Students workshop designs
Textile students at Horsham’s St Brigid’s College have embarked on a timely creative project to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Textiles teacher Cathy van Dyk said students in years nine and 10 had been creating fabric face masks to wear throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Premier Daniel Andrews last week announced residents of Melbourne and Mitchell Shire risked a fine of $200 if they were found in public without a cloth mask or face covering.
Mr Andrews has also recommended people in regional Victoria, including the Wimmera-mallee, wear a mask when they are unable to maintain a distance of 1.5 metres.
Mrs van Dyk said hearing of measures to help stop the spread of COVID-19 sparked her latest project.
“I thought about it during the school holidays,” she said.
“I thought it was a great project to get the students back to using the sewing machines and to introduce them to the overlockers.
“It’s also a project that is obviously very useful and currently needed.
“The brief was basically to construct a face mask. We played around with a couple of different styles and tried to choose the style that was going to be the best.”
Mrs van Dyk said the project also included a caveat on materials.
“The brief was also that they had to use fabrics within the room, so we were recycling fabric left over from other projects,” she said. “The material needed to be cotton and it needed to be very closely woven with a layer of iron-on interfacing in the centre.”
Mrs van Dyk said she and the students used a couple of templates and tried different methods to determine the best model.
“At the moment we’re working on prototypes really, just working out what is best,” she said.
Mrs van Dyk said she had invited fellow staff to participate in mask-making workshops.
“I thought they might want to make some after school for themselves or their families,” she said.
She said if the workshops went well, she would open them up to other students within the school. “It is a good, practical project,” she said. “It’s not as needy in Horsham at the moment, but I’ve got two children of my own living in Melbourne who have asked me to make masks for them.” • Wimmera Health Care Group leaders have made a video demonstrating the best way to put on a mask to avoid contamination. All visitors to the hospital and extended campuses are required to wear a mask. People can find the instructional video on Wimmera Health Care Group’s Facebook page or online at https://youtu.be/sohzkrzkgve.