I asked the Internet to help explain the peaceful feeling I get while sewing handmade masks, and it delivered. Just type in “quotes sewing” and contemplate these: “I can totally make that”,“Hem your blessings with thankfulness so that they don’t unravel”, “My soul is fed with needle and thread”, and “Keep calm and grab the seam ripper”.
I was inspired to start mask production circa Day 6 of my social distancing when I received this picture of my 7-year-old niece Nell beginning her project to sew 35 masks for a Concord, NH hospital to extend the life of existing masks or serve as replacement PPE if the real protective gear did not get delivered in time. Seeing the look of concentration and purpose on her face reminded me of the hours that I spent sewing growing up (although not seriously until entering Junior High).
Then I noticed the posted patterns and YouTube videos, and heard rumblings of shortages of ¼ inch elastic. I ordered price-gouged ¼ inch elastic from eBay and combed the attic for extra fabric. I set up my machine near the window in our side room where I could watch Spring fight off the cold and dreary March weather. I started making masks with fabric ties for the known nurses among my contacts and for delivery to Boston mask distributors.
Over the weekend of April 3rd, our U.S. President officially recommended that citizens wear cloth masks to protect others from unknown affections while outside, in grocery stores, or near others. Of course he has chosen not to follow his own recommendations stating: “I’m feeling good. I just don’t want to be doing -- somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t. Maybe I’ll change my mind.” Yes, let’s kill off all the prime ministers, dictators and kings. Meanwhile, my sense of purpose grew. I began to feel like an essential worker and started making masks for vulnerable extended family members as well.
Now It is day 25 of my social distancing. I am still waiting for that eBay delivery but I have masks prepped in hope that the elastic arrives today. I am running out of appropriate fabric, but still refuse to use this swatch. It looks too much like the Corona virus magnifications, don’t you think?
Let’s close with a few select sewing quotes from literature, just because they put the suffering of our social isolation in context.
“I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.”
― Margaret Atwood, from Alias Grace
“I made a gift for you, Good Proctor. I had to sit long hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing." - Mary Warren”
― Arthur Miller, from The Crucible
Keep calm and grab the seam ripper!