually made my life a little easier, as I didn’t have to choose who got the pink floral or daisy pattern. So for the first time in ages, I was able to order just a plain cotton fabric – the joy of knowing what you’re actually going to get and what it can be used for!
I’ve since made another 50 masks (infact probably more than that) and have distributed them to the same family and friends as one mask is just not enough unfortunately.
These mask were made purely for the use of my family and friends, I don’t live in London anymore and as we’re currently not allowed to travel too far (I don’t think, though I’m not too sure, are we, aren’t we?) and haven’t seen my mum and dad since early March, I thought it was the least I could do as I cant be there to lend a helping hand.
I’m not too sure if I’m allowed to post the link to the YouTube video I found, but if anyone wants to give them a go, drop me a line and I’ll happily share it with you. Happy sewing guys!
PS: I am wondering now if I make a mask out of off cuts of everything I sew, at least they'll match!
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