A friend of mine was sent a request for fabric face masks for the Rollette County first responders. She does not sew, so she passed it on to our wider group to see if any of us could help them. While I’m not sure exactly what they will use the homemade masks for, I was willing to try.
As the curator of a large private textile collection, plenty of supplies are available. LOL — this is the time for all good (hoarders) seamstresses to take our rightful place!
Since all the confusion over the Covid-19 virus began, I have collected several “in the hoop” mask patterns for the embroidery machine. I didn’t have a “need” for them at the time. Originally, our local hospital did not want homemade masks, but I am saved the patterns anyway. As a beginner to the embroidery machine, I am building up my pattern collection by collecting the “freebie patterns” that designers make available.
This seemed like the right time to try using those patterns. While making the masks in the hoop sounded like a good idea, it was not as easy as it sounded. I finally gave up on that idea and am now using the regular sewing machine. The patterns and instructions were not user friendly at my skill level. As it turned out, the majority of construction of these “in the hoop” patterns is done on the ironing board anyway!
I searched out patterns for the regular sewing machine. Was not excited about any of those either. What I ended up doing was bastardizing several patterns to make one design that seems to work out reasonably well. Hopefully they will be what the end users are looking for!
I did, of course, find yet **another** “free” in the hoop pattern last night, so I will have to try that one out. Hope springs eternal..