East-end woman, 79, sews cloth face masks for friends and family
Nancy Stammler simply couldn’t watch the endless coverage about the coronavirus pandemic and its negative effects around the globe and in her own east-end neighbourhood without doing something.
“I think we’d all go crazy if we didn’t do something,” the 79-yearold Windsorite said.
So Stammler took a seat at her sewing machine — something she’s done “since forever” — and started making cloth face masks, something she had never done before.
“It took me about three or four to get it right,” Stammler said. “I’m doing a different style than the pleated type, these are more fitted.”
She’s not looking to put any dent into the shortage of medical masks health-care workers are struggling with, she’s just trying to give a little comfort to some of the worried seniors in her neighbourhood and to family and friends.
Commercially made surgical masks are designed to filter out tiny virus particles while homemade versions are more porous.
“These are not to the standard of the kind they use for medical reasons, but something is better than nothing,” Stammler said. “I wore one yesterday when I went out, and gloves, too.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection agrees that something is better than nothing. It recommends that health-care providers with no other option should use homemade masks, a scarf or a bandana to provide some protection.
Stammler has already given several to her brother and his family and she made six more before lunch on Wednesday.
“She’s got it down to a science now,” said her daughter, Janis Stammler.
“She is an incredible sewer, and I have to admit, the masks she has made so far are awesome, very professional.”
The hardest part, now that the province has closed all non-essential retail services, is finding material.
Stammler used up all the new cotton fabric she had on hand.
Janis tried a fabric store on the weekend but found the business closed for now.
“That’s the worst part, getting what I need,” Stammler said. “I did find some quilting material that works at Walmart. “
When she ran out of elastic strapping, she improvised using ponytail hair bands from the Dollar Store.
“It works,” she said.