Stitching together help: Boston-area citizens making masks for coronavirus fighters
I started out looking for a story on Gabby Araica (?) the Boston 4th grader who has made 820 "old fashioned" washable face masks for Boston PD and other first responders.
Better fitting and more efficient than a bandanna, a craft industry is popping up around the country creating these face masks.
Go Boston !
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Heroism emerges in every crisis.
In Boston, some of those heroes are behind sewing machines.
As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and hospitals struggle to find protective equipment, local fashion designers, sewists, tailors and other crafters are stepping up and volunteering to make face masks to deliver to nurses, doctors, nursing homes and health care workers.
On Saturday, Boston-based fashion designer David Josef was busy at his sewing machine making masks at his Waltham shop after hearing about the desperate need for them.
“They need to know that America is behind them one billion percent,” Josef said of health care workers. “They are our heroes. They are on the frontlines. They’ve got to have them.”
Josef, who has dressed the likes of Diana Ross and Cher, got a hospital-approved pattern and quickly went to work making masks from the piles of beautiful cotton fabric he’s accrued over the years. Josef’s husband, Daniel Forrester, picked up 100 yards of elastic.
His masks include a pocket for a filter and can be washed and reworn. They’re pink and purple and yellow. “I’m doing everything in colors,” Josef said.
Josef hopes to make a hundred masks by Monday and he’ll donate them to Boston hospitals, nursing homes, emergency medical technicians and caregivers — anyone who needs them.
Like many, Josef’s business has come to a halt as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy. “It will all come back,” Josef said. “Instead of sitting at home, and eating another chocolate cream pie and gaining more weight, this was a nice way to help others but also help myself. This is perking me up, too.”
Over in Quincy, another Hub-based fashion designer, Denise Hajjar, was making masks on her sewing machine at her Marina Bay boutique.
On Saturday, Hajjar went to Dorchester’s Sewfisticated Fabrics to buy cotton fabric for the masks. A dozen other customers, all at a safe distance, had the same idea. Tears rolled down Hajjar’s face. “It was just a beautiful moment,” Hajjar said.
Hajjar’s business is also at a standstill.
“Now I have this time, and I have this skill that was given to me, so I want to put it to good use,” Hajjar said. “We just want to do our part to give people what they need so they can try to help the sick.”
From noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George plans to make home-sewn masks at her Dorchester yarn shop, Stitch House, while hosting a “virtual sew-a-long” for crafters wanting to do the same.
“We’re all struggling with the way that we can contribute and help,” said Essaibi-George, who said masks can be dropped off at her store and will be donated to Hub hospitals.
When Hub attorney and community activist Linda Champion learned about the urgent need for masks, her father, Young Nam, a tailor who makes men’s suits, and mother, Tae Nam, who sewed jeans for Levi’s, offered their sewing talents.
Champion sent her father the CDC’s guidelines for the masks. The couple went to the fabric store and began making masks, with the hopes of sewing 300 a day.
“If we can’t get them manufactured and brought in,” Champion said, “somebody has to make them.”
Everyone has their talents. Thankfully, these folks are putting them to an incredible use when we need them more than ever.
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No politics.
related story about 4th grade who has multiple generations of Boston PD members
I have a friend making reusable masks with a group of others for medical staff in regional hospitals, a VA hospital, and nursing homes in western Colorado. all the materials have been donated by the owner of a fabric store that's been locked down. most of the participants are patrons of the store. she told me it's what pulled her out of the depression she was in after losing her husband, my oldest and best friend from high school, four years ago. she says it's a bit monotonous but loves the feeling of making a needed contribution. she said she has no idea how many she has made so far. normally, she makes high-end custom western themed leather purses from cowhides and repurposed horse tack and sells them on some website for big money.
The President is now recommending scarves because they are "thicker"...
Stable genius s/
Massachusetts has just received thousands of 95 masks and other PPE from China. It was flown from China to the US on Robert Kraft's plane...
No Days Off’: Patriots’ Plane Delivering Critical Medical Supplies Kraft Purchased for Mass., NY
Of course it took until today
For the POTUS to stop exports of critical materials to other countries, friend or foe.
Duh.....
As I implied many times elsewhere
are we ready for Martial Law?
The President and his advisers are not.
While 3M distributors sell the 3M "surge" masks for cash to foriegn countries...