Out of the PPE Business

I thought I was finished with gowns and surgical caps after my last post, but when I opened FB on Thursday morning, I saw a note that some agency in town had requested 25 surgical caps and I only had 16 finished.  I still had the scraps from these gowns...

so I started cutting.  The caps take quite a bit of fabric for the ties, and I didn't have enough of the purple, so I started digging and found 2 pieces that coordinated well.

In 2 or 3 hours, I had another dozen surgical caps.

I gathered up the last 3 gowns, all the extra scraps and supplies, and the caps, and delivered them to the mask makers group.  I will sew more if I can, of course, but with my daughter and her family coming for a month, there may be a few other things to occupy my time.  And hopefully, the need for these things will keep winding down.  With any luck, I'm out of the PPE business.

Do you need a cap to go with that gown?

It seems I just can't help myself.  I keep talking quilts, but I keep making medical gear.  First masks, then gowns, and now surgical caps.  My friend who gave me the fabric for the gowns gave me some smaller pieces, and I just can't let it go to waste - and it doesn't seem fair to just shove it in my stash and move on - so the other day, I sat down and made several of these surgical caps.  They were easy, and like most other projects get easier the more you make.  And this fabric was so cute, they were fun to sew.  And they go pretty fast, I made 8 caps in about 4 hours, including the time it took to make and eat dinner.

The pattern is here.  There is also a video tutorial if that's your thing, but I'm too impatient to watch people sew seams - I've been doing that since I was 5 so it's not a mystery to me - so I prefer to skim down to find the place where it explains what to do if I'm stuck.   I know others get a lot more from video, so choose whatever works for you.

You can get 2 caps out of about 1/2 yard of fabric if you're careful how you cut.  I had to piece the ties on one of the pink caps, but I don't think that's a big deal.  The part that confused me was how the tie ends worked, but once I saw what she did, I realized it was genius. 

The only thing I did differently was to put a piece of elastic in the back.  People have different sized heads and I think the elastic may make it fit a bit better.  I used a piece of 1/4" elastic about 3-1/2" long, and attached it using the same method I've been using on Barbie clothes and hospital gowns -  feed it through the casing just until the end of the elastic meets the edge of the fabric and sew it down, then feed it the rest of the way, remove the safety pin, and sew that end down.  Now it is anchored firmly in the seam and can''t come loose. 

I have enough fabric for about 6 more surgical caps, I think.  Guess I should get on it.  They don't make themselves. 

EDIT:  In between the time I wrote this and the time it was to be published, I used that fabric, and managed to get 8 caps out of 1-1/2 yards of fabric by piecing two of the caps along what should have been the fold.  And - bonus for me - they're paisley, and I've always loved the way colors play together in a paisley.

Maskmaker, Maskmaker

So, here we are.  Spring 2020.  Covid-19.  Quarantine.  I've been making masks.  Masks and gowns.  Masks ad nauseum.  If you're a quilter, it is likely that you have made a few (or hundreds) also.  This seems to have been the theme for Spring 2020.  I see them everywhere.  On Instagram.  On FaceBook.  Everyone trying to help.  Everyone coming together to do a little something to help.

For me it started one morning during Spring Break while I was perusing IG as part of my morning ritual.  My niece is a doctor.  The morning  that the CDC said it was ok for medical professionals to wear scarves, bandannas, or whatever they had instead of the protective equipment they were used to, my niece posted that it was not OK.  That medical professionals needed protective equipment to stay safe themselves as they treated infected patients.  But there wasn't much left in the stockpile.  It had been used and not replaced.  My niece was aghast (really, weren't we all?)  She heard stories from her friends in Seattle and New York that they were using bandannas or t-shirts over their faces to protect them from getting this virus.  By that evening I had made my first mask.  So had my daughter.  She researched mask patterns on the internet and tested what she found.  As we talked, I decided that a 3-ply mask made of quilting cotton had a pretty good record of stopping particulates, was easy to make, and could be made from items we mostly had on hand.  We had no idea what this would become. 

Everyone who knows me knows that fabric is no problem in my world.  In fact, I had done the calculations and bought 12 yards of fabric, just to be sure I didn't run out.  (Like that could ever happen!)  My goal was to make 100 masks.  But I didn't really think to buy elastic.  So Saturday morning, when it was reported that elastic was also in short supply, I posted the problem on my FB page, and a friend asked if she could help.  She ended up doing the legwork, finding it in a local shop, with a limit of 20 yards per person.  She bought me 20 yards.  I sent my husband after 20 more, and ordered another 50 yards on eBay.  I started making masks in earnest.

On Sunday morning, a friend tagged me on FB in a group a wonderful lady had started a FB group to make masks for medical professionals here in Pensacola.  I was all in.  I invited everyone I knew who sewed, and kept sewing.  By the end of the week I had made more than 100 masks.

And then there were 200. 

I was well on my way to 300 when the mask maker's group put out a call for people to make masks for our hospitals from a fabric that was reported to filter 99% of particulates and could be autoclaved and re-used.  I signed up.  I made 100.  And then another 100.  And then a third 100.  The need was met.  We could stand down.

Or, we could join another group that was making hospital gowns for nursing homes.  I made gowns.

A dozen the first week.

And we got feedback.  People wore them.  They were helping!  I recognized some of the ones in this photo that were ones I had made!

So I made 10 more the next week. 

And then I had to take a week off.  My neck and shoulders couldn't handle the constant sewing. But the following week I made another 4.   And then somewhere in there I finished off the masks I had cut out.

My mother always said that busy hands were the antidote to a disturbed mind, and I find that to be true.  This quarantine and the situation with this virus are just so uncertain.  So, if I'm honest, I made masks and gowns to try and help, yes, but also to keep busy and not give my mind the chance to dwell on what's going on. 

And maybe, just maybe, it made a smidgen of difference to someone I don't even know.  I hope so.