Help fight the COVID outbreak with sewing

I signed up for the Providence program in the OP.  I received back an email that a local Seattle sewing business had stepped up and so home sewers were not wanted after all.

It seems to me that there is still a need for more masks than are being commercially made.  If non-medical folks used homemade masks, they could donate their professional masks to the professionals who really need them.

So, WHAT IS THE DESIRED FABRIC FOR A HOMEMADE MASK?
I have see an article that comes down to “t-shirt” and “tea towel” fabric as the best balance of filtering and breath-ability.  Can any fabric gurus give us some specs on what that means so that we can try and order some yardage?

thanks,

Scott

I have some surgical masks.  The preformed ones that fit your face, not the pleated ones.

I asked the fire department if they wanted them.  No.  Maybe the Oregon Health Authority would take them.  I can see how they don’t want random masks from some anonymous person coming off the street.

They don’t protect you from the virus.  They do protect others from you if you’re infected.

In China they made everyone on the streets wear masks so they didn’t spread the virus.

I googled fabric.  Cloth is somewhat effective.  You really need that special non woven fabric.  Good luck finding that.

Stay at home

If you’re out, stay 6 feet away from others.  If you touch a surface that someone else could have touched or coughed on, don’t touch your face until you wash your hands.

I submitted that form but haven’t got a response.  I’m in Portland though.  They’re probably swamped with offers.

This shows how we can come together, cooperatively, get through this better than before.

Pollyanna

Here’s a list of places accepting donations of masks that you can buy in stores. There hasn’t been a mass call for home-made surgical masks, but I think it’s coming. Some people are putting them over N95s to protect them from getting soiled so they can reuse them (which you’re not supposed to do…)

In New York, protective equipment is so scarce that they’re using binder sheets to protect their faces.

Please, please stay home. That means no hiking. I’m talking to my friends in the hospital right now, and things are about to get really, really bad.