FACE MASKS - OUR CHANGING WORLD May 06 2020

UPDATE! 

Thanks to everyone who purchased a face mask from the website.  The total to charity is now £598.10 and here are the charities the money has gone to so far:

NE Edinburgh Food Bank £358

Social Bite £98.39

Steps to Hope (Helping homeless charity) £112.35

Who would have thought at the beginning of the year, as we all celebrated a new decade, that this worldwide tragedy was around the corner.  Now as we live in isolation, adhering to strict social distancing rules, our lives as we knew them are all changed. Many, many have lost loved ones, and we're all worried about family and friends who may be vulnerable.  

Working practices have changed too - I brought virtually all of my studio to my little flat in Edinburgh and am still making, obviously adhering to strict guidelines with a weekly visit to the Post Office.  

As things changed I started to make cotton face masks as it seemed something I could do that would help, even in a small way.  For friends and family at first then for the foodbank, and for my neighbour and his colleagues working in the ICU unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (note - these were for nurses to wear on their downtime, not for frontline use).  Before I knew it, over 130 created from my cloth stash were out in the world.  

When the Scottish Government recommended the wearing of masks,

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-public-use-of-face-coverings/

I thought it was time to make them more widely available but still keep a charity element - a direct financial contribution and also allowing me to keep donating facemasks to charity.  You can find the masks here.

The masks are two layers of 100% quilting weight cotton cloth with elastic that sits behind your ears to hold the mask in place. Machine washable, I also just wash mine by hand at the same time as washing my hands when I come back home into my 'safe space'.  Each one is reversible so you can have either colourway - I decided to do two colours so it's very easy to see which side you've been wearing, just in case you take your mask off and then have to pop it back on again when you're still out.  Reading the Government guidelines on masks above is very helpful.  

So this way of life is our new normal for the foreseeable future, and I feel very fortunate to be able to work from home, even finding time to try out new designs for the future.  As well as making the face masks of course.  I hope you all stay safe and well.  Thanks for visiting my website and enjoy your day.  Catherine x