With few weekend events to cover these days, I spent this past one investigating the contents of my closet and my storage room instead. In them, I rediscovered an old hobby.
I may have mentioned it before, but when my siblings and I were growing up we were always encouraged to get ourselves a quiet hobby to pursue in moments of boredom. So, I tried guitar (and later piano), I got into writing, I tried drawing but the results are why I continue to write instead, and my parents would encourage us with some of their favourites too.
We got into hockey because our dad used to play. It meant that, growing up, my brother and I were rarely ever actually bored because we’d get home from school and play street hockey until bedtime, using dinner like a break between periods. That “Rip!” of a shredded wooden stick scraping across the asphalt is still one of my favourite sounds.
We got into sewing because we needed to patch up the holes in our goalie pads, and luckily or mom has always had a machine threaded and ready to go.
So this past weekend, I was able break out my old but hardly used machine and get to work, for fun. While I know there are a few people in the Boundary whose sewing machines have been humming along non-stop stitching non-medical masks for sale, for donation, for neighbours and for friends, I thought I’d try and stem my Saturday boredom by seeing if I remembered some of the basic sewing concepts my mom taught me.
The first one was “Use what you’ve got.” While her sewing room has scraps from baby blankets and wedding dresses, mine has a pile of old T-shirts. I must have bought them because I like the colours, so they’d do great as mask material, I decided.
Already doubled as mask-makers recommend, a T-shirt makes it easy to cut out a pattern. (I recognize that T-shirts aren’t woven particularly snuggly, so, if you have better material, use it.)
I think it was at this point that making a mask went from being a chore to being a fun and creative project. There are lots of patterns available online that you can print out and cut with your fabric, or, you could go for a more tailor-made approach like me.
(If I’m honest with myself, I didn’t use a pattern because I did not have a printer nor did I believe in my abilities to actually follow it through to the end.)
I sliced two rectangles of cotton out of my old shirt, held them up to my face in the mirror and determined sizing and pleat/dart placement from there. This process took a long time and a reliable stitch ripper. But it worked! I now have a mask that I am not entirely ashamed to wear. In fact, it got a seamstress’s seal of approval. (I once knew a guy who hemmed his pants with hot glue, so I don’t know how high/low my sewing bar actually is.)
To re-make the mask the same way I did, I don’t think a machine would be necessary – though it is very helpful. But I would really like to do it again and improve on my design. It made for a fun puzzle of logistics and improvements upon designs I’d seen. (Sidenote: adding little hoops to put your glasses’ arms through will not work alone to hold the mask up, but if you somehow succeed with this method, please let me know.)
If you’re bored, or if your kids are bored on a rainy day, it may be well worth rummaging around for a rarely worn shirt and trying it yourselves. It’s a timely opportunity for invention, creativity, skill development and learning.