Opinion : Area man demonstrates how to make a personal face mask without sewing

An area gentleman has been trying to find a way to make masks without the need for a sewing machine. The talented man could probably sew if he needed to, but he has been researching how to make a mask of his own that fits properly for him, as well as something that could be adjusted but with more layers than a simple bandana. 

Sharing with me that his future granddaughter, a lab tech, is required to hang her mask up each evening for use the next day saving it for a week, Steve Lucas decided to try his hand at making a mask simply and quickly without needing a lot of equipment to do it. Taking a bandana and a couple of rubber bands that he pulled out of the drawer, he put together his first mask, just a simple adjustable mask. 

After doing a bit of research online he found that using the Toolbox brand shop towels as a filter inside a folded bandana is supposed to be as good as you can get for a filter when it comes to filtering out particles. A roll of these cost around $2.00 at Theisen's he said.

Of course, he isn't suggesting that this is up there with the N95's a health care worker needs, but he wanted to make something that would be easy, but effective from protecting those around him in the community

"The folding bandanna method only needs two large rubber bands, or elastic and the shop towel. The point is there is no sewing required.  In this time of PPE need, this bandanna mask filtering method could be made from any soft cloth like a recycled t-shirt or bed sheet while including one layer of oil absorbent towel + one layer of shop towel Toolbox brands or two layers of shop towel Toolbox brands. The blue shop towel could also be put inside the cloth face masks that people are sewing and wearing now. Just be safe out there." said Lucas.

Pictured below are the steps Lucas took to create his mask. Pictured is his tape measure as a guide for measuring the approximate width of paper towel that was used as a filter. Also seen in the middle photo is a set of twisters, twisted together to form a bit of protection for the bridge of the nose holding the bandana against the face to seal it a bit. 

Disclaimer: These masks are not meant to provide medical protection, neither are they proven to stop the COVID-19 virus, but are simply created with the intention of providing some protection to the wearer.