Making masks with Textile Museum of Canada

Mask making for personal use: PART 2 Making CDC approved no sew or simple masks for personal use: a discussion/demo from tmurdoch on Vimeo.

Works-in-Progress artists and community started getting into mask making, experimenting with and researching the science and art behind mask making, and on April 15th we co-hosted our second online tutorial with the Textile Museum of Canada. Check it out! This one was by invite only, so we invited museum volunteers and Kate Hamilton from Building Roots.  It was a very friendly and inquisitive group and so cool to be an official part of the TExtile Museum community.

The video above is some hands on demonstrations of the simple no sew or simple sewn masks recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) In a separate video we look through some of the many clever mask-making tutorials online these days, some personal show and tell mask making shared experiences and then a hands on step by step walk through of a favourite pattern used by WIP artist Marnie Saskin.  You can see that video here: Adaptations to patterns for personal use masks: a discussion/demo

There is a lot of interest in making and wearing masks these days, especially since the CDC and Canada Public Heath changed their recommendation about wearing masks for personal use (they are for it, with some qualifiers)  We were also inspired by Facebook group the Sewing Army (organized by Diana Coatsworth) who have established an amazing all volunteer army of makers, drivers, donors and organizers to make thousands of masks and get them where they are needed. It's amazing. We were able to divert some of our stash and just act as conduit for others to the cause, and have made a few masks for our local community following their lead.

There was a lot of side info collected by Leah Sanchez from the Textile Museum, I include some links below.  Here is her explanation for the event and some links below. the rest of the tutorials can be linked to on our useful info page:

Why are we doing this?​


We would like to provide our audience with the tools and resources they need to make their own protective masks. We are not advocating for one particular way of making masks, but we want to encourage people to educate themselves and try out what will work for their personal circumstances.  We are promoting a maker mentality, focusing on using materials that are readily available in our homes and taking into account different skill levels and abilities. 

extra links:
www.acraftyfox.net
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus
Michael Garron 1000 mask challenge ​World Health Organization Advice on the use of masks in the context of Covid-19​

An in-depth article from Wired about the pros/cons of wearing masks: https://www.wired.com/story/its-time-to-face-facts-america-masks-work/​

Two articles discussing a study from the UK on most effective materials: ​

https://www.designworldonline.com/cdc-weighs-diy-facemasks-for-the-general-public-heres-the-science-behind-mask-materials/​
 ​https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-face-mask-virus/​

4.   How to put on and take off your mask https://www.sfcdcp.org/communicable-disease/healthy-habits/how-to-put-on-and-remove-a-face-mask/​
 ​5.   Surgical cap patterns ​

https://twelvebees.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-sew-surgical-cap-pattern-diy.html​
http://thesewingarmy.com/files/scrub-cap.pdf