April 11th: Safety Preparation Day

Our state of Florida is suffering due to the inaction of the governor. He waited far too long to take action. So if you are just looking at Florida you might think we are in a dangerous place. Fortunately, the Monroe County government of the Keys took early action to close the Keys to outsiders and has implemented mandatory face coverings in all stores. There are 58 cases currently in the Keys, most in Key West and Key Largo. We are half way between the two. People seem to be cooperating about being safe so we still believe we are in a good place.

I happened to have an N95 mask that I was using when I sanded the boat. I wore it to go to the grocery store, (which I do very sparingly,) but didn't like wearing the mask that everyone is telling people to reserve for health care workers.

So Linda took action. She did the research on masks and found some no sew options. She decided she didn't want second rate masks. She found a pattern for a mask that had pleats for a more comfortable fit, We needed a high quality cotton T-shirt out of which to make them.

Linda pulled out her bright green IronMatt Kona T-shirt. It was a T-shirt she wore to support Matt at the World Championship Ironman in Kona Hawaii. She said this is a great way to use it. It never really fit me right anyway so I'll never wear it again.

Making a template

The online directions said the mask could be made in five minutes. Linda said "No way" but it's not like we have a lot to do anyway.

Linda used the cardboard from our Veggie Straws box to make two templates, one for her and one for me. After a couple "measure once cut twice" situations we were ready to go. Fortunately, the cut twice was just the cardboard template and not the T-shirt.

Pinning the pleats

I did a lot of cutting and pinning. The pleats were kind of a pain at first but I got the hang of it. We were doing three masks, one for Linda and two for me because I do all the shopping.









Linda of course did the sewing. She did a great job getting the pleats nicely sewn, probably due to my excellent pinning job.






The masks turned out great. I modeled one here along with what is left of the sacrificial T-shirt

We're looking forward to a Happy Easter tomorrow! Happy Easter to everyone!