and you and the world. Covid 2020, the world shifted on it axis and 100s of thousands of persons lost their lives. While we are learning how to live with Covid I look back over the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 and I am grateful and also pissed off. I lost my father in this time. It was not due to Covid but, it was due to his lose of "Hope". For him the thought of never being able to touch his loved ones again caused his loss of hope and in turn the end of his life, in my opinion.
But Sewing Saved Me .... and many of you! If you have followed me you would know that I am a Co-Founder of the organization - The Sewing Labs. This is a community sewing center here in Kansas City which teaches the legacy of sewing as a vocational job skill and for personal enrichment. When Covid closed down the world in March 2020 the sewing world got busy. And that included The Sewing Labs (TSL). We just started on Day #1 - making kits for masks to protect our community from Covid. We didn't even hesitate. We had fabric, elastic and interfacing. We had an active group of "safe-at-home" sewists that wanted to help their neighbors and community. So TSL made kits, created a drive thru drop off/pick up system, collaborated and partnered with other companies and organizations in the community. Why you ask? Because that is what a good neighbor does!!!! Funny we didn't even think twice... we just did it.
If you remember back when Covid started supply chains dried up fast because there was not importing or exporting going on in the world. We were all on lock down. No one knew how to control the virus so we sheltered at home. There was a world-wide "Covid Vacation". Well at TSL we did not have a vacation we got busy. In the first weeks, we took every piece of cotton fabric from the donated stash and put together kits. We were lucky we had a few rolls of the right elastic and interfacing. You see TSL is generously supplied with donations from the community of sewists from Kansas City and the surrounding areas. So TSL had a stash! We developed a pattern and instructions. Our staff, who could not teach due to lock down, kept their jobs and we worked together to make kits for making masks.
I want to stop here and say that picking the right pattern for mask making became a political uprising. TSL partnered with We Care KC and others. To get masks into the world!!!! There were so many opinions of what is the best mask or the best fabric and everyone was generous and researching and praying that we would get it right. But, honestly, we all were just doing our best with what we knew.
And sew it began.... Quickly we were running out of supplies, but not out of volunteer sewists. At one point there were over 200 safe-at-home sewists in the pipeline that would sew masks. Masks were in kits of 12 with everything needed. We had church groups and guilds, old and young sewists. While is was a scary time for the world, these sewists did not hesitate to serve their community.
Each Tuesday and Thursday - we hosted a drive thru service. Kits were packed and ready in totes. Staff and volunteers would mask up and glove up and man the drive thru. As cars pulled up we asked them to open their trunks or back windows so that we could drop their kits into the vehicle without coming in close contact with them. We recorded the kits going out and coming back. But, encouraged them each to keep as many as they needed for their own family and neighbors. Between the drive thru we packaged kits and left them in quarantine before pick up. We didn't know if that helped but, we knew it didn't hurt.
Supplies were quickly being used up. But, our sewing community saved us. Missouri Star Quilt Company out of Hamilton Missouri jumped in and sent of 10 cases of fabrics. This was about 1000 pounds of fabric or about 4000 yards ( this is a guesstimate) The first of many shipments from them. Individual sewists, donated their stash or ordered fabric and had it directly sent. FabriQuilt in North Kansas City donated hundreds of yards of fabric. These amazing partners allowed TSL to continue to make masks. Interfacing was our filter and it too was quickly gone. There was none at the local fabric store to be acquired. Weave Gotcha Covered! & Sacred Stitches, the TSL origin sponsor, donated a roll of interfacing that they used in their products and also the connection so more could be purchased. Each roll was 100 yards and that equals 1000s of masks. Elastic was the next item needed. The supply chains for elastic quickly were used up and magically TSL received a call from a unnamed woman. She asked if we could use some elastic? YES!!! was the answer. She brought rolls and rolls of hundreds of yards. Exactly what was needed. Although she is anonymous to us, to this day, her story of where she got the elastic is a paradox that leads me to believe that there is a greater good looking out for us all. She had cases and cases of elastic that she gave away to the community for masks. You see her husband worked for a company that had closed down before the pandemic and they had stockpiles of the elastic that was being thrown out. She told her husband not to throw it out but bring it home and she would find a use for it. HA! Did she ever. And here is the bizarre fact. The company that closed down was a manufacturer of ...... masks. Let that soak in.
We also had Cy Young Seating step up and do bulk cutting of kits items. They could stack 10 layers at a time and cut into the sized needed for kits. Individuals donated printing of the instructions. Blessing and helping hands sprung up.
It was truly an act of community and sacrifice of ones time and talent for the greater good. And the masks were redistributed to the "essential workers" to hospitals, to senior centers, to the public bus system and more. Anyone who needed masks would contact TSL and be added to the list to get their masks needs filled. There were masks for schools when they reopened, for indigenous groups and church groups. All given away FREE of charge. Over the 2020 and 2021 years TSL made kits and redistributed over 75,000 masks. Thanks to the safe-at-home community of sewists. Sewing Saved us all!
The industry of sewing was given a "RE-Birth". People who hadn't sewn for years dusted off their sewing machines. Many of the machines didn't work and so they either took them in for repair or bought new ones. Sewing machine repairs were backed up to over 10 weeks. Sewing machine sales were SOLD OUT and with supply chains stopped or slowed to a snails pace. Everyone was looking for a "Sewist" to be on their Zombie Apocalypse team. If you could sew, you were in great demand. I believe it brought back a new admiration of the skills of sewing. Sewing was saving us all.
I wish I had written down these stories as they happened because there were so many more amazing acts of community during Covid. It think that everyone benefits from the reflection of revisiting what we survived and to have gratefulness. Many of the safe-at-home sewist shared that they don't think they would have made it through those months if they had not been sewing. They were so busy sewing, that they were distracted from the uncertainty in the world. Sewing kept their hope alive.
We have made it through those horrible days. While Covid is still an evil in the world, we are learning how to control it. But let's now take sewing for granted again. First, I believe that sewing is a life skill that everyone should know or appreciate. And when I mean appreciate, to respect the skill and mastery that it takes to be a sewists. Sewing is a skill that takes as much time and practice as a carpenter or plumber or mechanic, possibly a doctor or lawyer, yet is underpaid in comparison. We take if for granted because it is primarily a skill held by women or supplied by a foreign workforce.
Pay sewists for their experience not for their time.
Thank you for being part of the greater community!
Linnca
