Sewing Projects For Medical Purposes

If there is one thing that is certain during these uncertain times, it is that the medical profession is low on PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). So I decided to compile a list of patterns and ideas that you can sew if you wish to help provide some of these items. Here are some great sewing projects for medical purposes.

*Please Note – these projects are not and have not been tested as ‘medical grade options’. I cannot guarantee and accept no liability for the use of any of these items as medical devices or in a medical setting.

Sewing Projects For Medical Purposes

this Idea!

It may be worth asking around locally first to find out if a local care home, hospice or hospital in your area needs certain items. Recently I saw a news article about London consultants requesting surgical scrubs to use during this crisis. Because consultants normally wear their ordinary clothes they did not have surgical scrubs to wear during the crisis. All the scrub suppliers have run out of  stock, so they were asking local sewists to provide these if possible.

In the UK, this is a Facebook group coordinating scrub donations

But what kind of items can you sew to help?

Face Masks Patterns

A couple of weeks ago, a hospital in the USA requested fabric masks be donated. They were running very low on PPE. Here is a list of other hospitals that have asked for masks. The World Health Organisation have now advised that is useful to wear something to cover the nose and mouth. Here is how to safely wear a face mask.

Face masks are a personal preference, you can choose to use them or cover your face with a scarf. Fabric face masks are useful even if there is no infection about, such as if you have allergies, or live in a dusty/smoggy environment.

Here is my tutorial for a fabric face mask with a filter pocket.

Fully adjustable ear loops are great for a close fit of your mask.

And here is the Olsen Pattern, which was designed by medical professionals

Head Band With Button Pattern

Even if your local hospital, hospice or care home don’t want to use hand made fabric face masks, there is still something that you can make to make wearing their standard face masks much more comfortable.

A lot of health professionals are complaining that wearing elasticated loops around their ears constantly is chafing and causing soreness. So there is a pattern for a headband with added buttons to loop the mask around instead of ears.

Ellie and Mac have released this as a free download pattern.

Scrub Patterns

As I said before, a lot of doctors and consultants are having difficulty finding surgical scrubs to wear in hospitals. But there are several great patterns available for making these.

In the USA you can find some patterns on Amazon. – Amazon.com Scrub patterns

Some of my favourite scrub patterns include.

Simplicity 4101

Jalie Scrub Top

McCall’s M6107

Surgical Hat Pattern

Scrub hats are always needed in the operating theatres. And so again, this is a useful item to be able to sew. A couple of the surgical scrub patterns above contain hat patterns. But here are some free patterns that are available to print off at home so you can make a stash of these medical essentials.

The DragonFly Scrub hat from Miss Muffet

The DIY Scrubcap from Lifebox (pictured above)

and the

Surgical Scrub Hat from Instructables

Surgical Gown Pattern

Finally, you may find that your local hospice or hospital have run out of gowns. Here is a brilliant free hospital gown pattern from LazyGirlDesigns.

For all of these, it is important to choose the right fabric. A 100% cotton or a cheap plain poly cotton is probably the best choice. As long as it can be washed on a very high temperature without any shrinkage, really. All these items need to be washed after each use on a very high heat, so the fabric needs to be able to withstand this.

By the way, are you out of hand sanitiser gel and can’t find it anywhere? See my tutorial on how to make your own with 3 simple ingredients!

I hope that this post will help you find the resources that you need to help out in these difficult times. I would love to know if you make any of these. Do comment below, or contact me via my social media channels.

And please do pin this post for later.