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Tuesday 28 July 2020

Making Masks

We are halfway through our second stage 3 lockdown because of the Covid 19 virus. As of last Thursday, you have to wear a mask if you go outside your house. I had already bought a box of disposable masks that we have been using, but all of my friends are busy making masks and so I thought that I might as well have a go as well. I do have plenty of fabric! But no elastic! I haven't used elastic in years and it seems to be sold out everywhere.

I had bought some elastic hair ties for my grandchildren recently so I tried to use them.


The hair elastic is quite thick and not quite long enough. I made the dark blue mask first and it's too tight. I made the lighter blue one next and made it an inch wider to compensate for the tight elastic. It was much better but still not very comfortable.

The masks with the pleats are a bit time consuming to make and I noticed that my friends on Facebook were sewing a different design. I tried that next and it is much quicker to make.


I found some hat elastic in the back of the cupboard too, it's much more comfortable than the hair elastic.

The good news is that a patchwork shop has got in a supply of elastic and I have ordered some, so as soon as it gets delivered, I can make some more masks.

Luckily, the virus is not around where I live, it's mainly over the other side of the city but it won't take much for it to spread here unfortunately. We are not allowed visitors, so it's back to zoom and video calls with family and friends, we are only allowed to go to the supermarket, pharmacy, doctor or exercise outside.

I hope we can get on top of this soon, although I am happy staying at home, sewing away. I feel sorry for all those businesses that have had to close and all those people out of work.

Last week, we had a new ducted gas heating system put through the house. It took three men, 3 days to do it. I took a photo of some of the huge ducts that were going to be put in the roof.


We love the new heating system; it is working very well. Now we have just have to wait for the gas account and see how much it is costing to run.
 Up until last week we had the electric under-floor heating but it was costing too much to run. The bill for last month was $3,000 for one month!! We had enough of those ridiculous charges. It was always an expensive system but it was such a lovely warmth that we put up with the higher bills during winter but the electricity prices have been going up and up. I looked up our past accounts and 3 years ago, the July bill was $1,000, 2 years ago it was $2,000 and now it's up to $3,000. It was beyond a joke and we just weren't prepared to pay that huge price anymore.

Sorry, if this was a bit of a boring read for any readers but I get a book printed of my blog every year and I wanted to document some of what was happening in 2020. Goodness knows, it's nothing like the year we ever expected.

I am actually busy quilting a couple of quilts but the rules of the competition are that the quilts cannot be shown anywhere, so they'll have to be a secret for now, sorry.

I can show you the backing fabrics.


I have just finished with the red one and I am using the purple one at the moment. I'll do the one in the middle after that, but there is no hurry for that one.

Bye for now,
Linda

6 comments:

nestki said...

Although you found a source of elastic, I would like to mention that cross sections of old pantyhose are quite comfortable and durable when used as ear loops. I even tried cross sections of old knee socks for myself and they work well too! I can’t feel any difference between the socks and some soft elastic that I was eventually able to acquire. The pantyhose is even softer. I love your blog and always read it, thank you.

jude's page said...

Your mask making looks good, not something I have done, yet, and hoping we don't need to? Have abundance of fabric though if necessary. Look forward to seeing what you are quilting, and enjoy your new heating. I love my wood combustion heater, even though it's messy.

Linda Steele said...

Thanks for those hints Nestki, people can be so inventive and thanks for the positive feedback too!

Linda Steele said...

I hope you don't need the masks too, Jude. I am loving the heater so far.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I agree that the pleated version of the masks is too time consuming to make. I much prefer the design of the others and they're much more comfortable if you wear glasses as I do. At the moment things are slowly opening up here (Ontario, Canada) but there are dire warnings that we can expect a second wave if not a third and if there is things will shut down again. Feel so sorry for the small businesses that are trying to stay afloat.
Can't imagine paying that much for heating on a monthly basis...surely do hope your new system is a whole lot cheaper to run.

Linda Steele said...

The elastic still hasn't arrived unfortunately, the mail is so much slower these days. My husband and I are looking forward to our next couple of bills for the first time! I hope we see a huge difference