Masks were important for me to sew. My best friend's mom used to sew my friend surgical caps to wear under her lacrosse goalie helmet, and it gave me the idea to make masks with fun fabrics too.

When I was very sick in highschool, I had to wear a medical mask out to protect my body because of my heart condition, and sometimes I wore a medical mask over my oxygen so the wires would not move. There’s lots of reasons that I wore masks when I was sick. It is always appropriate to have a mask if you or a family member is sick, and sometimes fabric masks work in lieu of medical masks. Around the house, it can make your family feel more at home than in a hospital to wear homemade masks, you can wear homemade and medical grade at once, it worked for me back in the day. If I did not have outpatient telemetry, I would have been in a hospital, so I am always grateful to have been home and not in a hospital for a long time. My family really helped me feel comfortable, and not clinical.

Nowadays, we wear masks around our little nephew with asthma, it should be normalized to have masks available everywhere all the time. I would never want my baby nephew to feel weird about all of us going out in masks together! There should not be a mask stigma in public, because the necessity of a mask is so prominent to a huge population. I remember one time, after flying into DC to see my cousin with her husband and my nephew, I needed to shower and change my clothes right away and have a mask on around the baby with asthma. We have a huge effort for his breathing machines and devices for his lungs, and wear masks around the house to be with him, so of course as a family going out on the town we keep the masks on too. We tell my baby nephew it is a fashion statement, as we are protecting his lungs and overall health.

In later years, I also wear masks working construction with Habitat for Humanity projects, and similar projects. I really wanted to sew masks and make name tags for my alma mater’s mission trip groups, because it was a cute idea. There is nothing wrong with masks.

Being crafty and donating 3,000 masks was a pleasure for me for personal reasons. I am a lucky lady to have the luxury of volunteer work. Home made medical products are something I care about, in a way I wish there could have been designer electrodes for me when I was sick too, or a cool home sewn heart monitor case. Maybe someone will distribute more ducky or bear electrodes, because I am bringing it up on my blog. Designer masks first, my next thing is designer electrodes.

I have also made knitted knockers and baby blankets and baby hats for donation too, through the years. Crafts are fun donation projects. Never feel silly making crafts to donate, because someone will want them! 😻

All those little donations fill in the gap between supply and demand. It’s always nice to have a special project for the community. Special projects can be a nice break from work or school. On a Sunday night, I used to just knit something like a baby hat or blanket or knitted knockers to donate, it is like coloring to relax. Senior citizens like baby blankets as lap blankets too. You can contact a local hospital or nursing home and see what crafts they would like donated.