Figment Masks and Bag

Several weeks ago I stopped sewing, I stopped cold. It had little to nothing to do with the pandemic, more to do with immense sadness at the meanness and hate displayed by so many. 

My sister likes Figment. We found a shirt, some socks and some bags at Epcot. I deconstructed one of the bags, just a 12x17" square bag with a drawstring across the top, and created several multi-layered masks and a purse to carry when we visit the parks, which we do several times weekly.

Holiday Themed Face Masks

Just some of the holiday themed face masks I made this week. The light blue "City" themed fabric will match my holiday themed purse I will be carrying after Thanksgiving. Most of the others went into the mail, and hopefully will be happy in their new homes.

 

Halloween Masks

Halloween Masks made it early October

I made my sister and I a couple of masks for October, that match purses I made last year! Won't we be styling as we do our grocery shopping and drive throughs...

 

Family Member's Need

Specific, plain, 4-layer protective face masks

Family member needed a set of very specific face masks for their work location, so I sat down and put them together. While I was at it, I made myself a couple of new masks. The elastic gives out pretty quickly on a mask, so I am 'tying a knot' in my older mask elastic, and will continue to use it, in rotation with my new masks.

Birds in a meadow is a favorite fabric of mine. It is one I often choose to put into the scrapy quilts that I make.

The Monet print is another favorite, though there wasn't really enough fabric to make the mask. I had to piece some fabric into it to make this mask work, but it's for me, so that's ok.

Red Letter Day!

Today's a red letter day! After 9.5 weeks in facebook jail, facebook censorship really, as there was no reason behind the jailing, I've been freed, and am now republished and live again. I won't put all my eggs in that basket, again. What they did devastated me and the business I was building.

After Facebooks Nasty-ness

Not believing that Facebook could so unconscionably, maliciously and without reason or grounds destroy what I spent time and effort to build, I kept making masks. As the first week after came to a close, I was slowing down perceptively.

At the end of the second week, I had done all the work to build out this website, researching other advertising options and had come to a near stop sewing. It's now the end+ of the third week, and I am quite depressed about how they allowed me to be blown out of the water by what can only be, well you put a word to it. Mine are all very, very negative.

I wont be making any more for awhile, well, unless something happens and I sell at least half of my current inventory. I have new fabrics too, purposely purchased for masks. It's just so sad.

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  Mask fabric delivered a month late

Facebook Destruction

My Cloth Face Maskk Sale Page Image

On April 24, with unthinking and unreasoning censorship Facebook removed my business page from sight. It added an appeal button to the top of my page, that only I could see, however, using a mobile device that 'Appeal' button lands on an Error page. No amount of closing the site, the device, the browser allows it to resolve to any appeals page.
On the DeniseMadeIt (that now only I can see) page via computer, I found a 'disagree' button, and clicked it. I've searched for days for a 'way in', to no avail. On May 11th, it's still not published, my business completely destroyed because I built this portion on Facebook, reasoning that it saved a lot of time (which it did.) I had built up a thriving tiny business, and they destroyed it, without consideration, without review and without recourse.

Of course, I expected my page to be back up the same day. After several days I had to map out a new direction. I moved to Google Advertising of my own site, this site. They wouldn't accept a 'gift card' or purchased card for payment, so I had to get into my bank, to open another account, with a different debit card, to protect my accounts from any outside group having access to them. Next I had to spend hours and hours building out the Face Mask page. Once up and with the new card, it took Google several days to approved my first 'smart' ad, for which they determined that 'Face Masks, 4-Layers, Lots of colors and Fabrics' was an automobile ad, and used the word 'Journey' to be the catalyst to display the ad. Needless to say, no clicks or purchases. The next ad I set up, NOT a smart ad, was supposedly approved 3 days ago, but has not yet displayed once. And of course, all the sensible key words (cloth face mask..) are only allowed to the big buck advertisers...

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  after 3 on 4/24/20

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  Appeal leads to Error

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  Google Ad - Google Not Helping

And More Masks!

Each of my cloth masks is 4-layers - cotton/blends on the outside, mostly cottons/blends on the inside (pocket layers), a pocket in the middle for additional filters, and flannel against the face for greater comfort. Find my inventory of masks here! 

Interesting Scientific Information:

From the Article below, from Science Alert

https://www.sciencealert.com/if-you-re-making-your-own-mask-at-home-researchers-show-the-best-materials-to-use/

These are some I've made over the several days:

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Making Masks

As so many are, I am making masks. They are now on my sale page, I've been sewing 10-14 hour days to create these colorful, unique cloth face masks. If you want one, I suggest you look at the available inventory on the sale page and then you can inbox me at Denise@DeniseMadeIt.com, for the quickest response! The photo's below will help tell the story of my getting from here to there!

Want to make some for your friends, neighbors, local peeps? It's easy, but time consuming and eats supplies. 

At the end of day on April 2nd, I had made 125 4-layer masks, with multiple different ties/straps. 86 of those were donated/gifted, 19 were on hand, and the other sold. 
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April 16th update, I figured out the details while sewing, checked them while 'on break'
— 350+ feet of paracord (18”x4 adult, 13”x4 child size)
— 343 face masks made. Approximately half of them donated/gifted
— 210 pairs of shoe laces (1 to 2 pair to a mask)
— 60-70+ yards of material I have run through making these masks. There are between 50 and 100 (at least) different front fabrics and multiple pocket and flannel backs. 
— 18 needles broken. I haven’t broken that many in all my sewing over the last 4-5 years, I bet. Cording and 8 layers of fabric are hard on needles.
— 7 spools of thread I have used in the last 3 weeks.
— ? An unknown amount of elastic and ribbon used for ties, ear straps.
— 230+ approximately the number of hours I have worked making masks over the past 22-23 days.
If I didn’t think it were important, (in times like we are currently facing,) I wouldn’t be working so hard. If it weren’t for the help of my sisters, I wouldn’t have been able to do so much.
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As of 4/24, I've made 415!

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  This is a 4-layer mask, with a flannel back

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  Finished there's a pocket for an additional filter.

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  Just some of the fabrics I have been using!

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  Some of the flannel backs

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  Sewing tucks can be difficult

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  Paracord goes over the ear

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  Small and regular sizes 

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  These are hard on needles!

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  More fabric examples

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  Many are quite unique

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  They have been popular

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  Bright and fun fabrics

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  Over 100 different fabrics used