Volunteer sewing corps makes masks, gowns as U.S. supplies dwindle
31 March, 2020
From amateur seamstresses and sewing clubs to Hollywood costume-makers, a patchwork army of volunteers over the USA is churning out gowns and masks for emergency personnel battling coronavirus.
The pandemic which has killed 2,500 nationwide has left medics dangerously subjected to the virus, with doctors forced to reuse scarce masks during the day as hospital supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) rapidly dwindle.
Jamarah Hayner, who has create a "volunteer sewing corps" making hospital gowns, is one of many citizens trying to stitch up that gap.
She approached doctors and nurses at local facilities such as for example Los Angeles' Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital, who said they urgently needed any viable equipment.
Hayner buys discounted, wholesale fabric and employs laid-off restaurant workers to drop off material at volunteers' homes, and later pick up finished gowns.
"We've church groups and a lot of parents stuck at home with their kids who are going a little bit crazy right now," said the 35-year-old public affairs strategist.
Mylette Nora, a Hollywood costume designer whose clients include Jay Leno, created a pattern for the group by taking apart a hospital gown.
She estimates volunteers, once ready to go, can use her template to create a gown yourself every 15-20 minutes.
"I'll sit here eight, 10 hours, make sure they are for given that we've fabric," she said. "I'll do that as long as it requires... Provided that there's a need."
A Los Angeles quilting club has also signed up, along with volunteers who learned to knit making pink "pussy hats" for recent women's rights marches.
Hollywood's FILM Costumers guild is offering mask-making kits to the public, while 3D printers in fashionable Brooklyn design studios and tiny California garages are making face shields for doctors.
In New York state, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, Bettina D'Ascoli was inspired by similar home-made projects in China and Europe to convert her sewing studio into a volunteer hub.
"Immediately I acquired responses, from doctors, nurses, volunteers," said the 47-year-old, at first from Venezuela. "Amid this horrible thing, it was beautiful... the volume of volunteers."
With a team of six coordinators and around 50 local seamstresses, D'Ascoli is currently fielding requests -- and donations -- for masks from all over.
"Orders are coming in from hospitals, medical centers, we get orders by the hundreds," she said.
Annissa Essaibi-George, who owns a sewing school in the Boston area, runs an identical project and has started hosting "virtual sew-along" sessions on Facebook Live.
"As we are asked to remain at home, asked to distance ourselves, we should remain connected to some other... this is an opportunity for people for connecting," she said.
Equipment created by the volunteers is not approved to federal standards -- the masks, for instance, are not found in surgery, but by hospital staff and first responders who regularly manage infected patients.
Ellen Bennett, who transformed her LA apron manufacturer to solely making masks, said when she first called a doctor about the theory, he was "uncertain if these will continue to work."
"Six hours later, he was like, 'Let's figure this out. We need PPE,'" she told AFP.
With her small enterprise now looking to produce tens of thousands of masks weekly, Bennett has fielded calls from panicked medical personnel around the united states forced to use bandanas to cover their faces.
"It's stuff that makes your heart explode 19 times on the way," she said. "I found the realization that people couldn't not do that."
For Hayner, the contributions of so many volunteers is inspiring -- but also reveals major failings by those in control.
"We are pleased to do it. And we have to not at all have to," she said. "We will not let persons get sick and potentially die because they can not obtain act together in Washington."
Source: japantoday.com