Our world has changed drastically in the past couple of months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has made us do things that we don’t usually do. One of these things includes wearing face masks whenever we leave the house, whether it’s to buy a carton of milk from our local grocer or going to the nearest sushi train for a Thursday night dinner take-away.

Wearing a face mask has become almost intuitive for most people, and this has increased demand for commercially produced face masks and put immense amounts of pressure on companies that produce them. With increasing demand comes a shortage in production, which is probably the reason why you will see the mask section at your local supermarket absolutely empty.

Now, you might be wondering, ‘How am I supposed to feel safe in public if I can’t find face masks at my local store?’ Well, guess what? You can make a face mask at home! During self-isolation we have tried various activities to kill time, from 15-minute morning yoga, dyeing our hair crazy colours, to secretly practicing TikTok dance moves … You name it, we’ve tried it! So it’s about time we pull out Grandma’s sewing machine and cool leftover retro fabrics to make some cloth masks at home.

According to Dr Abrar Chughtai, infectious diseases epidemiologist and Lecturer in Public Health at UNSW, cloth face masks can help prevent the spread of infections from sick (mainly asymptomatic) people, and partially protect us from infectious particles in the environment. Wearing cloth masks help us protect people around us which is exactly what we need to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.

During the Term 1 break, some members of the UNSW Engineering Faculty and Women in Engineering Society (WIESoc) gathered for a mask prototype workshop, including Angela Tandon, Danika Luichareonkit, Karima Bakhtiar, Sehhaj Grewal, Brandon Winsley – and me!

Over two days, we designed, constructed and tested a number of creative mask prototypes. It was a fun way of coming up with cool face mask ideas that were both aesthetically appealing and functional.

For information on how to make a face mask visit the DIY tab on our learn page