I can guarantee that everybody at the CDC and FDA that’s been telling you not to buy masks since January has a closet filled with boxes of them at home.
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Cloth masks? I’ll be very interested to see if this works.
In my opinion it won’t, not unless at least coupled with a visor. But I don’t begrudge anyone for trying it.
If it does work I’ll advise everyone I know in the UK to follow suit.
This is pretty cool! I love when Americans decide to be contributing when options run out. You innovate! This is what America is all about, chipping in to help out!
https://twitter.com/Teresa_Varley/status/1246115444156760068?s=20
PITTSBURGH – When the COVID-19 pandemic halted plans to finish her spring collection, Kiya Tomlin decided to do something else with her sewing machines.
Tomlin, the wife of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, is a clothing designer in Pittsburgh, and opted to pass the time during the shelter-in-place order by making cloth masks to donate to local hospitals.
But what started as almost a side project is now a full-blown operation with her and her four team members working to churn out at least 500 masks a week from their homes.
“When I started it, I was like, we couldn’t finish our spring collection, so when we’re sitting at home doing nothing, we can sew this until it’s time to go back to work,” Tomlin told ESPN on Friday. “I didn’t realize how fast and big the demand was going to be where now we have to deliver. Masks can be made. We make masks now.”
Tomlin got the idea three weeks ago when someone sent her a Rachel Maddow tweet that highlighted a hospital in Evansville, Indiana, asking people to sew their own masks and donate them to the hospital. The hospital attached a pattern of a CDC-compliant cloth mask to help people learn how to sew them.
When Tomlin saw the tweet, she contacted the Allegheny Health Network and asked whether it would be interested in cloth masks. When the hospital network said it would gladly accept the cloth masks to give to hospital support staff to free up more protective equipment for the doctors and nurses on the front line, Tomlin got to work. She first used the cotton fabric she had and made a run to Walmart to grab a little more. Then, she and her team members ordered bolts from JOANN Fabrics for the next round, including 400 yards of white cotton for the interior layer of the masks
JOANN also donated fabric to Tomlin, and she collected another giant bag of donated quilting cotton from a man who had leftovers from his wife and dropped them off at her workshop.
“I didn’t think we would need donations, but we would happily take fabric donations,” Tomlin said.
Initially, Tomlin wanted to make N95 masks, but she quickly realized those had to be specifically manufactured. So she and her team started out making double-walled cotton masks with two pleats and elastic for the ears. Recently, they switched up the design to add a pocket for filters or other protective material like blue shop towels.
“If you don’t have anything anything to put in there, it’s still the basic two-ply cotton mask,” Tomlin said. “I’m not a scientist or have the FDA/CDC testing for shop towels, but I think people are going to start getting creative and we’re going to design a mask that allows them to do that.”
Because they had to wait for the fabric and elastics to arrive, the group made 300 masks the first week. They were on track, though, to hit the 500 mark in the second week.
Tomlin said each mask takes about eight minutes to make on her home sewing machine – equipment that’s a little less efficient than the industrial machines at her workshop. Even so, her goal is to produce 50 masks per day, and she’s even getting help from her daughter when she’s not doing online classes.
“We’re so used to using the industrial machines that it’s a little bit of a transition to go back to using a home machine,” Tomlin said. “When you use an industrial machine, a lot of it is automatic, like the thread clipping or the lifting of the levers with a knee. It’s like a full body experience. As opposed to the home machine where everything is on top of the table.”
While Mike Tomlin works from his home office, the two have a pair of sewing machines set up on the kitchen table and keep the masks stacked on the corner of a counter when they’re not working.
“The kitchen table is my home office,” Kiya Tomlin said. “That is my factory. I cook dinner and get on the machine while I preheat the oven.”
In addition to making drop-off donations for local Pittsburgh hospitals, Tomlin also ships masks to hospitals in Cleveland and New York.
And, with the new government guidance telling all people to wear cloth masks outside, Tomlin plans to start selling packs of masks on her website with the proceeds going to buying more fabric to make the masks.
“To me, I think, ‘Well there’s so many people that sew,’ and then I guess I realized there’s really not so many that sew anymore. I think everybody’s going to make their own, but there’s going to be a large population of people that can’t or don’t want to and would prefer to buy them.”
I started using masks a month ago. I don’t trust the media or the government. If everyone wore a facemask the spread would be under control. Spreaders with no symptomes would not spread. The virus stays suspended in the air for three hours.
I hope no one wears any of those masks that her and her staff are handling without gloves and are breathing all over. She should get locked up for trying to make people sick.
What about a plastic bag over your head? Tight at the neck. Seriously, you don’t tempt fate; but you don’t stop living either.
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This is BS! A mask can’t stop it. Masks can only stop up to 1 micron size particles. A virus is 100nm - meaning it’s 1000 times smaller than 1 micron.
Why? Because she is black?
What? No. Because items worn in a hospital have to be sanitary.
Well, you can’t decide that if there is shortage of masks, you make do in desperate times. Besides how do you know that they are not clean?
How do I know they aren’t clean? Because masks that are used in hospitals are created in sterile environments. If her or any of her staff are asymptomatic and making these masks then they might as well be handing out smallpox blankets.
Right, but why are you ignoring the fact that there is a shortage of masks and you make do? Also you are making a wild Guess here that you know she is asymptomatic? Sorry, but your argument here doesn’t hold much weight when considering the facts and the circumstances.
Actually, the emotional argument you are making doesn’t hold any water. Having a shortage of masks does not mean our healthcare workers should be put at risk unnecessarily by wearing cloth masks made by some random person who is not making a clean and sterile product. I clearly see that you liked the feel-good aspect of this story but how you “feel” about this doesn’t matter.
This girl is retarded and is just doing this for the attention. No hospital in their right mind would accept these.
Emotional ? Yeah ok. You do know that masks are not intended to protect you from contracting the virus right? Let’s see how much you know ok? You are the one making the ridiculous comparison to small pox which that in of itself is just exposing your conflating the issue. If you have no masks then what do you do? Wait until you get sterile masks while people die? Your premise here is silly. In desperate times you innovate and do what you can.
Really? How do you know that? BTW this is not a girl this is a grown woman and wife of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
Because I read the entire article that you decided to spam in this thread.
Spam? You mad because I posted an article of a black women trying to contribute something to the cause? It’s related and I thought it was a positive story. Is it because you are looking for something negative to feast on and now you are disappointed?
What the fuck is wrong with you? Stop with your race baiting bullshit. Yeah - this article is feel-good nonsense promoting some idiot who just wants to sell masks on her website. If you want to suck her dick so bad then go buy her masks and shut the fuck up.
Disgusting. Could you imagine having to breathe in the scent of months worth of nasty fried chicken oil for an 8 to 12 hour shift?