Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused global supply issues with surgical face masks for hospital workers, officials from local health care organizations discouraged home seamstresses from donating their own hand-sewn crafts.
Early in the pandemic, two local Facebook group pages were launched, each with several hundred who volunteered to sew cloth masks for area health care workers. The largest group, Project Masks: Southern California COVID-19 Mask Making, reached more than 400 .
Project Masks page founder Emily Pritts Tournet, who runs Boho Fabrics in San Diego, said she started the page because her mother works as an intensive care unit nurse back East and their staff was worried about running out of supplies if virus cases spiraled out of control.
Pritts Tournet said she was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of local sewers who stepped up to help the cause. Although she understood many hospital workers would not be allowed to wear the hand-sewn masks, she hoped the group’s handiwork could be distributed to others, like non-medical employees and patients, who would like an extra layer of protection.
She said her group fielded numerous requests from local nurses as well as from hospitals in small towns like Barstow and Arrowhead that were desperate for supplies.
La Mesa seamstress Cheri Robertson, a member of Project Masks, said she sewed about 40 face masks over one weekend. She said she’s among an army of “Rosie the Riveter”-type women in San Diego County who were eager to step up and help their country in a time of need.
Another sewing-based Facebook group, Uniting with Homemade Masks — San Diego County, amassed more than 280 early in the pandemic. It coordinated with the logistics group page Masks for Covid, to find organizations that could use their hand-sewn items and reduce confusion over what could be donated and where.
Seamstress Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski, who runs the Barrio Logan tailoring studio Sew Loka, made hundreds of masks, including an order from the Alpha Project bridge shelter not far from her studio. She also received numerous requests for masks from nurses and grocery workers.
“I never thought that something that I love to do would become such an essential thing,” said Rodriguez-Biezunski, who offered the masks for free on her Instagram page. She got started when she heard that stores and hospitals were running low on face masks and she decided to make them to at least give people some peace of mind.
Rodriguez-Biezunski said making the masks was therapeutic and gave her a sense of purpose. She said there were times when she worried about what is happening, especially because she doesn’t have health insurance.
“The sewing community has really come together … it’s really cool to see that,” said Rodriguez-Biezunski. “I’m a small-business owner, so it’s very difficult for me to say, ‘let me donate money.’ So this is my sense of contribution … I can donate my time.”
Among the North County seamstresses who stepped up to help was 15-year-old Mia Linson of Carlsbad. In less than a week, the La Costa Canyon High School sophomore sewed 75 cloth masks and planned to keep sewing every day as long as the need remained.
“I just want everyone who’s able to start sewing and making masks and doing what they can to help. It’s a huge issue right now. For the well-being of others, I hope people will help out.”
Mia’s dream is to become an oncologist like her dad, Dr. Patrick Linson at the Scripps MC Anderson Cancer Center. He was the one who told her about the shortage of N95 masks and she took it upon herself to pull out her sewing machine, hunt down some patterns online and get to work.
At the outset of the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was open to the idea of homemade masks “in settings where facemasks are not available,” though the public health authority said they should be used “as a last resort” and were not technically considered personal protective equipment.
Officials with local health care systems said that they could not use the hand-sewn cloth items because they don’t meet the safety standards required for hospital care. However, they welcomed donations for some items, such as professional-grade, unused surgical and N95 masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment to help stock up for future needs.
Jennifer Dailard, a senior communications specialist for Kaiser Permanente, said that as a large, integrated company, Kaiser was able to shift resources from facility to facility to balance supplies as needed.
“We’re not in need of any handcrafted masks. But I’m echoing all health organizations when I say the best way to aid our health care workers is to stay home and observe that quarantine,” Dailard said during the early pandemic. “If you’re doing that and making homemade masks for other organizations, that’s fantastic.”
