Mask Choices for Art and Bill

Derita from Star Choices, Inc.   Copying and pasting the photo from my phone squished the image in an odd way so don't blame Derita for the photo quality!  Photo used with permission.

Like many of you I have been making lots of masks for friends and family (231 so far, to be precise).  And for the staff and clients of the non-profit my niece works for.  Star Choices, Inc. "has been supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) since 1954. Over its many years of service, Star Choices has grown and developed into a leader in the I/DD sector, currently providing critical supports to over 85 individuals."

Having something useful to do has been very helpful to me, mental-health wise.  In other words, I would have gone bat-sh*t crazy if I had to stay inside my house for months with nothing useful or productive to do.

The masks are two layers of quilting cotton with three pleats and bias tape for the ties.  I have tried using t-shirt knit fabric and elastic ear loops and I just don't find the ear loops comfortable.  And going into this pandemic I literally had THOUSANDS of yards of bias tape on hand.  In a sense I have been preparing for this pandemic for decades.

Yes, you heard that right, thousands of yards of bias tape.  I live in NC, where remnants of our once great textile-and-related-business industries linger, and over the 30 years I have lived here I have hoarded many giant industrial size spools of bias tape which I found at thrift shops.  Some of it in great shape, some of it clearly discarded because of poor quality.  The poor quality tape has a lot of badly folded spots which I have been able to correct by ironing it flat and then running it through a bias tape maker.  The bias tape maker is a handy metal device that creates the folds and then you iron them in.  At the time of writing this you can get a set of 5 sizes on amazon for around $10.  As always, no one pays me to tell you about the products I use, and the link is just provided for your information and convenience.

So the fact that I have about twelve lifetimes supply of quilting cotton and thousands of yards of bias tape on hand has meant that I can make hundreds of masks without giving any thought to money.  I have written before about the moment I realized that the way that DragonPoodle Studio was going to work was to pursue the avoidance of money.

And that's been a hard sell, believe it or not.  It's hard to explain without going into a lot of detail and even then it is just hard for me to explain because it is such a gut level feeling.  Some people are just hard wired to think about transactions in terms of money.  It took me a while to come up with the perfect way to convey this regarding the masks.  "You don't need to pay me" suggests that perhaps you really should.  "I don't want you to pay me" also suggests that maybe you should.

"I am not accepting any money for these masks" finally did the trick.  For most people.  For the real die hards I finally just told them to donate whatever they wanted to give me to a local food bank.  And I got a thank you note from a food bank, so that worked at least once.

From the very first sets I made back in March a few went to my friends Art and Bill and they recently asked for more.  They are wearing them every time they go out and then running them through the washer and dryer.  This is great and I am glad to send more.

One of the original masks that I sent came apart where the tie attached to the mask.  I asked Art to send it back to me so I could see what had gone wrong.  As I suspected, the problem was that I had used the very narrow 1/4" double fold bias tape  Sorry, didn't think to take a photo.  I thought it would make a nice tie because of the small width, and it probably did, but that's useless if it pulls away from the mask itself.

So I just cut the narrow tie away and put on new ties using the standard width.  I cut 1-3/4" on grain ties to run through the bias tape maker to make a standard 1/2" width double fold tie.

Refurbished cloud tie

I also keep some masks on hand to meet any needs that come up, such as for the guy who takes care of my yard, etc.  So I made a bunch more.

And I absolutely love the decorative stitches on my modern sewing machines and am always looking for an excuse to use them.  That excuse rarely comes along.

Choices for Art and Bill

The next part of this post is for you, Art and Bill.  I made some of the masks both with and without decorative stitching and as I ran out of some colors of bias tape I got creative with the ties.  You get to choose which ones you want.  I am NOT assuming that you will want the cutesier ones.  But its up to you.

Crescent moon

Crescent moon with star stitching

Crescent moon without and with star stitching

Snowflakes

Snowflakes with pseudo-snowflake stitching.  This my favorite one!

Snowflakes with and without pseudo-snowflake stitching

Galaxies

Galaxies with star stitching

Galaxies without and with star stitching

Clock faces with brown ties

Clock faces with polka dot ties

Choose polka dots or brown ties

Swirly with gray ties

Swirly with dots

Choose swirly with gray or dots

African Fabrics

The African fabrics came from the time I made Andre's quilt.  His wife brought me a laundry basket full of fabrics and garments and I got to keep all the leftovers. (Some of the African fabrics may have been printed elsewhere, but all were purchased in Africa.)

Green African fabric

Green African with and without geometric stitching

Many of the designs aren't apparent until they open up for wearing.  

Anna modeled one with a large fish.  This fabric is from Namibia, the only one of the African fabrics that I am sure of the origin.

By the time Art and Bill receive the masks it will have been over two weeks since the masks were on Anna's face.

Namibian fish:  choice of  black or green ties

I don't think I prewashed this particular fabric, so I recommend tossing them in the wash before wearing so that you are not breathing any dye residue.  The rest were prewashed.

You can choose umbrella or geometric or you could have both of course.

African red geometric, red ties

African red geometric, black and white ties

The one with the black and white ties has the most dramatic motif placement.

African red geometric: choose red or black and white ties

African teal and gold with sparkly teal ties

African teal and gold with black and white ties

Choose black and white, sparkly teak, or solid black ties.

Art and I will be discussing his choices on the phone soon, and it will make a nice break from discussing our despair over the utter failure of our current government to govern effectively.