I have seen many articles circulating on social media about should us sewist be making mask to help community or not; should we charge for it or not; some even stated that if we do it for free, we are being exploited or forced to make masks just because we know how to sew; does or doesn’t cotton fabric mask helps.
Let’s start by using common sense, first of all no one and I mean no one can force you to do anything you do not want. If they can, than you have bigger problems on your shoulders than this virus.
You and only you, can decide how you want to help. If you want help your community by making masks for local hospital staff, great. If your local hospital will not accept handmade masks, but you still want to make masks, then take next step further and reach out to other medical centers, grocery store staff, family, friends even your elderly neighbor who loves taking his dog for a walk every day. You want to do that for free or charge for it, great. You want to stay home and enjoy sewing something just for yourself, great. You want to contribute some other way, still great. You are already contributing to your community even if it’s something simple as staying home. What ever makes you feel good, as long we are following social guidelines, it helps.
In times like these I don’t care if government is to be blamed and our world is one wide broken system as our hospitals are not equipped to handle this situation. I can’t do anything about that right now. What I can do right now is stay home and help the only way that works for me. I don’t make masks and donate them because I expect something back. I do this because it gives me something to do after work while I am stuck at home, it allows me to think about something else with all bad things that are happening in the world now. Also masks I already made, my decision was not to charge for it. Why, you ask. Because I had leftover cotton fabric that I had no clue what to use it for, because it was perfect opportunity to get rid of it as it was too small to use it for anything else, because it also warms my heart that I can say to someone, yes I will help you with that and no I will not charge you, regardless if they can afford to pay for it or not. Will I start charging it later, yes of course. My fabric and thread stash is not bottomless.
So if some of us want to do something small as making few masks for our community, why not, there is no harm in that. Will making masks do something bad, something that we will all regret? Of course not. Will I do this for everyone and all the time, heck no, I don’t have that much fabric, thread, or time on my hands. This is how I want to help now, and it doesn’t mean that I as a sewist will continue to make masks day after day, week after week, until this craziness is over. Nope, this is just my flavor of the month and for right now I do it because it makes me happy.
Next point is yes, handmade washable cotton mask will not prevent airborne virus, but these are not made to prevent it. I think we all are pretty much already fully aware of that by now. If you are still interested in making masks, but other blogs/articles are telling you that is pointless, do consider that these mask do help to prevent large particles to enter your mouth or nose, they are still used by some hospital staff as last resort when nothing else is available, they are also used over N95 as a barrier expecting to prolong life of the respirator. This is one step out of many you can choose, to help our nurses, doctors, other local medical center staff, patients, family, friends and it is not just them but also anyone else around you who would love to have one or two just as a preventive, or even just because having one makes them feel more relaxed as they need to go out to grocery store to pick up few things. If you want to help this way, go for it don’t let anyone stop you.
XOXO
Tanja
