Here are the details on my FullLife "fix" to give the neck strap (No. 2) a quick-release so I don't have to readjust it every night.
The materials used:
one large paper clip
wire cutters
ETA: Emery board or other rasp-type file
scissors
floral tape
yarn
large-eyed sewing needle
The mask is sitting upright here, looking at the left side. The empty vertical slot (lower middle) is where the neck strap (No. 2) attaches to the mask.
I cut a large paper clip at the spot where the pencil is pointing to here:
That formed the piece on the right here, which is the base of my fix:
ETA: If need be, smooth the cut edge of the paper clip with the emery board, and then wrap each end of the clip tightly with a small piece of floral tape before proceeding.
I used floral tape for these next two steps. Floral tape is sticky on both sides, is able to get wet, and is quite malleable. It gives whatever it covers a nice "gripper" quality. It also stretches a bit, which makes it easy to work with. (If you pull too hard and break it, you can simply overlap it, sticking it to itself, and keep going.)
I covered the paperclip with it:
And then I covered the lower half of the No. 2 strap slot with it:
Result so far:
Then I bent the short hooked part of the clip inward slightly (so it would "hug" the top of the mask bar) and bent the long hooked part outward slightly, to result in:
(The clip is actually upside-down here, considering how I'll attach it to the mask. I photographed it this way for continuity purposes.)
You can skip these next two steps. I did it to make sure the clip would fit the mask the way I wanted it to before I actually attached it, and I wanted to take pics at this stage to show you the details. I first slid the covered paper clip over the side bar. The mask is laying at a bit of an angle in this pic, facing down, with the left-side mask bar pointing up and back, to give you a good view. (The floral tape's stickiness allowed me to stick the clip to the inside of the mask bar and take this pic.) The chin support strap is in its horizontal slot to the right:
Then I moved it down so that it was positioned vertically in the middle of (and behind) the open slot on the bar for Strap No. 2, with the short hook over the top of the bar. This will be the clip's position when I'm done. (Again, the floral tape allowed me to stick the clip to the mask slot and take the pic hands-free.) Sorry the pic is a little blurry, but I hope you get the idea:
Next step: Cover the clip with yarn (or another similarly flexible material that you can wrap with). I laid about a half-inch of yarn along one open end of the clip, sticking it to the tape. Then I tightly wound the yarn around the clip with my fingers, covering the half-inch length that was flat against it, and then continuing along, making sure the yarn wrapped the entire clip tightly. Then I threaded the other end of the yarn with a large-eyed sewing needle and ran the needle through some of the yarn that was wrapped around the clip ("catching" a piece of yarn on several loops in a row), to secure it:
For this next step, I removed the cushion from the frame so I couldn't puncture it by accident. I held the yarn-covered clip in position against the mask bar, right behind the open slot, and then used the needle and yarn to secure the clip to the mask by wrapping the lower half of the slot (where the floral tape is), going from the inside to the outside, and making sure I crossed over the underside of the clip several times in an effort to anchor it and keep it from moving. (I did that "anchoring" on each side of the slot.) When I was done wrapping, I again threaded the needle through several loops of the wrapped yarn to secure it, and then I cut it.
Here's the result (clip in place, fully wrapped and anchored vertically). I then bent the top half of the open clip inward a little bit. The empty slot you see to the right in this pic is where the chin support strap goes:
I then bent the clip to the left (towards the front of the mask) a bit, to make it harder for the strap to slide up and off during the night:
Here's the whole thing, assembled:
I hope this fix doesn't sound (or look) too convoluted. It was easier to do than to explain , but I hope it makes sense.
Before I put the mask on last night, I made a small loop with the Velcro on the left side of the neck strap and then slipped it over the clip. I unfastened the Velcro on the right side of the strap, put the mask on, and adjusted the right side (where it attaches to the mask through its intended slot). This resulted in a large strap loop on the right side, as it now has to pick up the slack from the small loop I made on the left side. The strap stayed in place all night and worked like a charm this morning, so I deem it a success.
Effectively, all I did was extend the left-side slot for Strap No. 2 outward a little, with an opening at the top. There's no damage to the mask, and I can undo or re-do this fix whenever I want to. The right side's Velcro will stay where it is from now on, and I can simply slide the left side loop on or off the clip assembly without having to adjust anything. Mission accomplished.
I hope this post is worthwhile to someone else here, especially if it prompts another that results in a better mousetrap. If anyone has a question about what I did (or how I did it), fire away.
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