Going Into Maker Mode

Yesterday, I figured out how to sew a face mask. This might not sound like much, but I have limited sewing abilities, was using a new sewing machine, and selected a challenging pattern.

My friend’s mother bought a fancy, used machine at a garage sale (a Pfaff Passport 3.0) and gave it to me. It has all sorts of bells and whistles. As much exciting as this is, I have been intimidated by the new machine, since my old machine was simple and basic and I’ve had it since 6th grade. In 6 months, I have set up the new machine one time and figured out how to wind a bobbin, thread it and sew a straight stitch. It was long enough ago that I had forgotten all of that and it took me 3 times to get the new machine threaded properly.

Would anyone who knows me be surprised that I have to pick the most complicated pattern I found with instructions which were hard for me to figure out, because I thought it would have the best fit? If you sew, it would not be that hard, but for me it brought memories of my early days and knitting and trying to decipher the new language of knitting instructions.

I like this pattern because it has an opening where you can add your own filter between the layers of the mask and the pattern and offers some options, such as part of a vacuum cleaner bag or coffee filter, which aren’t perfect, but add some protection. It also has a channel where you can put some wire in, which means the mask fits better around a nose. The person who designed the pattern is a University of Minnesota graduate with a degree in apparel design and a master’s in medical device innovation. You can find the pattern here.

I’m not going to say how long to took me to make this. I also haven’t figured out exactly where to position the needle at the beginning of end of a seam, since there’s an auto-feature at the start and one you can select at the end which anchors your thread for you. These parts of my seams are a bit of a mess. Still, it fits. It fits really well. It even fits securely over my hubby’s beard. For this design, I think the ties work better than elastic.

I am keeping this one and will make several others to keep. These are the practice ones. After that, I am going sew up more to donate.