Small things matter

Well I am back at work full time now and have much less time for crafting. I suppose its down to having had most of a year off work, first with my operation, and then with Corona Virus but I am just knackered!

I never seem to have any time to sew now and do not feel at all like bothering most days.  Hopefully I will get back into both working and living again soon. In the meantime, I have only made a few small things this week.It makes it possible for me to carry on sewing without me just giving up due to being tired. I am sure I will get back to "normal" soon.

Masks Masks and more masks!

 These are my lastest:

 Really though they just look like more of the same! They are mainly made from the same fabrics as my first masks though the ones I cut out yesterday are different fabrics.

I have been making more masks because I needed us to have 10 between us. I have now achieved the 10 Masks - all of Mask 1. In fact I am now up to a total of 16 - and we need them. Or if we want to change them daily we do and officially apparently you should change at least twice a day (or every time you wear them) so since we both get a lunch break thats probably when we should be changing them. Thats not yet quite possible but we are getting to that point now.

You can read the original efforts at Mask making here : https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2020/07/corona-virus-face-masks.html

I was originally going to also make Mask 2 from Burda but I decided against that after attempting the first one of these. It was not a great success and neither of us liked it as much as Mask 1. Also in the end I stuck with Mask 1 because the Mask 2 version ended up taking longer with the need for accurate pleats and that meant using an iron and as you may have noticed I hate ironing! 

We both find Mask 1 comfortable with its shaping and it covers the face without slipping. Mask 2 kept moving around. I am not sure if it was my making that made this happen or not.

Mask 1 also turns out to need smaller pieces of fabric so I can squeeze the 4 bits of Mask 1 out of smaller bits than one Mask 2 will use, meaning I get to use all the interesting leftovers I have kept as pocket linings. It works for me anyway. 

These are the latest masks I have made.

There are really only enough for my other half to have 2 a day for his morning and afternoon shifts since you are meant to wash them when you take them off and I feel he should change because he is in contact with several thousand people some days due to working in a University library. So unfortunately I am intending to make even more of these as the weeks go by. 

 We have also swapped all of  stiffer foam the filters for the softer ones. I have kept to other foam filters though for emergency replacements if / when we have some wear out. They are such a pain to take in and out for washing!

Mind you that appies to the softer filters too.

Anyway because I need to make even more of these things, I have now started to cut them out as and when, like when doing other tasks such as watching TV, and just stacking them in piles ready for sewing up later. I can then sew all the outers at once, all the overlocking at once etc making it faster to make lots. Its working so far.

I work out how many inners and outers etc and pin together so I can sew them when I have a few minutes. Small things, like just pinning the bits together are saving me so much time. And because I find this a very boring job to do I really need to not waste time working out which bits look best together! 

The other thing I am mass cutting out is knickers and bras.

 

I can do the same with these and sew as and when I have a couple of minutes. I have found I have been doing this between bigger sews for a few months now, since I started to make underwear, and it seems a good way to keep sewing without having a large project on the go because often I have just 5 spare minutes and its too short a time for serious sewing but not too short to do something like cut out or sew up a seam on some knickers. Or bralettes.

The other small sewing thing I have been doing is hair ties or scrunchies. These are something I used to pay £3 upwards each for and they are of course just a strip of fabric with elastic inside so very boring to sew. Though these are very useful and scrap busting as well, meaning I keep less fabric in my stash. I found I have a full bin liner full of prosepective hair ties already cut into strips over the last year or so, which is a tad ridiculous, so I am now mass sewing these up. Then I am mass turning them right side out and mass adding elastic and then mass sewing the ends by hand. But then I am one of those people who never stopped wearing scrunchies even when they were extremely unfashionable so I really should make more of these.

Again these are so boring to make so the best way seems to be to have an ongoing pile of strips ready to sew or of sewn strips ready for turning and then another pile ready for the elastic.

I am doing these in batches so its less boring. Because yes this is a very useful item to make, like the masks are essential to make, but both jobs are very boring sewing-wise.

 And very un-stretching if that is word.

So I cannot honestly say I have made much that stretches me this week but what I have made is useful, stash busting and its all stuff I need so a job worth doing I think.

Take care and stay safe 

Bracken