How did I get started making masks? This segment of my “This Damn Virus” story is probably the most detailed and in chronological order. Let’s begin. On March 20th, Anne, our wonderful next-door neighbor sent me a link to a mask pattern and a $100 gift card to Joann Fabrics for fabric and supplies.
We don’t have a printer that can keep ink in it after 2 print outs, so I held some paper up to my computer monitor and traced it. The pattern is very easy and I used the cotton fabric that I had on hand for the first batch. 13 masks total: 2 smalls, 5 mediums, 4 larges, 2 XL ready for delivery and up on Facebook on March 22nd. That seemed like a lot at the time. I had some people interested in them at the time and lots of people were commenting on my post.
I ordered more fabric from Joanns.com and it took over a week to get here. Shopping on Joanns.com was challenging. Their filters were not working properly, and they were out of a lot of fabric. I would pick fabric out then put it in my shopping cart then it would say it wasn’t available or not available for shipping. It was just cumbersome. But, this was pretty standard for the times we were living in. No one had elastic. I had to buy stretchy cord you would use for hanging Christmas ornaments from Amazon. That took more than 2 days to get here. A few masks from the first batch were claimed and I made some extras for my friends Loredana and Seth and Loredana’s business partner, Laura. It was ok and manageable at that time.
One evening, my friend Jamie tagged me in a Facebook post. Jamie’s friend’s mom worked at an assisted living facility and they needed masks. I made 12 for her and shipped them out March 29th. It felt really good to help someone in need that I didn’t know. Jamie’s friend was so appreciative. A few weeks after I sent the masks, I got a thank you card that had 12 messages and signatures on it. I can only assume that it was from the workers who received my masks. There was no return address on it. But I was touched and it was a wonderful feeling knowing I was able to help them.
Finally, the fabric from Joanns.com arrived on March 31st and off to the races I went. After washing the 4 yards of fabric, I ironed and cut masks all night that Friday night. Saturday morning came and I woke up thinking, when I wash these masks, how am I going to know what size they are? I don’t want to wash them in size batches, which would be a waste of resources. After a while, an idea came to me. I could make the color of the thread on the outside ear seams a different color based on what size they were. Smalls had one color, mediums, another, and larges another. Brilliant. I got to work that Saturday morning and spent 4 hours sewing 55 masks. That’s just sewing, that didn’t include photos, washing and individually packaging them, marketing, and posting them to the website.
While I was making them, I think there was some government announcement that stated it was advisable to wear a mask in public. Not mandatory yet. So, as I was making these masks, everyone was asking for one. I had people texting me, Facebook messaging me, and posting comments on my Facebook page asking to get a mask. It was quite overwhelming. When I finished them up, I ran some down to my neighbor Karen. She asked me if it was ok if she told more people about my masks. At the time, I was like, “no, not yet”! I didn’t have a clear idea of how many I had and how many I already promised to people. I told her I would let her know when I was ready. I continued walking through the neighborhood and had 2 neighbors ask me for some. My uncle Chip also posted on my Facebook page if he could share my posts about masks. I was like “no, not yet”! Eventually, I was able to get everyone that asked that day a mask and got to the point where I told both Chip and Karen they could spread the word about my masks.
I was not prepared for all that chaos! I wasn’t prepared for this at all. I made them, I washed them, I posted them, and they flew off my shelf. It’s was a really valuable experience for me. I’ve learned that just jumping into something without much of plan is ok. It worked out for me. It’s given me a perspective on business that I didn’t see before, which has made me more compassionate towards my company and other small businesses. I have a newfound perspective on it.
That Saturday flew by and decided I needed to order more fabric from Joann’s, but this time did the curb side pickup. The one thing that stayed consistent through the quarantine is things changed fast. One day the store could be open, the next closed. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get that order. I got the email stating we have your order, but it also said don’t come to the store yet until we tell you to. I waited for the next email, which never came. They called me that Thursday, April 9th and told me my order was ready, come get it before 3 pm today or it’s cancelled. So off we went to pick it up at lunch. Talk about a rush! I had 10 yards of fabric, 5 yards of light blue and 5 yards of orange. You ever have to do anything with 5 yards of fabric? It’s difficult. It’s a lot of fabric to cut, even if you do cut it in yard increments.
Keeping with the process of Friday night cut, Saturday morning make / market, I got the fabric in the washer on Thursday, cut Friday and made Saturday. Only 3 hours of sewing this time for a total of 45 masks. This time, some of the masks were already claimed. I had
to make sure I had those and didn’t forget about them. You should have seen my spare room where I set up my production facility. There were notes everywhere about people’s orders, inventory, what color the thread was used for the smalls as opposed to the mediums so I could tell which size was which. After production, off to the washer. By this time, I had gloves, so the washer dryer process was a lot easier. I got the masks individually bagged up in between playing hockey with J and my neighbor. Some of the masks in this batch were for Anne, for someone she knew at Giant Eagle, and she was going to Giant Eagle that afternoon. I stopped playing hockey, and put my “surgeon” hat on, got the masks out of the dryer and gave her the 3 that she wanted. That was a slightly less busy Saturday than the last Saturday.
I got a jump on masks over the next week, which was great because I got to start writing this story instead of making masks or being too tired to do anything else. Tuesday is a non-running day for me, so I cut a bunch of them on Tuesday. More fabric arrived at my house from Anne and I had more to work with. At this point, I was swimming in fabric! Tuesday’s cut batch was a bit trickier than normal. The fabric I’ve been getting was an all over print or just a solid color. You don’t have to worry about how you cut the pattern because the fabric can go any which way. But the fabric Anne got was what I call a one-way fabric. If I cut it upside down, Snoopy would be upside down. I had to think more about how I was cutting this fabric. But it was all good. They all turned out right side up and I got a bunch more cut.
That week was a particularly busy week at my actual job and I worked late almost every day. Friday’s at my job are either really quiet or really busy. This one was really busy. Every time I finished something, they would give me 3 more things to do. I’m not complaining, I’m grateful I had a job during all this. But this particular Friday I was solving a mask shipping issue with my friend’s sister. Her first order got lost in the mail and I had more for her to pick up during that week. She updated her order a couple times and one of the changes was to swap out the large for an extra-large. I didn’t have any extra-larges on hand because not many people bought that size. I told her that I could make her one and they would all be ready on Saturday afternoon. Friday morning, she IM’s me telling me she’s coming to my house to pick them up at 3:00 pm today, Friday. Thank goodness I had a bunch mostly done from Thursday and I decided that I could juggle the mask making and my actual job. Remember, I made this in batches so it wasn’t just her one mask that I was sewing. I started at the beginning, I ironed the masks. I did a work thing. I sewed them. I did a work thing. I added the ear elastic. I did a work thing. I put them in the wash. I did a work thing. I put them in the dryer. I did a work thing. I packaged and finished her masks and I got 3 more assignment at work. That took me to lunch time and J and I took a walk. After that, I ran up to the Appalachian Rock Shop, a small business that I wanted to support since they had been closed for about a month and a half and bought my chrysocolla pendant that I ordered from them. They were selling products by appointment only. When I got home, I spent the rest of the afternoon messing around with HTML code. My friend’s sister picked up her masks, and all was good there. I sewed more masks that Friday night so I only had a little bit of sewing to do on Saturday. That’s why I got to write this segment of the story, because I didn’t do much sewing that day.
Getting the masks to people varied from person to person. If they were in the neighborhood, I would drop off their masks in their mailbox, and then they would drop money off in my mailbox. Online orders were credit card only so that was good. But I had to mail all those out. Friends and strangers would stop by to pick them up from our mailbox and either leave money or send me money online. Towards the end, I got a plastic box that fit the bag for the masks and left them in there. The person picking them up just left their money in the box. Most people paid, some I donated. Most of the money I made I donated to charities or gave to local businesses. I didn’t make anyone pay for shipping. The post office was always fun. Before I went, I had to remember to bring my mask and gloves. I wore gloves at that time because I was touching the self-service screen. I will add here that by no means was I afraid of germs or getting the virus, I was trying to protect others. I went to the post office pretty much every day. On my way, I would blast the song Trials, by Starset. It was, and still is, the perfect song for this time in history. Once there, I would put on my mask and glove and walk into the building, opening the door with my arm or back. They have 2 doors that open either way. My gloved hand was for “their stuff” and my non-gloved hand was for “my stuff”. I tapped the screen, got the postage and labels, and opened the mail deposit box with the gloved hand and touched the envelopes with my non-gloved hand. By about the fifth time I went to the post office, I knew exactly where to touch the screen and that my envelopes were 1.40 ounces. It was pretty amazing how many people were actually in the post office every time I went. It was also amazing how many people didn’t have masks every time I went in, even when it was mandatory to wear one.
By now, you’re probably wondering what my process was for making these masks, or maybe not. Either way, it’s below. Since you invested this much time into reading this story you may as well read my process too. I really had an assembly line going for these things and if I may say, it was a well-oiled machine. If I were making only 1 mask, I could bust one out in less than 5 minutes. Ok so here it goes:
Obtain fabric
Cut the rough sides with pinking sheers
Wash it in the washer
Dry it in the dryer
If it’s a giant piece of fabric, cut it down to smaller sizes
Fold it long ways twice and iron it
Pin pattern to fabric
Cut fabric
Repeat until you run out of fabric or energy
Pile each size into its own pile
Take the piles of masks and put them under the S, M, L signs on the bed in the production room
Grab a pile and start sewing the inside and outside
Sew them together
Flip it inside out
Respond to text message from friend asking how you are doing
Place sewed mask on bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer depending on the time of day
Restring needle when the thread pops out
Thread bobbin again when it runs out
Grab another pile
Start sewing the inside and outside
Sew them together
Flip it inside out
Place sewed mask on bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Restring needle when the thread pops out
Swear at the sewing machine
Respond to text message from mom telling her what you are doing today
Grab another pile
Start sewing the inside and outside
Sew them together
Flip it inside out
Place sewed mask on bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Thread bobbin again when it runs out
Grab another pile
Respond to FB IM from a stranger asking about a mask
Start sewing the inside and outside
Plug in the iron
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Sew them together
Restring needle when the thread pops out
Swear at the machine
Flip it inside out
Pause to listen to J’s story about the virus today
Place sewed mask on bed
Cool, they’re all done with step one of sewing
Grab a pile
Iron the inside right side
Fold over the right side ear hole and iron
Iron the inside left side
Fold over the left side ear hole and iron
Place face up on bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Repeat until the pile is done
Grab another pile
Turn up the volume on your phone because Trials just came on
Iron the inside right side
Fold over the right side ear hole and iron
Iron the inside left side
Fold over the left side ear hole and iron
Place face up on bed
Get pumped because you just listened to Trials
Repeat until the pile is done
Grab another pile
Iron the inside right side
Fold over the right side ear hole and iron
Iron the inside left side
Fold over the left side ear hole and iron
Place face up on bed
Cool, ironing is done
Grab a pile
What size is it?
Medium
Change thread and bobbin to white or gray
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the right
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the left
Respond to the Daily Vinny text message from Adrienne
Place the finished mask on the bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Repeat until the pile is done
Grab a pile
What size is it?
Large
Change thread and bobbin to a different color other than white or gray
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the right
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the left
Respond to text message from one of the Jensen’s
Place the finished mask on the bed
Take a drink of coffee / water / beer
Repeat until the pile is done
Grab a pile
What size is it?
Small
Change thread and bobbin to a different color other than white or gray and the large size thread
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the right
Sew the ear hole where the elastic will go on the left
Respond to FB IM from a stranger asking about a mask
Place the finished mask on the bed
Repeat until the pile is done
Go eat something
Come back and count how many masks are done
Grab the elastic spool
Stick scissors through the spool and spin some off the spool
Grab the elastic sizer and start cutting elastic pieces and group them into 5 until you are out
Repeat cutting elastic
Fold the elastic and half and cut in the middle
Grab a pile of masks and place it face down on the ironing board with the nose part pointing toward the right
Take a giant safety pin and put the elastic through it
Put the safety pin though the first mask ear hole
Tie the elastic
Repeat the same process on the other side of the mask
Place it on the bed
Ponder if this is the last song from your Dustin Playlist and if it is, holy crap you’ve been working for over 4 hours
Repeat the elastic through the ear holes for about a million more times
Take the finished masks to Zollie’s room and set it down on the coffee table that’s covered with photo backdrop paper
Shine the room light on it and take a picture with your phone
Repeat for any new mask design
Send the photos to your Google Drive
Take all the masks down to the washer
Add soap and set washer to the cold delicate cycle
Set timer on watch to 40 minutes
Go play hockey out in the street with J
When watch timer vibrates, go swap the masks from the washer to the dryer
Set timer on watch to 40 minutes
Download the photos from Google Drive and save them to your folder
Get them into Photoshop and into the Square Space template
Save them in the folder
When watch timer vibrates, it’s time to get the masks out of the dryer
Ok it gets tricky here and I have to think about this carefully every time because it’s the most important step
Open the basement door
Put on basement light
Put on the laundry room light
Open the washer door
Go back upstairs and wash your hands for 30 seconds
Dry them off with paper towels
Throw paper towels away in garbage can with foot opener
Put on disposable gloves and DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING while going back downstairs
Take out one zip lock bag
Take out one mask and fold it
Put it into the bag
Get all the air out of the bag
Seal it up
Put it on the washer
Repeat this until all masks are in zip lock bags
Take off gloves and bring masks upstairs to the distribution center
Mark all bags with S, M, L or XL with permanent ink marker (this is where the thread color comes into play. I know what size they are according to the outside thread)
Line them up according to size and color on the inventory section of the distribution center
Package any that are already claimed in either a bag or a padded envelope
If that’s the case, take a business card and write “Please wash before use” on it and put it in the package
The distribution center consists of business cards, stickers, envelopes, pens, markers, and bags
Make a list of sizes, colors, and quantities of the masks
Update the product listing on website
If it’s a new color, add the product listing on website
Edit website to show the new inventory of masks
Publish website
Open PowerPoint document
Add any new photos of masks to the PowerPoint document
Add the quantity and size to the photos
Update the date on the file
Save the file as a picture
Post to Facebook
Wait for orders
I wrote this process intentionally long because it was a very long process and I wanted you to experience what it took to make batches of masks. I’m happy that I have the skills to make masks. Whether you think they helped or not, this is my story about mask making during our coronavirus quarantine. I’d like to think I helped slow the spread. Hope you enjoyed this segment of my This Damn Virus story. Check back next Wednesday for the next episode!
If you or someone you know needs a mask, please visit my online shop.
Catch up on my story from the beginning. Click here to read the rest of my story.
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