Facemask for Sister

I made some facemasks for my sister, modifying a pattern based on feedback from her, from my dad, and based on the materials I have on hand.

Will it filter out covid-19? Probably not. Is it better than a bare face? Probably yes. I think? I am not an expert in this field, so whatever the professionals say is what I’d go with. https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-face-mask-virus/

I gave Georgia the choice of what pattern to use, and she preferred the fitted mask (since I’m making it for her, instead of for anybody to use.) I started with this pattern:

Face Mask Sewing Pattern – 4 Sizes

From there, I made a few variations: one just as the pattern calls for, one with two layers of cotton and then a layer of flannel, and one a sandwich of cotton-flannel-cotton. This last one was the winner.

Next, in talking with my dad, I realized that I don’t have elastic on hand and I don’t know where to get any in a short amount of time. What I do have, though, is an excess of bias tape. And masks used to be tied on, he reminded me. He also had a suggestion on how to attach the bias tape, which I incorporated.

So, my method/strategy:

First, print the pattern found here: https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/

Next, cut 3 pieces, double layers:

• one for the front of the mask (with the 1-inch seam allowance on the end piece, as in the original tutorial)
• one flannel for the middle of the sandwich (normal seam allowances)
• one for the inside of the mask (normal seam allowances)

Then flip them right-sides together and sew the curved edge. Clip the curve afterward (and press the seam to a side, if you want)

next, start making the sandwich. Turn the front of the mask right side out, and then layer the inside layer, then the flannel.

Stitch those together, trim the edges, and turn right side out. Press and then top stitch.

Next, add the bias tape. I used at least a yard per side.

Roll it up in there, and stitch it twice down the side. I do not want this to be a point of failure.

Wash, and then wear. Improvements that could be made: adding a piece of wire into the nose piece, to improve fit (it’s fine with glasses on, but needs additional holding down if you’re not wearing any.)

The Dryer, and extra sheets

I. A few weeks ago, we went shopping with Sus-babe and Susan. We went to Pottery Barn and checked out the kid area, where Lena was drawn to some expensive dolls and an inexpensive crib sheet (I don’t know why she liked the sheet, but that’s Lena.) We let her hold on to the crib sheet while looking around at other things, and she was enthralled by the different modes of transportation on the sheet- bicycle! Train! Bus! Truck! Car! Another car!

When it was clear that snack time was overdue, I tried to exit gracefully and wanted to just put the sheet back and let the Sus-babes shop, since we’ve done fine with the two matching rocket sheets that we have and I didn’t want to introduce some kind of bedding inequality into the mix. Lena apparently decided the best way to make sure she got what she liked was to start licking the sheet in front of store personnel. Yay. We went home with the sheet, but I put it away.

II. Last week, we discovered that something had entered our house through the outside dryer vent and chewed a hole in the dryer tube to get into the laundry room. We replaced the tube, but I started finding poops (not identifiable to me other than, yes, that is poop) in the room.

III. This weekend, Lena and I had an epic playdate on Saturday with friends from college (one visiting, one just moved to GA) and kids. Lena played hard, ate pretty much everything we put in front of her- two red peppers, cheese crackers, turkey, mixed veggies (but not the cauliflower), two string cheeses, banana sauce, grapes, cold milk for lunch and applesauce, two more string cheeses, fruit snacks for snack, and then nearly an adult portion of pulled pork plus a full serving of her own (and some of mine) of green beans for dinner. She ate more than I did!

IIII. Sunday morning, Lena woke up and still had too much food in her and it apparently needed to exit through the closest exit. There really is nothing like waking up your partner with a drive-by shouting of, “there’s a diaper full of poop on the dresser, soaked clothes, and puke in front of her closet, I’m putting her in the shower.” In all that excitement, we missed the poop + pee on her sheets until nap time. She was fine after that until snack time, when Jeremy served her a snack and Lena just puked on it. (I was out at a soccer game.) Then there was more puke, and then a shower after “dinner” (where Lena just sat with us and had a banana + juice while we ate) because she’d bubbled poop out of the top of her diaper (something we hadn’t seen when she was an infant because cloth diapers have real elastic at the top.) Yay.

Also Sunday morning, we discovered that the animal had chewed another hole in the dryer hose. I’d really wanted to put the sheets I’d washed Thursday, then again Sunday morning before checking on why Lena was crying in her room right after waking up (because I’d forgotten that I’d washed them, and they included Lena’s spare sheet), into the dryer. After that is when we discovered the poop on the bed. So it really was fortunate that Lena had insisted on licking that sheet in Pottery Barn because I actually had a clean spare fitted crib sheet to put on her bed.

Great weekend

Last weekend was pretty awesome. It started with taking TCB to the airport so he could fly to Canada for a conference. That wasn’t so awesome, but he was interviewing for jobs, which = awesome. After getting back, George came over and we (plus Mom) headed over to Decatur for the Boutique sale. It started off slowly, nothing really fit, especially not the jeans. Skinny jeans should not even be manufactured in my size, srsly. Seemed like clothes I liked weren’t in my size, and stuff in my size was all weird or frump-tastic. Found some neat earrings, kept browsing, then George handed me a dress. And that, of everything I tried on, was not ill-fitting, weirdly made, or damaged. And it was cheap! Was looking forward to wearing my slimming plaid dress.

Then we lunched at Raging Burrito, which really hit the spot. Mmm… guacamole. Then we scurried off to the Viet Nails place for Mom to get a pedicure, G to get her eyebrows evened, and me to watch. The leg bruises were pretty painful after walking around in the heat, so I simply rested and laughed with Mom about her facial expressions while getting the pedicure.

After our Day in Decatur, we headed home to meet a few friends (Katie and Philip) before zooming off to dinner at Mellow Mushroom in Kennesaw. GF pizza! Yay! And more friends met us there (the Maslands.) Lindsay had brought me a fantastic present- birthday sash and hat! Love! I quickly put those on. Following dinner (that included running from the setting sun), we headed over to the field and met up with Abby, Sydney, Matt and Hayley to watch The Beat take on Sky Blue FC. Our seats were right behind the goal. Bonus to sitting in the family section: we were also right in front of the drumline (providing the beat.) First half was a little slow, but excitement picked up in the second half, with The Beat tying the game. They put another ball in the net later but, unfortunately, it was their own. Shots that went over the goal went into the stands and one was right to me. I totally blocked it.

~***~

Sunday, George came over early before our soccer game and we peeled/sliced up peaches to make peach preserves, and cut up strawberries for jam. We put the actual making of the items off until after the game. At the field, the question was, “Can Alex get her shinguards on?!” (because I couldn’t on Thursday at practice), and the answer was,”Probably, if I’d remembered to bring them.” Because Mom was there, she was able to go to WalMart and get me some while I stayed with the team (thank you, Mom.) But this “off” feeling sort of infected the team and we definitely didn’t play our best game. The other team seemed off and frustrated too, so maybe it was the heat + still air… I don’t know. Once I was suited up, I still never really got into the game. Maybe I was afraid of getting hurt again, maybe I was tired and worried about the game, maybe I was taking cues from The Beat and staying on my heels, but I was definitely not playing my best.

Near the end of the game, one of our players went down after a collision and had to come off the field for a cut lip and chin. One look at that chin and I told her that stitches were in her near future. George taped the edges together and, after the game, I took her to an urgent care place near our houses (she lives in the subdivision next to ours.) When the Dr. walked in the room, he first asked me “What’s wrong with you?!” before checking out Meghan’s chin. (I had my purple leg on display, it was pretty ugly after the game.) Meghan’s chin was sewn up, she confirmed that my leg didn’t need to be amputated, and as we headed out, the Dr. told her, “good luck, Maradona!”

Back at the house, Mom and George had made the peach/ginger preserves, and I got home just in time to put it in jars. We made a cheese plate with the fabulous cheeses Mom had brought, and the peach preserves. Amazing. Meghan came over, we flipped through a bunch of YouTube videos, then played Trivial Pursuit. I think that game didn’t like Meghan, because even the easy questions she got were really hard.

~***~

Monday, Mom and I headed out to get the remaining berries and jars needed for strawberry/blackberry/raspberry jam. Which, of course, included a trip to the fabric store nearby. I found some material for a new purse, she found some books and found me a book- One Yard Wonders. I’m really looking forward to some of the projects in it, especially the gardening apron.

We had fun mashing up the berries, due in large part to the potato masher being in the dishwasher, so we were mashing with two wooden spoons. We also debated putting in the blackberries at all, since we had more than enough volume with the strawberries and raspberries alone, but we threw a handful in, and I’m really glad we did- they gave some beautiful color and flavor. Canning, we ran into some difficulty, because we hadn’t washed enough jars. So… we had to quickly wash a few while near the end of the pot (and those jars didn’t seal, so TCB and I are really getting into the “Triple Berry Birthday Jam.”) It’s amazingly good.

Unfortunately, Mom had to go home, so we quickly finished another project (filling the spice jars) before she left. After she had gone, I sat down with my new sewing book, picked out a couple of projects, went through the sales flyers and coupons, and headed out to find… just a frame for a piece of art. All the fabric I’d need would be on super-sale the next weekend, so I decided to wait. Plus, it was nearly time to meet cousin Jennifer  and her son Paul for dinner! George and Brendan joined us and we had a great time.

Afterward, we got ice cream. Paul got his first cup of ice cream of his very own and loved it. I was holding him while he tasted the stuff on his spoon cautiously, then dug in! It reminded me of when we took Angus for ice cream the first time. I ended up covered in ice cream when he found out he could pick up the whole blob by shoving the spoon in, and eat it like a popsicle. He game some to me, waved it around, ate some himself… I wish I could say that, at the end of the event, all of the ice cream I was wearing was from him, but I totally dropped some of my own on me, too.

It was a fantastic weekend.

Dreams

Had some interesting dreams last night.

1. Mom was visiting, but complaining of something with her joints that flared up when she went home, but was fine when she was here. And she arrived at our house on a Saturday when whatever it was was really bad, and I thought it meant that Mom had Celiac, so I called my doctor to make an appointment, but she (the doctor) thought I meant I needed an appointment for each of us, and said that she had one appointment that day, and the other person would have to go to her vacation hotel room that overlooked the ocean. Also, we lived nearer to the ocean. And I was apparently best friends with my doctor. So, once I corrected it, I took mom over to the office, which was in a rental duplex, and waited in the screened-in porch. And talked to the doctor that had his office in the other half of the house. And that was it.
2. I met up with Caleb and Lindsay to go running, but since their son C had to go with us, Caleb pushed the running stroller, and I ended up pushing the regular stroller for some reason. We took off with the strollers, but Lindsay was tied up with getting ready, so she started a few minutes behind us, carrying a bag. We were all wearing shoes at this point, and I was composing a Dailymile post in my head while running. But then the regular stroller wasn’t shifting gears on the hill up to the university campus, or was stuck in a gear, so the wheels wouldn’t turn and it was really difficult to get anywhere, so I stopped to put it in neutral. Why the stroller had gears, I don’t know. It was also the size of a giant shopping cart. So, Lindsay caught up and we couldn’t figure out how to put it in neutral, so I peeled off and stopped in at an academic building (that was shaped suspiciously like Alexander Hall) to park it. Then I walked down the hallway to another entrance, where I found Lindsay again, and she was carrying C on her hip and going out to run again, but they had both lost their shoes (Caleb had disappeared somewhere with the now empty running stroller, his shoe status was unknown.) So I took off my shoes, put C on my hip (because Lindsay still had the bag and it was really heavy, heavier than her son) and we started running on the paths around the building together in our socks, dodging pedestrians and pinecones on the sidewalk. I think I woke up to the cat laying on me.

So, my non-expert analysis means that I’m probably wanting to visit Mom or have her visit here, I’m hoping Caleb does awesome at Boston tomorrow, and that I have a 10-mile run today about which I’m a little anxious (I’ve got a small hot spot on the bottom of a foot from wearing sandals yesterday, and the socks I wore in my dream are dirty.) Also: the cat weighs as much as a small person.

Our Friend Paul

Our newest friend Paul!
Our first visit, about a week after his arrival.

At 2ish weeks, I hung out with him and his momma for a day. He just slept a bunch. His mom got to, too.

And then, I spent another day with them at 6ish weeks. He was practicing for his driver’s permit, but he couldn’t reach the pedals from his car seat. So, we all 3 had lunch.