I designed an emergency maskeshift mask which can be made quickly and easily by anyone without sewing, simply with home and office supplies. If handled with care, it can protect others from your droplets, but its use for your own protection is very limited. If available, please wear a certified mask! If you decide to use this one, please understand that you’re doing so at your own risk: Keep your distance and wash your hands as if you’re not wearing it!
Update [June 14th, 2020]: Lately, I have designed a makeshift emergency mask that fits much better and is even quicker to make, and you can find it here!
There are two variants for my makeshift emergency mask! Variant 1 is easier to make, but fits only slightly better than a classic surgical mask, and variant 2 is a little more complicated to make, but fits much better around nose and chin.
Making and Handling a No-sew Makeshift Emergency Mask
Before making your mask, clean your hands, supplies and workplace well. If you want to use cloths, iron them first. It’s probably safer to quickly make your own mask than having anyone else make it for you. Wash your hands again before putting the mask on. Adjust the nosewire well, and when the mask is perfectly in place, avoid by all means to touch it! When you finally take it off, please dispose or recycle all parts safely and wash your hands and face well. Do not wear the mask for more than 2 hours, if it becomes damp or if you might have any difficulty breathing.
Instructions for Variant 1 of the Emergency Maskeshift Mask
(1) First, collect 3 paper clips, one of them unfolded (alternatively wire, staple or bag clip), 2 small paper clips (alt. stapler, safety pins, sewing kit with paper clip or adhesive tape with punch) and 2 rubber bands (alt. elastic band, hair tie, cord, strips of old tshirts or nylon stockings). We also need fabrics: (a) durable cotton, repellent polyester, handkerchief or paper napkin as outer shell, (b) paper towels or kitchen roll as non-woven filter and (c) skin-friendly cotton or paper napkin as the inner layer. Please check in advance whether you can breathe through these layers!
(2) Place the fabrics and materials neatly on top of each other. Place the unfolded paper clip in the upper middle, as a wire to make the mask fit more tightly around the nose. Far overlapping outer layers (e.g. paper napkins) can be folded diagonally around the paper towel. Fold the upper edge up and over now and secure the wire in place with paper clips. The trick with the three paper clips can greatly improve the fit even with finished breathing masks!
(3) Fold the fabric upwards to form three neat pleats of the same height. Fix those pleats with a binderclip on each side. In case you don’t have binderclips, simply use a stapler, safety pins oder needle and thread to fix pleats and attach paper clips to use as loops for bands. Turn the mask around now, so the paperclip nose is looking up to you.
(4) Fold the outer binderclip loops to the middle. Pull rubberbands through the inner binderclip loops. Fix the rubberbands there by pulling them through themselves. Try your mask on. If it doesn’t fit well, knot the rubberbands, double them or try another size. For a smoother fit, you can also try to gently pull the pleats to suitable angles.
In the first video, I’m showing the simple version of my maskeshift mask. To make this mask, you’ll need a cotton handkerchief, a paper towel or kitchen roll, a paper tissue, three paper clips, two binder clips and two rubber bands.
Download of Instructions and Pattern of Variant 1 as a printable PDF
Here you can download a printable PDF with instructions and pattern for my Emergency Makeshift Mask [V5 | June 14th, 2020] on 2 pages, for paper sizes EU Din A4 or US letter. Before downloading, please read the conditions below*!
Instructions for Variant 2 of the Emergency Maskeshift Mask
(1) First, collect 3 paper clips, one of them unfolded (alternatively wire, staple or bag clip), 2 small paper clips (alt. stapler, safety pins, sewing kit with paper clip or adhesive tape with punch) and 2 rubber bands (alt. elastic band, hair tie, cord, strips of old tshirts or nylon stockings). We also need fabrics: (a) durable cotton, repellent polyester, handkerchief or paper napkin as outer shell, (b) paper towels or kitchen roll as non-woven filter and (c) skin-friendly cotton or paper napkin as the inner layer. Please check in advance whether you can breathe through these layers!
(2) Place the fabrics and materials neatly on top of each other. Place the unfolded paper clip in the upper middle, as a wire to make the mask fit more tightly around the nose. Far overlapping outer layers (e.g. paper napkins) can be folded diagonally around the paper towel. Fold the upper edge up and over now and secure the wire in place with paper clips. The trick with the three paper clips can greatly improve the fit even with finished breathing masks!
(3) Fold the fabric upwards to form three neat pleats of the same height. For optimized pleating, which fits surprisingly good around the face, turn the mask over and fold down the top and bottom folds. The middle fold is raised and pressed flat. Fold all four outer corners of the outer folds inwards diagonally and fix all pleats with a binder clip on each side. In case you don’t have binder clips, simply use a stapler to fix pleats and attach paper clips to use as loops for bands. Turn the mask around now, so the paperclip nose is looking up.
(4) Fold the outer binderclip loops to the middle. Pull rubberbands through the inner binderclip loops. Fix the rubberbands there by pulling them through themselves. Try your mask on. If it doesn’t fit well, knot the rubberbands, double them or try another size. For a smoother fit, you can also try to gently pull the pleats to suitable angles.
In the second video, I’m showing a slightly more elaborate variant of my maskeshift mask. You need a paper napkin, a paper towel or kitchen roll, a paper tissure, a metal binder, two paper clips and a piece of cord. I’m also showing the optimized, slightly more complicated pleating, which is also shown in the current version of my tutorial!
Download of Instructions and Pattern of Variant 2 as a printable PDF
Here you can download a printable PDF with instructions and pattern for my Emergency Makeshift Mask [V5 | June 14th, 2020] on 2 pages, for paper sizes EU Din A4 or US letter. Before downloading, please read the conditions of use*!
* Conditions of Use, Rights and Sharing
This design, pattern and instructions are protected by German copyright laws (© Iris Luckhaus | All rights reserved). I hereby agree to a non-commercial use of my design, which means that you may sew masks for yourself, your family and friends or for donating them to others for free, given that my copyright, name and website are always included!
Without my prior written permission, you may not reproduce, distribute or commercially use any of this material in any way. This means that you are not authorized to present this design (or modifications of it) as your own, and that you may not publish your own photo or video tutorials with my pattern! As long as it’s not a tutorial though, I enjoy seeing your pictures with my mask, and thank you very much for tagging @irisluckhaus and #luckhausmask! :)
For updates and further developments (which are sure to come!), please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Xing, LinkedIn, Pinterest or YouTube. If you’d like to share my pattern with your friends, feel free to use my posts!
I’m spending a lot of unpaid time on elaborating and explaining instructions, helping the helpers to help. If you’d like to encourage this, I’d be so thankful if you could buy me a little time via Paypal (post@irisluckhaus.de). ❤
If you’d like to use my instructions commercially (i.e. with the intention of making a profit), f.e. by selling masks made according to my pattern, please contact me and let me know more about your business, your location and your ideas!
Press Reviews and Acknowledgements
I am extremely delighted that my very first tutorial video (1/2) on this maskeshift emergency mask was published by LinkedIn as part of a very interesting article about the topic of Was Masken gegen Corona bringen!
In addition, variant 1 and variant 2 of this mask have been tested on the MaskZeigen.de portal, a really great and useful initiative of the hackathon #wirvsvirus, which was initiated by the federal government this March.
Great thanks to Matthias, Angelika, Reinhard, Bruni, Margot and Johanna for the awesome support from near and far, for reading ahead, trying it out and test wearing that mask! And thanks to everyone who wears a mask! :)
Please take good care of yourself and stay well! ❤
Update [June 14th, 2020]: Lately, I have designed a makeshift emergency mask that fits much better and is even quicker to make, and you can find it here!
Anyone who prefers to sew than to makeshift can now find instructions and patterns for my optimized hybrid cloth mask, which can be sewn in less than 10 minutes and fits far better than any of the countless other models I’ve tried!
If you’d like to find out more about all my mask projects, you’re welcome to visit my new Mask Hub Page! ➔
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