Most of the country has been sheltering-in-place for weeks at this point.  If you’re looking for some ideas on how to make more separation from your “work” and “personal” life in your home, try taking up a hobby you’ve always wanted to learn or picking up a non-work-related project you’ve been procrastinating.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Kayla, and I work in the marketing department at Dealer Teamwork.  Today, I wanted to share what I’ve been working on during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order we have in Minnesota.

When we started working from home, I quickly realized I needed to find ways to differentiate my “work time and space” from my “personal time and space”.  I’ve found having non-work-related projects to do in my free time helps me maintain a healthy work-life-balance, even though my work and personal spaces have collided in my 2 bedroom apartment.  I’ve been working on lots of different projects, but one constant has been making fabric masks.

Early on into the shelter-in-place order, a fellow coworker and I were discussing ways to make fabric masks, get supplies and share them with people.  I decided I wanted to make masks for my family members who work in the healthcare industry, for my household on our essential trips in public and the rest to donate to local hospitals.

First, I ordered some supplies to be delivered and some to be picked up from local fabric stores with curbside pick-up.  When I had all the supplies, I blended some patterns that I found on JOANN Fabrics’ website that I believe align with the CDC recommendation for fabric masks. Then, I quickly got to work making masks! So far it’s been a really fun experience, and it’s great to be able to lend a helping hand during this unprecedented time.

I’ve made about 30 masks so far and probably have enough fabric to make 30-40 more, so we’ll see how quickly I can churn them out!  The patterns I used to guide my final mask design are listed below:

• JOANN Fabrics Mask Instructions Option 1: I was not able to obtain fusible interfacing, but the CDC instructions don’t have that listed, so I felt safe omitting.
• JOANN Fabrics Mask Instructions Option 2: I liked that this pattern had a wire nose piece so the masks would form better to the wearer’s face.  I used wire that is normally used to make wreaths (like they do in the video) and cut strips of bias tape to hold it in place.

I hope you enjoyed this quarantine quick tip – stay safe!

Update: Check out this helpful DIY Facemask comprehensive guide as well.