How To Make Your Own Masks At Home

Materials:

Two 10- by 6-inch rectangles of tightly woven cotton fabric. (You can use sheets, quilting fabric, a bandana, or even an old T-shirt would work if nothing else was available.)
Two 6-inch pieces of elastic (or rubber bands, hair ties, string, or cloth strips if you don’t have elastic.)
A sewing machine
Needle and thread

How to make it:

Stack the two fabric rectangles on top of each other.
Fold the longer sides (the 10-inch sides) ¼ inch down and sew them together.
Fold the shorter sides (the 6-inch sides) ½ inch over and sew at the edge. Make sure to leave a small space open for the elastic to loop in.
Thread the elastic through the opening you left in the shorter sides. Tie or sew the ends together.
Tuck the knots inside of the opening in the side. Gather the short sides together and stitch the elastic into place.

If you don’t know how to sew…

Materials:

Bandana
Cone coffee filter
Two rubber bands or hair ties (hair ties are more comfortable.)

How to make it:

Fold the bandana square in half.
Cut the coffee filter horizontally across the middle.
Place the wide section of the filter in the middle of the folded bandana.
Fold the bottom of the bandana up to the middle, covering the filter, and fold the top down over it again.
Loop a rubber band or hair tie around each end (left and right), leaving a few inches of fabric, so each side resembles a candy wrapper.
Fold the sides of the band so they meet in the middle and tuck them together.
Put a band over each ear, making sure the material fits snugly to your face. The pressure on your face should keep the material and rubber bands in place.

When making these masks, make sure to use fabric that is pretty thick and fits snugly to your face. You should not use a thin bandana or scarf haphazardly wrapped around your mouth in a single layer, it won’t be as effective as thicker material. If a thin bandana is all that is available, however, make sure to include the coffee filter in the method that we have listed.