How to make a safe face mask from a vacuum cleaner bag? Step by step do-it-yourself instructions

How to make a safe face mask from a vacuum cleaner bag? Step by step do-it-yourself instructions
facemask
Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Worried about COVID-19? You do need a face mask! Don’t let anyone convince you differently. A face mask may save your life and the life of someone else. A facemask can even be a new fashion trend at the same time. Facemasks are hard to find if you want to buy one, but making it at home is actually fast and easy. It’s even easier if you have a vacuum cleaner bag handy.

The mayor in Los Angeles wants people to wear a mask at all times if they have to leave the house for shopping. He added a home-made mask could be sufficient.

Then US travel and tourism industry are stepping into safe lives.  Groups of travel agents have no trips to sell, but they learn how to make facemasks, and often donate them to first responders as well.

For more than a month Governments and health, departments tell you no face masks are recommended when leaving your place to do groceries shopping.  The government lied to you because there are not enough facemasks on the market, not even enough for medical professionals.

The threat of a quarter of a million dead Americans due to Coronavirus inspires people to put this into their own hands. Health professionals highly recommend wearing face masks. In some countries, this is even a legal requirement.

According to an article published in the Cambridge University Press, a vacuum cleaner bag has similar filtration to a surgical mask. We developed a process to make a face mask out of vacuum cleaner bags so you can make them at home!

The eVacuum Store tested an alpha version of a face mask made from a high filtration vacuum cleaner bag.  Paper vacuum cleaner bags are not recommended.  This mask may provide a means of protecting yourself and your family while you’re out in public – if you must travel outside your home. During these challenging times, with mask shortages throughout the country and the world, we thought this could be an alternative to having nothing at all.   This vacuum cleaner bag material may also be used as an insert to a homemade fabric mask.

Please see the step by step process on how to make a face mask out of a vacuum cleaner bag and hair ties.

1. Find a high efficient vacuum cleaner bag, and cut off the cardboard.  For this example, we used an Electrolux high efficient vacuum cleaner bag.

cut a vacuum bag to make a face mask

2. Cut the vacuum cleaner bag along two seams.

image6 rotated | eTurboNews | eTN

3. Lay the bag material out flat and cut it to the dimensions of a Curad Antiviral Facemask, 6 ½ inches by 3 ¾ inches.  You should be able to make approximately 5 masks per vacuum cleaner bag.

get 5 masks per vacuum cleaner bag

 

4. Next insert a fishing hook into each side to make a hole so you can affix a hair tie to the bag material.

 

insert a fish hook to make a hole

 

5. Then insert the hair tie though the each hole and loop it around, then pull the hair tie firm.  You could also try adding pipe cleaners to pinch it to your nose.affix a hair tie to a vacuum bag to make a face mask

 

6. The mask is done and ready to be used.

 

vacuum cleaner bag converted to a face mask with a hair tie

 

If you are into fashion, here is a video explaining how to make the perfect facemask and a fashion statement at the same time.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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