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[LAURA BOYES:] I know how to sew.

And when news reportsstarted to say

there was a shortage ofmasks, that was something

that I was capable of doing.

I mean, I ordinarilymake wedding gowns.

So this is considerablysimpler than that.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] I can't be a doctor.

I can't deliver mail.

I don't work in a grocery store.

I'm 9:00 to 5:00 doing mypencil-pushing type job.

But here's how I canmake a difference.

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] They've come

out now recommending that wewear a cloth mask as laypeople

to keep the medical masksfor health care workers.

And so I love to sew.

And I thought, well, I founda great pattern on Pinterest.

And I thought, what a good wayto put my hobby to benefit.

[JO DARBY:] After being depressed and sad for a couple of days,

I thought that wasthe best thing to do

was to do that for people,anybody who wanted it.

Mostly CNAs, RNs are contacting me, a couple of home health

home health care services.

So I just startedorganizing because I was

so mad that it was necessary.

So I put it out on my listservthat I would be sewing masks,

and I was looking forother stitchers to join me.

There are tons of freepatterns out there.

The first one I saw madea lot of sense to me.

It was from the DeaconessHospital in Georgia, I think.

The hospital put outa request saying,

this is the pattern thatwould be very useful to us.

Please, please, make us masks.

And in a few days, they hadthousands upon thousands

upon thousands of masks.

So they said, OK, stop.

Don't make us masks anymore.

But here's the patternand do with what you will.

[PAT GOTTLIEB:] I first got the idea

when I saw it on theneighborhood listserv.

And I thought that that'ssomething I can do to help.

Also, I used to bea nurse at Duke.

So it's very close to mewhat they're dealing with.

[CYNTHIA MALACHI WHITE:] Coming into the office,

and I was concerned about that.

Because in our area, there werepeople coming up with COVID.

So I started lookingaround at masks online.

And I was like, oh, OK.

Find this one.

And then all of a sudden,there was a burst of patterns.

So I went throughall the patterns.

And then I found the twothat I like the best.

And that's what I've beenrolling with ever since.

And they came out of MissouriStar Quilt Company, Jenny Doan.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] At first, I started

making masks for my family.

And then I decidedto reach out and see

who else needed assistance.

[MARCIA REGO:] It's like a really small thing

that I feel likeI can do in a time

when I feel really likeimpotent, you know,

and just kind of likepowerless to do anything.

So this gives mesomething to do.

These are all the masksthat I made today.

And it amounts to about20, counting the ones

that I made for family.

And I hope to makeat least 80 more.

[CYNTHIA MALACHI WHITE:] Initially, I made it

for my family and friends.

And I have a friend whois in a nursing facility.

He'll be 101 on Monday.

And I was talking tothis administrative staff

person on the floor.

And she said, yeah,we have some masks.

I'm like, OK, you cantell me straight up.

Do you really have masks?

Or do you need some?

She says, well, youknow, Ms. White.

I said, OK, fine.

Tell me how many on a shift, and I'll make some for you all.

So I made some for thatshift for his floor.

And I'm waiting tosee if they want

some more because my thing isI want them to be in good shape

to take care of myperson and to take

care of the rest of thefolks at the facility.

[LAURA BOYES:] Part of the reason that you

want to do this isbecause everyone feels

such a loss of controlover every single aspect

of their lives.

And everyone wantsto do something

that contributes to publichealth and the greater good.

And this seems to be what is,for me, a relatively simple way

of doing that.

It's as much for one'sown mental health

as it is for public health.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] I contacted one of my quilting sisters

from the African-American quilt circle.

They had changed her ward at theVA hospital to be a COVID-19.

So they were scrambling forways to protect themselves.

My masks weren't needed.

So my masks went to anonprofit organization

that she knew of thatshe wasn't able to cover

because she was helping herselfand her coworkers with masks.

When she said she wasworking at the VA,

I don't know if she realizedhow many people would step up

to help.

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] I have been trying

to keep up with mypatients since we've

been out of the office.

And I sent a newsletterjust mentioning

that I was using my sewing skills to make these masks,

just to inform patients how I'm keeping from being bored.

And I've had a huge responseand a lot of requests for masks.

[LAURA BOYES:] If you have something

that looks like it's homemade,that's in a colorful fabric

or it looks whimsical,then it's very clear

that you haven't stolen masksthat health care workers should

be wearing.

So I think it's veryimportant that these things do

look kind ofcrafty, if you will,

to show anyone whosees you with them

knows that theirefficacy is only

as good as a home sewer can do.

[MARCIA REGO:] I got in touch with a friend of a friend who

is collecting these masks.

And there is a whole networknow that I'm getting emails

about these masks all the time.

And a couple ofdays ago, she wrote,

I've gotten arequest for 40 more.

Does anybody have any ready?

So I decided to crankit up last night.

And I had cut a lotof fabric already.

I have a lot cut thatI haven't made yet.

See?

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] You're going

to be wearing the maskfor a long period of time.

I find that having somethingaround your ear like most

of the mask patternsthat are out there

can get irritating to the ear.

So this mask allows you toput it on, keep it in place,

and hopefully nothave to touch it.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] This is actually the style

that I turned out that I loved.

And when I was doingthis style mask,

air comes in and out ofthe side of your face.

And members of myfamily are asthmatic.

My mom has a heart condition.

My dad has high blood pressure.

We have diabetes in the family.

We've got many, manymedical conditions.

And I'm trying toprotect people.

[MARCIA REGO:] What I learned is that some clinics weren't

accepting them because theydidn't have like a bendy,

flexible wire thing that you canuse to fit it around your nose,

so that there isless open space.

So there is awhole debate online

about what you can putin there to make it,

so like those pipecleaners or just like

any kind of really thin wire.

One thing that is idealis the little twisty ties

that you get at the supermarket,the produce section.

But I found somebody had agood tip about finding it

in gardening departments.

So I bought this.

I have enough formany, many masks now.

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] It's not ideal for health care workers

to wear this type of maskbecause the fabric doesn't

provide the protection that, 

there are four different level of masks

that we can wear in health care, level one, level two, level three.

And then you have N95,which is the most sought

after right now.

But a cloth mask wouldbe better than no mask.

None of this is going toactually likely to protect you

from the virus itself.

But it keeps you, if youwere to sneeze or cough,

if you are infectedand don't know it,

to keep you fromspreading your germs.

So helps hold stuff in.

[LAURA BOYES:] So far, I've made several different styles.

This is it's a cat mask.

It has calico on the back.

I have another onethat has a stripe that

looks kind of like a wood grainand has the Japanese lantern

pattern on the back.

And then my neighborsaid her son

wanted things that were moreboring, which is really hard.

[PAT GOTTLIEB:] I had just been using

a lot of old flannel sheetsand some old shower curtains.

They're not that old.

I just had used themto make the curtains.

So I had leftovers.

I've been using that.

And then I switched tousing flannel inside,

and this was stillon the sheets.

And then the flannelis really hard

to get my machine to go through.

My machine is soold that it won't

go through a lotof thick material.

So that's part of the reasonI bought some cotton today

because it'd beeasier to sew on.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] I've also been shipping elastic.

Thursday, when Isent out the masks,

I also sent out a little over30 yards of my elastic supply

to three different women,two of my quilt circle

and my cousin's fianceebecause she's been making mask.

And she's been having to use thet-shirt material and the ties.

And my cousin hates the ties.

He's a truck driver.

And when he's trying to realquick jump out of the truck

to talk to his people,having to real quick tie that

and making sure it's rightin it's right, so I told him,

I'm sending her elastic.

Just tell her to remake them.

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] This is the sewing station.

And I have my little cart here.

I have my next layer or nextround of items lined up.

And then over here onthe bed, I have my orders

that I'm laying out towrap up and package.

And I have then oneshere on the table

that need to beallocated to the orders

that I haven't filled yet.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] I send every box

that leaves out of here for a nonprofit with a little note

and with a little prayerand with a little song

or a little Bible verse.

You know?

And the Bible verse that I've been using most of the time

has been Romans 8:28.

[JESSICA BISHOP FUNK:] I wasn't going to charge for the masks

that I'm making.

But I've had peopleoffer to pay me.

And the only way I canwrestle with accepting money

from people is I'mgoing to donate

all the money to The Family House in Chapel Hill.

It's an inexpensiveway to be able to stay

and be near somebodywho's in the hospital.

[LAURA BOYES: ] I have a lot of fabrics

that I've just been repurposingto make these masks.

And I always, since I ama professional dressmaker,

I do have supplies here.

So that every time Ineed a piece of elastic,

I don't have to goout to the store.

So I have those kinds ofmaterials here as well.

[DEBRA STEVENSON:] This supply of fabric,

I'm just going to reach backand grab a handful of it

and lift it up...

doesn't even begin to put adent in the fabric that I have.

I have 18 gallon binsof fabric in my basement

that my family is like, why?

Why?

[MARCIA REGO:] The mask making is a really welcome activity,

I think, for those of us whocan spend some time doing it

because we feel a littleless guilty about having

a stash of fabric.

And we can make somethingreally useful out of them.

[CYNTHIA MALACHI WHITE:] We kind of

like buy fabric and swapfabric and just have fabric.

I've had fabric willed to me.

When people pass on, theirkids will say, Cynthia,

they got plenty offabric here in the house.

You want to comeby and pick it up?

Sure.

Everything I'veused so far is stuff

I have in the house,fabric I have in the house,

threads I have in the house.

I mean, literally,if I wasn't working

and all I did was make masks,I could make masks for a year

and still have plenty of fabric.

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