Convex Mask

 

Documenting a new mask pattern attempt.

 DS Alex asked me to make him another mask since he's been wearing his 8 hours a day at work and washing it every night. He had a couple other ones that have elastic, but he found that it really hurts his ears after all those hours. Since he didn't want elastic I used a very soft cording. He's wearing it today, so we'll see if that's comfortable enough for him. If it isn't, then I'll swap it out for the fabric ties. I might use the strips of old t-shirt idea, because that would definitely be soft enough. But would stretchy knit cotton strips really get tight and secure enough?

I used one batik and one cotton fabric to make him the mask. The other masks I made were two layers of batik. Maybe it will be a bit more breathable? Also, this pattern has no pocket for an added filter. We haven't been utilizing that pocket in the masks I made previously so that seemed okay. There's a new study done by Duke University about the efficacy of different face coverings. I'm glad they're continuing to study this stuff!

The new pattern I tried was from Jen Carlton Bailly. It's made using her convex templates that she uses for quilts. She has very generously provided a free printout of the template if you don't own her plastic ones already. There's also a great instruction video which was very clear and easy. I thought it was a pretty cool idea and it went together very quickly as it's not as fiddly as the other pattern I had used. 

When I made this one up, it fit me quite well and felt pretty secure even with just one tie. But I have a very prominent chin so it didn't fit Alex as well. Different shape and size faces really impact the fit of masks of course, just like any other article of clothing. We decided we're going to modify the idea with an additional tie which should help adjust the fit.