Face Mask FAQ

1) How do I bend the nose wires and Fit My Mask?

Please see our page on nose-wire bending. Don’t skimp on the time spent bending your nose wire. Nose wire is life. In general, fit is crucial to filtering effectiveness of any mask. Adjust the elastic to be comfortable, and place the top and bottom loops high and low, so the fabric by your ear is stretched flat.

2) Do Cloth Masks Work?

There is at this point a general consensus in the scientific community that almost any kind of mask protects those around you from infection, if you are infected. And it seems to be the case, as reported in this article, that wearing a cloth masks protects you from infection by others, or reduces the severity of the disease if you do get infected. But remember, you’re reading this on a site that sells cloth masks, so don’t take my word for it.

3) What Fabric Layers Should I Choose?

People argue about what fabric is best and how many layers you should have. It’s not a simple choice: too many layers and air will leak around the edges unless the elastic is very tight, making the thicker mask potentially less effective. We have a page with detailed comparisons of our fabric and liner choices. It does seem fairly clear from the available evidence that almost any mask, of almost any type, reduces the spread of disease, and reduces the severity of the disease if you do get infected.

4) How Hard Are Your Masks to Breathe Through?

We have measured the breathing resistance of each of our fabric and liner choices, and have a page with a detailed comparisons between the various options. Each individual product listing includes this breathing resistance rating, so you can see how it compares to other masks we offer.

5) Should I get the adult or child size?

Probably the adult size. The child size is appropriate for pre-school age, maybe 6 and under.

6) Are your masks infected when I get them?

Probably not. It is widely agreed that there is a very low risk of infection from items shipped through the mail, because the virus just doesn’t survive long enough. For local pickup orders we take extra precautions: finished masks are placed in 4-mil plastic bags, which are heat-sealed and then baked to an internal temperature of 140°F for at least 30 minutes (with internal temperature verified with a probe thermometer on test samples). This procedure is based on experiments conducted in the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong and published in the The Lancet, which indicate that no detectable virus should remain after this treatment. But of course, we do advise that you wash the masks before using them the first time, because you should not trust your life to anything you read in an FAQ.

7) How should I wash my masks?

Cotton: You can machine wash and tumble dry the all-cotton masks the same way you would any cotton clothes. If you put them in a mesh delicates bag the elastic is less likely to tangle with other things in the wash. As with any dyed fabric, repeated washing in hot water will likely fade the colors over time.

Silk: Silk masks can be machine washed on the gentle/delicates cycle with gentle detergent. Do not use chlorine bleach with any silk, and put the mask in a mesh laundry bag to protect it. Silk should not be tumble dried on high heat: it is best to allow it to air-dry. Click here for Martha Stewart’s advice on washing silk at home. Since silk is used only for the liner, you can ignore the warnings about colors fading. I like their analogy: silk is chemically like hair, so wash it the way you would your hair. You can even use shampoo if you don’t have a gentle detergent on hand.

8) Is it legal for you to sell masks made with copyrighted and/or trademarked fabrics that say they are for personal use only?

Yes. While some companies may try to argue that their fabrics are licensed only for personal use, and while some fabrics may even have statements to this effect printed on them, the courts have been clear in rejecting such claims.

In the case of fabrics that are merely copyrighted, the situation is particularly clear. The first sale doctrine precludes any action against us, as we are not creating any new copies: we are simply re-selling existing, legally-made physical copies of the work (Precious Moments v. La Infantil Inc., 971 F. Supp. 66 (1997)). The act of purchasing fabric at retail does not bind us to any statements incidentally printed on the margins of the fabric.

For fabrics containing trademarks images (for example cartoon characters or university logos), the judgement in Scarves By Vera, Inc. v. American Handbags, Inc., 188 F . Supp. 255 (S.D.N.Y. 1960) provides a clear precedent that what we are doing is legal, even if we derive commercial benefit from use of the trademark images. There is only a problem if, in the words of the judgement, “the average purchaser would be misled into believing that [trademark holder] and [us] were in some manner associated in the joint enterprise of manufacturing the [items] in question”.

So on this page we hereby inform the purchaser that the trademark and copyright holders of the various fabrics we use are not in any way associated with the us, the manufacturer of these face masks. (The judge in the quoted case required the manufacturer to include a sewn-in tag with words to this effect. This would be more difficult in a face mask than a handbag, but if we get any flack from trademark holders, I suppose we’ll start doing that. As if they would care about a two-bit face mask maker like us, who it would look very bad in the press to attack for just trying to make masks people—kids in particular—want to wear.)