Northwest Arkansas groups step up for mask making

Locals give time, talents to protect community

Jennifer McClory, TheatreSquared's wardrobe supervisor, started the process of making a fitted mask.
Jennifer McClory, TheatreSquared's wardrobe supervisor, started the process of making a fitted mask.

Health care professionals faced a shortfall of the face coverings they need to protect themselves at work before the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended cloth masks be worn by everyone in public during the covid-19 pandemic.

The need has spurred Northwest Arkansas businesses, nonprofit and small groups to respond.

One of them is the nonprofit group TheatreSquared, where the stage went dark in the middle of the run of the one-woman bio-play Ann. Its costumers turned their attention to making masks on TheatreSquared's dime.

"It's a difficult time for so many, and we have deep respect and gratitude for the medical community as they care for our neighbors and put the public first," Executive Director Martin Miller said.

At the forefront of the effort are Ruby Kemph, the theater's costume shop manager and resident designer, and Jennifer McClory, the company's wardrobe supervisor. They're using stock from the storage closets along with donations of cotton fabric from friends of the theater.

"The pleated masks we are making are stitched with the same care and precision we put into our costumes and are designed to work over an N95 mask," Kemph said. "We want to extend the working life of those masks that are in the shortest supply."

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Most of the 150-plus masks, which can also serve as a standalone fabric face covering, have gone to Washington Regional Medical Center.

"We are so grateful for the community's support," said Iris Berry, a nurse in the emergency department at Washington Regional. "These donated fabric masks help us protect our standard masks and can be used by our nonclinical staff and visitors."

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said last week he plans to comply with the recommendations for all individuals to wear masks when in public and unable to maintain a 6-foot distance from others. He encouraged Arkansans to wear masks of their own and to think of the move as "Arkansas Fashion Week."

TheatreSquared has also been distributing masks for use by postal and delivery workers, as well as its employees, their families and their extended artistic network. On Thursday, the seamstresses added Butterfield Trail Village retirement complex in Fayetteville to their delivery list.

Up the road in Eureka Springs, Mark Hughes has set his Regalia Handmade Clothing business aside and started an assembly line of volunteers sewing masks. He said it hit him as he was trying to schedule his spring trunk show in Little Rock this wasn't the time for high-end handmade clothing.

It was, however, the time when his sewing skills could come together with supplies for his current clothing lines and material he'd "hoarded" from 30 years ago when he had a costume shop in Little Rock.

"I always wanted to use up those three rolls of elastic," he said.

Eureka Springs T-shirt businesses donated misprinted shirts, quilters donated stashes of fabric and seamstresses donated their time to make the masks. Hughes said at the height of the production line, he had 35 to 40 names on his list of those who had given supplies and probably a dozen seamstresses sewing.

The first 125 masks went to the hospital in Eureka Springs, he said, and "we zipped right through that order in a couple of days." As the process smoothed out, cutters prepared the fabric, Hughes and his partner, Steve Beacham, assembled the parts in zipper bags and handed off to the sewers, who made the masks and threw the bags filled with completed masks over Hughes' back fence so they could be washed immediately and then individually bagged.

Those bags are hung on a clothesline on Hughes' front porch so Eurekans can come by and pick up what they need.

"We've kind of hit a groove now," he said. "We don't run out by 1 or 2 o'clock anymore."

Hughes resisted taking cash donations, but he finally put out a box where visitors can leave a dollar or two. He said he'll keep part of the money to pay for the material he pulled out of his own stock and find places to donate the rest. He hasn't opened the donation box. He's too busy making masks, he said, with more than 1,300 distributed so far.

Another business in Fayetteville is selling the masks it's making, providing employment for sewers who might not otherwise be able to work.

Lou Sharp started Olive Loom in 2011. After her daughter joined the sewing business, they developed products that could be created by seamstresses -- she calls them "loomineers" -- in their own homes.

"Kind of like a cottage industry," she said. "And there weren't a lot of jobs back then."

When Sharp realized the demand for fabric masks as covid-19 came closer to Northwest Arkansas, she shifted gears.

"They still sew at home," she said. "We do all the cutting and ordering of fabric, put it in kits, we deliver it to their homes, and when they're through, we pick it up."

University of Arkansas students helped make training videos, and by Monday, Sharp said, her team of 20-some sewers will have made some 4,000 masks -- all the while making $10-$15 an hour for their work. She sells the masks for $8 to $13 and donates a mask for every five sold. Clients have included health care facilities, poultry plants and buyers in other states who have found Olive Loom's website.

Seamstresses who want to join a mask-making effort can do so through the Arkansas Arts & Fashion Forum, the nonprofit sister organization to NWA Fashion Week.

"We were founded in 2017 with a mission of increasing educational opportunities around fashion and design in Arkansas, to support Arkansas-based designers and to incubate the fashion industry here," said Robin Atkinson, Fashion Week CEO and creative director.

"In the last year, we have begun programming focused on the localization of small batch sewn goods manufacturing."

Atkinson said she and her friends knew masks were needed, and they put out a call for volunteers on March 20.

"We literally just announced to our audience and volunteers came pouring in," she said.

As of Tuesday, Atkinson's crew had delivered 1,200 masks to more than 22 clinics and hospitals. Public servants can request masks free of charge at the website, arkansasfashion.org/masks, or purchase one for personal use, which ensures another mask donated by the seamstress, she said.

Volunteers are invited to visit the website or email contact@arkansasfashion.org to learn how to help.

"Anyone with the pattern, materials and skill set are encouraged to get involved," she said.

photo

TheatreSquared seamstresses have been making both fitted masks and pleated masks. The pleated ones (pictured) can be worn over N95 masks to extend their longevity. (Courtesy Photo)

NW News on 04/11/2020

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