By JACK FICHTER/Sentinel staff
With a nationwide shortage of masks for medical personnel treating coronavirus patients and Cape Regional Medical Center last week asking for the public’s help in obtaining masks and coverall suits, local women with a talent for sewing are making them at home.
Karen Bohme, of North Wildwood, dropped off two dozen masks made of fabric that can be washed at Cape Regional Medical Center on March 27. She said the hospital provided her with a bag of poly material to make more masks.
“The only issue everybody around here is having is the fact that we can’t find elastic; it’s all sold out,” Bohme said.
She said the owner of a sewing machine store believed a shipment of elastic could arrive next week. Elastic is available online but at a high price, Bohme said. In the meantime, Bohme is using bias tape to produce ties for the masks.
Jess Brown of Brown Jewelers has also been making masks, she said.
“We’re just trying to help and see what we can do,” Bohme said.
She found a template online for a semi-oval mask that can fit over an N95 mask.
“What this does is it gives that some extra protection, so that they last longer,” Bohme said. “And these can be thrown in the washer.”
A template with pleats takes three times longer to make and the mask she is making covers more of the wearer’s face.
“It goes up over the nose and down to the chin and I think it actually covers better,” Bohme said.
She said she can make a mask in about 10 minutes.
“I was trying to do it assembly-line style where you sew all the one seam first, do them all and then start putting them together,” Bohme said. “They are actually very easy to do. I was quite pleased at the way they came out. I hoping they’re going to work for the hospital.”
Bohme has been sewing since she was 7 years old and had plenty of fabric in her home. She said she used a cotton fabric that was breathable and washable.
The poly material provided to her by the hospital has a plastic feel to it, she said.
West Cape May resident and artist Barbara Hoepp said she became interested in sewing masks after watching a report on MSNBC detailing the shortage of protective equipment for medical workers. She posted her interest to help on Facebook to a group of artist friends.
Marge Chandler, Gina Fullerton, Carol Suero and Heidi Cummings responded and offered her fabric. Hoepp said Chandler and Fullerton cut masks from cotton fabric and Suero provided her with flannel sheets to make linings.
“I just put it out there that I needed more elastic and Kate from the store Miss Demeanor just sent me over enough elastic to last a lifetime,” she said. “She and her daughter are making them, so she ordered a whole lot of elastic.”
Hoepp made 20 masks and gave them to the Cape May Food Pantry to safeguard volunteers delivering food.
“These are not for medical personnel; they haven’t been sanitized,” she said.
At least four videos are available online with instructions of how to sew masks, Hoepp said. She said the activity director of a nursing home asked for masks because the non-nursing personnel must wear masks when in the presence of the residents.
“I can make 21 at a time,” Hoepp said.
A friend in New York asked if she could make masks for social workers that work with the homeless in that city.
Hoepp receives cut fabric, cuts lining for the masks, measures and cuts elastic and then sews it together. Producing 21 masks takes about three hours, she said.
“What I found so interesting is I have two sisters who both know how to sew. It was part of what you did in my house. — my mother was a dressmaker. So I sent my sisters the pattern on Monday without any comment,” she said. “They’re making them, too.”