My First Homemade Mask

Back at the beginning of April, when the CDC had just finally recommended that the general public wear masks when going out, I was eager to follow this guideline to the best of my abilities. Unfortunately, I didn't have any masks nor any good way of purchasing masks. (Online orders of anything were taking very long at that point in time, and masks weren't readily available in most stores not that I could get to one anyway.) So, I decided to try to make myself a mask. I wanted to make a really good mask. I did lots of research to find out what the best mask materials were for blocking the virus and everything. I searched my home, looking through my clothing, my towels, my reusable bags, trying to find the "right" material. I wasn't satisfied by anything I found. Given that, I decided that my best option was a relatively thick hand towel. I found a template online and proceeded to spend a couple hours hand sewing the mask that you see on my face in the picture. (I have very little experience hand sewing, so I didn't do a very neat job at all.) The final product was this huge mask that covered the entire lower half of my face. I mean, it worked, but it looked pretty hilarious. I did wear this mask out a number of times. It was basically my only option until I was able to order some better masks off the internet. I'm glad I don't have to wear that ridiculous homemade mask anymore, but I'm actually pretty impressed that I managed to make one at all.

April 5, 2020

Shira Gusfield

Shira Gusfield

Photograph

English Consumer Culture (shopping, dinning...)

English Health & Wellness

hand towel

template

protection

supply

CDC

mask

Santa Barbara

Antioch University

masks

09/03/2020

09/07/2020

04/05/2020