The Ten-Minute Mask by Beth Darrah

Posted on Mar 28, 2020 By Admin Account

Guest Blog

Hello everyone, I'm Beth Darrah and I'm here because I need your help. It's time to rally the troops and help our world overcome this COVID-19 global pandemic. You can be a hero, do your part, and help save lives from behind your sewing machine. And it will only take 10 minutes at a time. So let's do this together. We've got this!

The 10-Minute Mask is a fitted mask and filter pocket with a few different purposes.

To be worn over a frontline healthcare worker's N95 respirator mask to prolong the life of their personal protective equipment.
To be worn by other hospital employees who are not directly encountering infectious patients.
To be worn by symptomatic patients to contain their coughs or sneezes.
To be worn by visitors to hospitals (i.e. a father who is present for the birth of his child, etc).
And as a last resort, to be worn in place of an N95 mask by frontline healthcare professionals treating COVID-19 patients (in accordance with the CDC guidelines found here).

This mask takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. It takes even less time if you do several at a time (like an assembly line). Check out my video walk-through, step-by-step visual guide and a text-only version for printing below.

Download the text-only printable guide here.

10-Minute Mask Step-by-Step Visual Guide

Supplies

¼ yard of tightly woven cotton (quilting cotton works great) or a fat quarter.
Nose wire. Here are a few options:

- Panacea Plant Training Wire (Lowes)

- Vigoro Plastic Twist (Home Depot)

- Wideskall Plant Twist Tie (Walmart)

Knit fabric strip 30” wide and ½” long (an old t-shirt works great).

- Alternately, you can use 30" of 1/4" or similar elastic or fold-over elastic, bias tape or other types of ties. Knit fabric is easy to find, inexpensive and easy to work with, so I recommend using it if your donation requester will accept it.

Sewing machine and notions

Seam allowance is 3/8" and is already included in the pattern.

1. Download the 10-Minute Mask PDF here. **You must SAVE the PDF to your device and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader to print it correctly**

Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

2. Print pdf file* as follows:

*After printing, check that the 1” test square on the pattern printed at 1”.

A note about children's sizes:

For toddlers, print pattern at 60% custom scale above.
For kids ~5 to 9 years old, print the pattern at 80% custom scale above.
For kids ~10 to 12 years old, print the pattern at 90% custom scale above.

3. Cut two mirror image pieces of outer mask (full pattern piece).

4. Cut two mirror image pieces of inner mask (fold on vertical line marked “inner).

You should have 4 pieces like this:

5. Pin outer pieces right sides together and sew along the long curve.

6. Repeat with the two inner pieces.

7. Create a ½” pleat roughly in the middle on the short vertical edges of all four pieces and press. Don’t worry about being precise here. *You can even leave out the pleat if it’s making you anxious!*

8. Zigzag stitch or serge those short sides.

9. With right sides together, pin the top edges and bottom edges of your inner mask to your outer mask, aligning the center seams.

10. Zigzag stitch or serge the top and bottom of the mask.

11. Optional: Use a wide zigzag stitch to stitch the nose wire along top curved edge of mask.

If wearing over an N95 mask, nose wire may not be necessary (check with your donation requester).
If wearing alone, the nose wire will help create a tighter seal.

12. Turn your mask right sides out and press the top and bottom seams.

13. With inner (shorter) side facing up, fold and press the outer mask flaps about ½” to the inside, but do not overlap the inner mask (or else you’ll close up your filter pocket).