Mask makers put needle to thread to supply PPE to community

Apr 12, 2020 | 9:46 AM

MEDICINE HAT- Stitch by stitch Doris Sullivan and a team of volunteers get to work, carefully sewing masks to people in need.

Sullivan, a sewing teacher by trade, is now using her gift with a needle and thread to help provide a hot button piece of personal protective equipment to the community.

As the number of COVID-19 cases continued to grow, Sullivan said she was compelled to help by doing what she does best.

“If I was sitting at home listening to the news it would be very depressing, because it is not a happy time right now and by doing this I feel like I am doing the only thing I can do to make it better.”

So for the past three-and -a -half weeks, her team of about thirty sewers have been turning fabric kits put together by Sullivan, into two different masks, with each one intrinsically made.

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“Our masks have one layer of cotton, one layer of an iron on non-fusible interfacing and one layer of a T-shirt knit,” Sullivan explained.

At first, the sewers would use quilting scraps to make the masks, but since word got out, fabric stores in the city have stepped up to offer them a deal on fabric.

Individuals have also pitched in with fabric donations.

Once the masks are sewn, they are washed, dried, and steam pressed before getting packed up for distribution around the community.

“We’ve had a lot of our masks go to the Medicine Hat Housing Association and they distribute them to the homeless to the Mustard Seed, to the shelters , that’s where a majority of them have gone. We’ve given some to the grocery stores and wherever there’s a need, that’s where they are going,” Sullivan said.

Masks have also been distributed to Blair Stubbs.

by Tiffany Goodwein

Mask makers put needle to thread to supply PPE to community

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