Masks will become fashion accessories. A friend made me some out of gorgeous

[tblue37]

brocade scraps. People kept oohing and ahhing over how pretty my mask was.

[tanyev]

1. Hey, I wonder if the Biden campaign and anti-GOP groups will start selling masks with messages??

I'd buy some.

[tblue37]

2. Me, too. nt

[RockRaven]

3. I would buy a dozen "Fuck Trump" masks, if anyone ever starts making them.

And maybe some less profane ones if they were equally direct.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. I just asked Claude Taylor if he would make them,

He's the guy with anti Mitch and Nunes billboards, and that huge rat he parks in front of trump places.

check out https://maddogpac.com/

He sez he will be coming out very soon with slogan masks.

And sez what he is selling now will go towards hospital needs: masks, etc.

[SoonerPride]

5. That is some campaign merch I would wear.

I still wear my Obama tshirt to the store (well I did when stores were open) to piss people off in Oklahoma.

I would wear a Biden face mask in a second.

[sop]

11. That's a great idea. Joe's version of the Trump MAGA cap, and a whole lot more useful.

[malaise]

26. All they need is

ByeDon!

[PunkinPi]

27. I posted about this VOTE mask the other day...

they give to various women's groups.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213261649

[lettucebe]

28. I ordered a couple Vote masks, hope they come!

I've had others I ordered suddenly become not available and order cancelled right when they were supposed to be sent. My niece is making them as well, so also asked her to send a couple ($10 ea), in case they are soon mandatory and I don't sew.

[SoonerPride]

32. Found Biden gaiters on Etsy

[tanyev]

33. That's cool, thanks.

I hardly ever think about looking for things on Etsy.

[MissB]

4. Most of what I have

is baby polka dot (choice of gray or baby blue), bright as hell geometric (green, blue or purple- but each color is one fabric and the design is actually nice) or bright orange batik fabrics. I can’t wait until my oldest child opens his box of masks next week

I’m in the learning-how-to-make bias tape phase of mask making. I have 8 cut out and ready to sew up but I need my bias tape. Should be good to go by the weekend.

I discovered last night that I missed the opportunity to invest in a bias maker. Those are all sold out, so I’m going old-school with a pin and an iron board. Thank goodness for YouTube videos!

[Grammy23]

6. Masks are already showing up on Zulily.

And they are cute. Animal prints, cat and dog faces abound. Clever people saw the opportunity to meet a need and make a buck. Isn’t that how things work??

Now, how long this will last is another matter. I guess masks could become the pet rocks of this era. But that is good, because it will mean we have beaten back this beast we are fighting. For now.....

[stillcool]

7. I'm trying...got lots of scrap fabric...

found a great pattern, made a bunch...but haven't found 'the one' yet.

[CatWoman]

8. this is the one I want!!!!

[Polybius]

9. I looked like Scorpion yesterday

[bamagal62]

10. But, how effective are they really?

Are we being lied to about these homemade masks?
I guess it might be better than nothing. But, I still don’t believe it. There’s a reason why doctors/nurses want N95s.

[MissB]

15. It's meant to keep you from infecting others

If everyone was wearing them, the transmission would be reduced and the overall infection rate would go down.

Personally, I’m using a version that hugs the face and has a metal nose piece sewn in. Three layers- Two of cotton - some are quilters cotton for both layers and some have a quilters cotton layer and then a tshirt material layer. The third layer is those non woven grocery bag material (first iterations of reusable grocery bags were almost all black but you can find those in many colors. I had a ton in the basement that I wasn’t using. It’s the inner layer that is sandwiched between cotton on each side.)

Do I feel like mine are equivalent to N95s? Nope. I’m just hoping that enough folks are wearing them.

Now that I see the R0 of CV19 seems to be close to 6, I’m going with non contact for all goods. No more grocery shopping in stores.

[Dream Girl]

21. Wat does that mean? RO6?

[MissB]

24. R naught

R0 (or R naught) is the rate at which an infected person can spread the infection. The recent R0 that I saw for this virus is 5.7, which means that if I were infected then I’d be likely to infect 5.7 people while I was infectious.

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. A friend made masks for us,

Professional seamstress, has a store on Etsy, but now during the lockdown, has closed that.
She made masks of 2 laytoo long.ers of batik cloth, which as you know is a fairly tight weave.

But no metal nose on them, they do gap.

I hear ya about the groceries.

[cayugafalls]

19. If you don't have access to N95 masks, a homemade mask will do in a pinch.

Here is a good report on efficacy of differing mask types. It is a long read but I highlight here a particular quote;

It is also clear that home-made masks such as teacloths may still confer a significant degree of protection, albeit less strong than surgical masks or FFP2 masks. Home made masks however would not suffer from limited supplies, and would not need additional resources to provide at large scale. Home made masks, and to a lesser degree surgical masks, are unlikely to confer much protection against transmission of small particles like droplet nuclei, but as the reproduction number of influenza may not be very high [14] a small reduction in transmissibility of the virus may be sufficient for reducing the reproduction number to a value smaller than 1 and thus extinguishing the epidemic

I purchased a homemade mask off etsy that has a filter pocket. Put a certain type of merv filter in it and it should give me some protection.

I got to at least try.

[Mariana]

25. My husband's doctor says they are far better than nothing.

He's higher risk, and she asked him if he had any masks. He told her I had made some and she said that was fine. She wanted to know if the ones I made are comfortable to wear (they are) and said putting it on and not fiddling with it is the most important thing.

[Jake Stern]

12. Already seeing videos on you tube

with people showing off their blinged up masks.

Waiting to see if Gucci and such get in the game.

[42bambi]

13. I made a mask and sewed colored glass beads on each side, close to my ears. LOL.

[a kennedy]

16. Sell them on Esty ...... I sure buy some, they sound beautiful.

[sop]

14. Who knew Antifa would become so mainstream?

[keithbvadu2]

17. mask

[procon]

18. Be careful, there's a lot more that goes into sewing

a homemade face mask than just a pretty fabric. Remember, these masks are your armor, the frontline of defense to protect you, not merely a fashion accessory.

If you or your friend is serious about making your own face masks, check the CDCs guidlines first, they tell you everything you need to know to sew an effective facemask. You could probably still use a pretty fabric after the real, functional mask is made.

The porosity and permeability of the fabric layers is critical because that's what minimizes the number of particles that bypass the filter and get into your breathing zone. A common surgical type mask, which is what most people use, has three layers to filter out particles, where the N95 respirator used in hospitals has 4 specialized layers.

Many online fabric stores now carry the instructions and recommend the appropriate types of fabric to sew a mask that will actually be useful and help to keep you safe.

[tblue37]

20. The inner and back fabrics are appropriate ones. nt

[matt819]

22. I hope they were oohing and ahhing from a safe distance. (nt)

[tblue37]

23. Oh, yes. nt

[applegrove]

29. Here is the next material i am using:

My next mask material - i have extra material

https://imgur.com/gallery/xlAJsyr



Here is my first batch:

Face mask - first try. https://imgur.com/gallery/9pS8KWg

[keithbvadu2]

30. mask2