It would hardly be surprising if Florence Vatkin fell asleep these days dreaming of the gentle rumble of her sewing machine, which itself is racking up the mileage with every cloth face mask that runs through it.
Earlier this month, the owner of Caba’s Quilting Cottage in Grand Forks received a mass order from Interfor: 2,000 cloth masks required to help protect employees at several of its mills.
Previously, Vatkin said, her largest bulk order was “a couple dozen swimsuits.”
“I’m used to getting an order and getting it out,” Vatkin said in an interview during a brief pause from her 16-hour sewing shift on April 16. “But I somehow didn’t realize 2,000 was this much.”
“This much,” meaning approximately 200 metres of fabric, even longer lengths of elastic, segments of wire and marathon work days for herself, her partner (the designated elastic cutter) and sewers Wendy Emerson and Laura Jean Cuthbert, whom Vatkin hired on special to complete the project.
Within eight days of receiving the order from Interfor, the team had seen 500 masks of various patterns fly off the line.
“I have to make sure I have enough stuff ready for the girls to come pick up,” Vatkin said. “I’m trying to always stay a step ahead of them.”
The masks themselves are no slap-dash creations, either. Vatkin said that she played with several patterns before settling on one that she discovered online, recommended by a hospital in Wisconsin. While they’re a one-size-fits-all design (save for the few small ones that were entirely accidental, only made that size because the elastic was cut too short), they’re still versatile for a range of face shapes.
“It’s very close to the face, it’s tight and it has a pocket where they could insert a filter,” Vatkin said, in evaluating her pattern choice. The masks also have an adjustable wire across the bridge of the nose which can be bent to help create as snug of a fit as possible against the wearer’s face.
Earlier this month, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry endorsed the personal use of non-medical cloth masks but warned against trusting them to protect the wearer from getting infected themselves.
“As Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, has explained, a non-medical cloth mask or face covering can help you keep your own droplets out of the air and off surfaces,” Dr. Henry said in a press release. “Choosing to wear such a face covering is like coughing or sneezing into a tissue or your sleeve.”
At Interfor, workers wearing the masks will instead be taking an extra step to ensure that they don’t spread their own germs to colleagues. Safety coordinator Darrell Whelan said that for the moment, wearing a mask will be a voluntary decision from staff, but will be advised when social distancing is not possible. He said that the company is also looking into using face shields for such situations.
As of April 16, Whelan said that masks had been shipped to the company’s mills in Delta and Chase, B.C.
The initial plan, said Whelan, was to source masks from the communities around those mills, but he said that the company couldn’t find enough capacity. So, at the recommendation of a local Interfor employee, Whelan brought the titanic ask to his neighbour whom he’d previously visited to repair a coat.
“I’d say she’s a godsend for us,” Whelan said of Vatkin.
“When they said, ‘How long will it take?’ I had no idea,” the 40-year business owner recalled. “I was hoping we could give more, but keeping the quality control as well, it’s not as fast,” Vatkin said. At their current pace, Vatkin and her team are outpacing what they originally said they could provide for Interfor.
“Whoever though little old Grand Forks would be supplying masks all over the place?” Vatkin said.
In the meantime, she’s been fielding calls for smaller mask orders from other locals, but every time, she’s having to turn them down for the time being. The tough part is that she can’t even help get people the materials they need, because elastic is running low world-wide and Vatkin’s already been told by her supplier that she won’t be able to get any more until at least the end of May.
She’s still got the fabric though and hasn’t had to dip into her rose or butterfly designs yet (upon request from employees), and her own seams are still together, partway through the mask marathon.
“It’s only been a week,” Vatkin joked. “Talk to me a month from now.”
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