New Stuff, Helping Others, And My Journey to Make a Mask
Posted by April Hansen on
So first off, happy Friday! If you're looking for some weekend inspiration or just another excuse to add to your stash, FreeSpirit has been very generous to us retailers and we were able to get some awesome FreeSpirit Solids at a deal! Since solids are great for things that require a lot of yardage, like backings, backgrounds, and not to mention MASKS, we've priced this at $5 a yard.
The goodness doesn't end there! We're also doing a thingy we're calling SOLIDarity with our recent FS Solids AND our Mini Pearl Bracelets where we donate 25% of the purchase price to The Food Bank for NYC, a local organization doing a LOT to help during these difficult times. You guys, NYC is a crazy joyful city, but nonetheless one where you spend 80% of your income on rent and 40% on food and STILL have other expenses. We wanted to help our neighbors out in this time of extreme need. And we thank YOU, our customers, for keeping us going, and enabling us to do things like this.
Also, would like to take this opprotunity to remind everyone that WHITE and BLACK are NOT the only background colors! This is my quilt from Modern Heritage Quilts by Amy Ellis featuring De La Luna and All Stars fabrics:
The background I used for this is actually Citrine, one of the solids we got in! Many of the solids would be GREAT to play with other lines. I can see a lot of the browns used in reproduction quilts!
(And this quilt's background is possibly my favorite color- a bright lime green!)
(Oh yeah, and we do still have some of the De La Luna in stock from the vault!)
Friends, in the middle of all of this, remember to take time for yourselves, and reach out to those around you when you have the energy to see how they're doing. Who knows, you might be rewarded with a hilarious story, like the one I'm about to tell you!
So sewing masks has been a thing for most sewers for awhile now. There are SO many patterns out there, and some hospitals are requesting certain ones that they feel will provide the best protection for their providers during this PPE shortage- triple layer, filter pocket, nose wire, the whole nine yards. Well, Mom and I set out to make masks using one of these suggested patterns. I think we've made 10 total of these? (...I think that could be a bit optimistic?) I can assure you, not a single one was without a mistake, do-over, another mistake, and another do-over. Some we completely re-did. We've found the simple folded double-layer kind to be MUCH easier to sew. There are still many four letter words put into each mask we make.
The other night Mom showed me this video, and we both howled with laughter. It sums up our weeks of mask making frustration in one 4 minute video:
That's all for now! Stay safe out there, and talk to you again soon!
-April