Last month I posted on how to make a mask from an old T-shirt in 15 minutes. I have two of them now, and my guess is that they're at least as good as most surgical masks. Here are some tips for using them, if you decide to make them:
- Watch this ODIVI video. Alternatively, the steps are laid out in my blog post (linked above).
- Don't cut it the way she does or the way I did in the earlier blog post. Instead, to get good straps, cut it so that you leave the full tops and bottoms of the sleeves -- that way you'll have good straps, as I did in the photos below.
- Sew a rough seam along the bottom of the mask to hold the front and back together and to hold filter material in the mask, like a pocket. I did this by hand while watching tv.
- Put fresh filtering material in the pocket you just made, between what used to be the front and back of the T-shirt. I use three layers of paper towels plus two layers of Kleenex. Someone suggested to me that the blue paper towels used by mechanics are good filters, too, but I don't know for sure.
- Change the filtering material for each use.
- Tie it right. The upper straps go under your ears and tie in the back of your head. The lower straps pull the mask up under your chin and tie right on top of your head. I know, that can look stupid, but it works for the woman in the video. It works for me, too, because I always wear a hat when I go out.
- The minute you get home, dispose of the filtering material and put the mask in the washing machine (that's why I have those two plus some other masks).
I just returned from a five mile walk and had zero problems with my mask. I took these photos near the end of the walk: