Month: May 2020

DIY: Homemade masks

Background: In this time where wearing masks is highly recommended (and for good reason) in public, it’s not only hard to find good masks but finding ones that fit well is even harder. As someone who (when I was working) wore masks every work day for 10 years now, I’m well acquainted with the intricacies of breathing, wearing, glasses fogging, fit and feel of medical grade masks. I scoured the internet early on looking for good directions on an ideal facemask and came across a great resource. Unfortunately, it was every woman for herself when it came down to sewing materials so finding them was and is still difficult. It’s a good thing we like to hoard items. From materials either at home or scrounged from the leftovers in the stores, on top of adjusting the guide directions to better fit our faces (all instructions online are for the general, average built person and my nose is not big), we ended up creating our own products. I am still SUCH a sewing n00B.

What: (1) pleated mask, (1) fitted mask

Fitted mask

Iron, fabric, template, scissors. I gave it an extra half an inch around for seam allowance

Doubled pieces cut out and pinned together to prevent movement
Testing the size fit
Sewing the curve. You can see the original trace and my seam allowance
Sewing the 2 sides together, making sure to stop inches before reaching the end, because now I needed to fold in and sew the sides
The inside. Don’t look too closely because somehow it’s lopsided. LOL. There’s a pocket on either side to place a tissue or some other filter

Outside
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DIY: Cleaning and protecting teak rocking chair

Either last year or the one before, I used a “teak oil” on a teak rocking chair that was badly weathered. About 3 weeks after, it pretty much disappeared. Upon searching the internet, I read somewhere that most of the “teak oil” products aren’t really teak oil at all and that teak oil doesn’t even exist. I ended up finding a brand called Golden Care. Specifically, I bought the cleaner and protector, the latter of which is more difficult to find for some reason. They advertise on their site that it is NOT teak oil, and it will protect 4x longer than teak oil. It is a water based and solvent-free product.

The nice thing is that the ones I (eventually) got (from Crate and Barrel. Not recommended to buy from there), came with a cloth and a scrubby. The project took me about a day (mostly because of curious wasps) and was an intense workout because the chair was not in very good condition with mold/mildew pretty much all over it.

What: Golden Care Teak Cleaner and Protector

How: manual clean and application

Project duration: 11am – 7pm (wasps!)

Materials: Gloves, scrubbies, water (hose or the like), apron (or work clothes)

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Morning: Looking pretty weathered

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Afternoon: Intensive scrubbing with Cleaner

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Early evening: 2 coats of Protector applied 

While it looks and feels great (better than the deck!), we’ll see if it lives up to the claim. Already it seems better than when I used the “teak oil.” I got a serious workout from all the scrubbing I did as well as a nice tan. I ended destroying 2 Brillo pads alongside the scrubby it came with.