Mass(k) production

I'm part of  a team organized by my employer to make a *lot* of masks for donation to area hospitals.  We're working in batches of 50.  I've streamlined the process with mass production in mind, and I'm documenting my shortcuts here.  Things to keep in mind about mass production: Tool changes are expensive, they cost time.  Figuring out what the next step is counts as a tool change.  Try to break your process down into the smallest possible steps, and do them for your whole batch before moving on to the next step.

With that in mind,

Step 1: cutting and material prep:

Wash and dry your fabrics on the hottest setting possible.  We want them as clean as possible, and to shrink as much as they're going to.  Iron all fabric before cutting.

You need:
 

• 8" x 8" squares of your outer fabric, lining, and whatever inner fabric/filter/interfacing you're using. I'm using cotton quilting fabric, unbleached muslin, and Pellon non-woven sew-in interfacing.
•  Tip: If you stack your fabrics before you cut, you'll spend less time adjusting and arranging things later.  Remember to put the face of the outer fabric against your lining, not the interlining.
• Two 1 1/2" x 36" fabric strips, cut on grain. I'm using muslin here, too.
• One nose stiffener, 4" finished, after the ends have been bent back.  I'm using a piece of 16(?) gauge aluminum wire I had lying around.

With your fabrics stacked, sew across the top with a 3/4" seam allowance, and then the bottom with 1/4".  (if mass-producing, do all of the tops, and then all of the bottoms.

 

Turn and press.  You'll get a neater edge if you press your seam allowances open first, and then turn them and press again. I'm not sure it's worth the extra time, for a little extra accuracy, though.

using a dowel, because I don't have a sleeve board

Next we're going to sew the channel for the stiffener.  I've given myself some guidelines on the bed of my sewing machine using blue washi tape.  They are 1 5/8" in front of the needle, 1 5/8 " to the left of the needle, and 1/2" behind the needle.

Make sure you have the side of the mask with the 3/4" seam allowance.


Match the left side of the mask to the left guideline, and stitch down until the top of the mask reaches the back guideline.

 
 With the needle down, lift the presser foot, and pivot.  Continue sewing a half inch from the edge, until the right edge passes the front guideline, and stop.  If you're only sewing one mask, you can put the nose wire in immediately, but for mass production purposes, I'd do this for all of the masks, then put all the wires in, then finish them all.

Insert the wire, making sure you're between the interfacing and its own seam allowance.  I found these long-nosed pliers handy.

Finish by sewing from the top edge down to where you stopped before, pivot, and stitch over the last few stitches to secure the seam.

Not quite clear?  Here's a video.

Next, we sew the pleats, and for that we're looking at the second set of guidelines: the pink tape 1" in front of the needle, and 1 1/4" behind.

Start sewing from the bottom edge of the mask and when that edge hits the guideline behind the needle, stop with the needle down.  Use a tool (I used a seam ripper, pretty much anything skinny will do) to lift the mask at the front guideline,

pinch it into a pleat,

and bring that fold under the presser foot and up against the needle.

Stitch 1/2 inch, and stop with the needle down.  For my machine, with its current settings, that's five stitches exactly.

 Lift the next pleat, pinch, position it under the presser foot and against the needle, stitch another half inch.  Repeat for the third pleat, and stitch to the end.

Once again, you deserve a video:

I've found it easier to move to the ironing board at this point rather than try to reproduce the pleats on the other side.  This takes some finesse, and improves with practice, but it's worth it.  I've found it easiest to take it as a gradual process.  First, make sure the three pleats form three waves on the other end, not just two. 

Pull the top and bottom edges so they're more or less parallel, and ease the pleats into position.

  Once you've got them more or less parallel, press,

and then stitch to secure them.

And again, especially because this is something my hands know more about than my brain does, video:

The ties are cut on the straight grain (not the bias!) because you don't need the stretch when binding straight edges, and you don't *want* the stretch for ties.

Make a little clip 2" on either side of the center of the tie. I did this folded, and in a large stack.


Actually sewing the ties is a bit too fiddly for me to take my own photos as I go, so I'm going to rely on the video, plus written instructions:

Take the end of the strip, fold down 1/4", and then fold the long edges to the center, and fold the whole thing in half.  Sew back and forth across the end a few times with the open side facing you, and the tie to the right of the needle. End with the needle down at the front corner, and pivot the tie to sew down the length.  Fold the edges in as you go, running a finger down the opening to encourage everything to stay straight and tucked and even.

When you get to the first notch, fold past it, but keep your finger on (or near) it, stopping sewing when you're just in front of the presser foot.

Fold in the edges for the next length of tie, and tuck the mask in between the layers.  Sew across the mask, and then continue down the second half, remembering to turn the last edge in.  Sew across the end, several times.

Repeat for the other side.

Trim all threads.

50 masks, approximately 16 hours, total