Face Masks and Rice Packs

Deus Ex Machina works at a corporate job in a manufacturing facility.  His employer is still requiring face masks.

At the beginning of the Pandemic, I made a bunch of masks for my family.  As the pandemic wore on, I made a few more to cut down on having to launder them as often.  Over the course of the last year, I have made just over a half dozen different masks for Deus Ex Machina to use at work.    

He has been wearing those masks, one a day, every day, five days a week, for more than a year.  

The masks are holding up surprisingly well, given how much they are used, but recently, we learned that his employer does not have a plan for going full mask-free, and so, I made him a few new ones today, with a very summery vibe - one for each day of the week.  

These are all reversible (two of them have the same color fabric on both sides) and are made from a quilter's weight cotton fabric - breathable, but with a tight enough weave to keep out virus particles - as was recommended last year when everyone was making homemade masks.

Since I have a sizeable fabric stash (much of which was given to me by a dear friend who is no longer quilting), and I save elastic from everything, I didn't need to purchase anything to make these.

If Deus Ex Machina had been purchasing masks, he would have paid, for a comparable product, $4 each.  Today's five masks would have cost $20.  I made them, excluding my time and the electricity for my sewing machine, for free. 

Over the year of making all of these masks, I have cut out extra mask panels on a few occasions, and so I had several fabric rectangles in my stash.  I was looking at them today, thinking, I should sew them all together.  I would have the beginnings of a quilt.

Then, I walked into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee.  

Many years ago, we bought a set of lavender infused rice packs, which we store in the freezer.  When the girls were young the rice packs were dubbed, "Cold Things."  Every bump or bruise called for the getting a "cold thing" from the freezer.  In our house, they're better than band aids for curing what ails you.   And we use them for everything from keeping cool on those wicked hot summer nights when it's hard to sleep in our non-air conditioned home and the fans just aren't doing it to a cold compress o his forehead when Deus Ex Machina has one of his migraines.  

Suffice it to say that our "cold things" were well used, and as a result, over the years they've gotten a little ragged.  One of them even developed a hole, which someone tried to stitch closed.  It still lost a few pieces of rice with every use.  Also, recently, I noticed that several of them had something sticky on them, probably from something that leaked on them in the freezer.  I hate touching sticky stuff.  

But I was at a loss as to how to clean them without compromising the rice that was in the pack.  I mean, I couldn't just throw them in the washer. 

I was planning to replace the old fabric ... at some point.

This morning, after I made Deus Ex Machina's new summer masks, I walked in the kitchen for some coffee, and there, on the counter, was one of the sticky cold things.  

So, I grabbed it and brought it out to the table where I had my sewing machine set up.  I, quickly, sewed four mask panels together, cut open the old cold thing, and transferred the contents into the new cover.  I also added a handful of dried lavender flowers we just happened to have in the cupboard - leftover from some salve or soap project were were doing in the past.

All total, I made three new rice packs using leftover fabric from my mask making, rice from the old cold things, and a handful of dried lavender leftover from some other project.

Out or curiosity, I looked up the cost of a new lavender infused rice pack.  I found these for $19.99 ... EACH.  

Today, I saved $79.97 for the rice packs and masks that we didn't have to purchase.