More info on Hospital Masks

I’ve had a lot of questions come in today about the facemasks for the hospital. I thought I would summarize them and put them out for everyone to read, and hopefully this will clear up some of the confusion.
1. The instructions that are on our website are the ones the hospital sent to us, and these are the directions that we need to use when constructing facemasks for them. I know there are a lot of different techniques using different materials that have been sewn up by people for other hospitals around the country, but this is what our local hospitals would like. They can be made out of cotton, batiks, cotton flannel, or any combination of these as long as the material is cotton. They will be two layers thick, and there’s not a pocket for a filter or a filter included of any kind. Many of you have expressed concern about the lack of filters, but we don’t have any idea of how the hospital plans to use these, and so we are just following their instructions.
2. Many of you have found it a little easier to move the elastic down a bit on the side rather than putting it right in the corner as in the instructions. That’s fine. I would ask that you keep the elastic as close to the corner as you possibly can. There have been a lot of questions about the size of the elastic and they have asked for us to use either rope elastic as used in beading or 1/8 inch elastic. If you don’t have either of these 1/4 inch elastic will be fine, but no bigger.
3. It has been pointed out that you can get four adult and two children‘s masks out of two fat quarters.

I am happy to answer any more questions. You guys are great for taking this on, and I know these will be used in our community to help get through this crisis. If you have finished some and you want me to pick them up, give me a call. I also have some extra 1/4 inch elastic that can be used to complete your masks. Again let me know.

Also if there are those out there who don’t plan on making masks, but have some elastic around, please let me know and I will come and get it.

Thanks to you all for helping out.

A photo illustrated version of the pattern and a video can be found  here: http://oregoncoastalquilters.org/community-quilts/

Sue