2020 has felt like an entire decade so far, and it’s only mid-April. I live in a beautiful province here in Canada called Newfoundland & Labrador, and our weather is no joke. In January we had a snowstorm that was affectionately known as Snowmageddon, where our city shut down for a week under State of Emergency. It was several weeks before our residential streets were wide enough for traffic to flow in both directions. I had never seen anything like it, and it caused a major life disruption. All businesses were ordered closed, you weren’t allowed to drive on the City streets, and life seemed to come to a screeching halt. Slowly things got back to normal, but now we’re faced with a Health State of Emergency as the province braces under the COVID-19 pandemic. All non-essential businesses are shut down indefinitely once again.
I haven’t been able to blog much lately because I am working from home full time, plus I have my nearly-3 year old son home all day long. It leaves me with a couple of hours every evening to finish work I didn’t get done during the day, maybe do a bit of sewing, clean the house or go to bed early. Either way, my blogging has been taking a hit. It will get better, but right now we are all in survival mode.
Last week our Chief Medical Officer of Health communicated to the province that we should all be wearing homemade face masks when we go out in public. There’s a global shortage of medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) so people had to start getting creative. Hence the double-layer cotton face mask was born.
A friend asked me to whip up a couple for her spouse, which I absolutely jumped at. Then came many, many other requests. These are really fun to make and do require a little bit of skill, particularly sewing the curved seam.
I sold upwards of 50 within a week, and now I’ve listed them in my Etsy shop. I’ve also created a coupon for those following my blog – MAKELIFECRAFTY10. Enter it when purchasing any of my face masks and you’ll get 10% off!
If you’re crafty and have some spare cotton and elastic around, there are a ton of free patterns online. There are different types – fans and cones are the two most common – and they each require different skill.
If you aren’t crafty or can’t seem to make these work for you, feel free to check out my shop. I ship within Canada for $3, or you can pickup for free in the local St. John’s area.
I hope each and every one of you are taking care of your physical and mental health during this wild ride. Praying we won’t need to wear these for long, but for now I’m whipping up masks with cute crabs, puffins, pussycats, polkadots, stripes or any other sweet print I have on hand.
Thanks for checking out my post!
Heather