Doing Our Part

Within a 2 days after the mandated shutdown we received a call from Littleton Mask Makers (Facebook Group) who was in need of donations to help assist their community in making masks for the front line healthcare workers. We jumped into offer, beats staying home and we were doing our part.

The Right Thing To Do

At the beginning we donated 100 yards of lining and cut it up into 25 yard cuts, to be distributed to their sewers in the group to make masks and caps. unfortunately this got to be too much for the home sewers.

By the next day I get a text message at 7 am from Kym Davick (Group leader) asking if we had any more fabric to donate , as they received a surge of requests for masks from jails, hospitals and grocers etc.

By mid afternoon, I placed a call with Angles distributing our lining wholesaler. I explained to them our mission and they gave us the lining at case prices and free shipping. I ordered 3 bolts of 75 yards for mask and scrub cap covers.

As we wait for the lining to arrive, Anna goes to work on scrub cap covers as the original design would only fit one size head. As a result, we tested a few ideas and modified the design so it fits all sizes of heads.

Action Plan

As we wait for the lining to arrive we come up with an action plan as to how to facilitate 225 yards for caps & masks. The best solution was for us to precut fast masks & caps into kits and have the Littleton Mask Makers sew them. To help the sewer we created a how to video for scrub caps.

Making It All Happen

To speed cut 980 fast masks & 280 scrub caps we purchased an additional tool, a 3.5″ rotary knife. This allowed us to cut up to 40 layers of fabric in one pass.

Bring It All Together

The yielded was 49 kits of 20 masks and 14 kits of 20 scrub caps. Along with 50 sewn fast masks. All bagged and ready for pickup.

Olson Mask Emerges

Anna searches the web and discovers the Olson Mask. In no time Littleton Mask Makers had requests from hospitals and police stations. The reason they liked the Olson mask was there was a place for filter and it fit tight around the nose and was designed by a nurse and sewed by staff.

Supply Shortage

Dollar stores are a wonderful place to find cheap supplies and resources. Anna being creative stumbled on the nose piece for support and a endless supply of hair ties.

More Demand

The Olson Mask were getting high reviews next thing we know 50 are requested from Littleton Mask Makers in ivory.

The Demand Keeps Coming

The demand for more Olson Masks and Fast Masks in black from local police stations are requested and Denver Homeless Coalition requested 1000 fast masks.

New Funding

Kym Davick from K.D! Designz, Inc. purchased 75 yards of Black lining and 75 yards ivory lining, MODA Antica from the Denver Design Center supplied 268 fabric memo’s , Ona’s Drapery Hardware supplied 6-8 discounted fabric books, and Aneka Interiors shipped in black hair ties.

Making It All Happen

To pull off assembling 840 fast mask kits for the Denver Homeless Coalition, and 340 fast mask kits for police stations and 100 sewn Olson Masks in one day would require a crew of staff & volunteers to pull this off .

Utilizing All The Fabric

There was little waste as we utilized all pieces from the fast masks and caps for the small sections of the Olson mask.

Distributions

280 scrub cap covers, 2,180 fast mask kits, 350 Olson Masks. Seems like a lot, however if you compare the number to the millions of masks the city requested for, it’s nothing. We were glad that we were able to help.

• Littleton Adventist Hospital
• UC Health Anschutz
• UC Health Highlands Ranch
• Skyridge Hospital
• Swedish Medical Denver
• Lone Tree Police Dept
• Arapahoe County PD
• Douglas County PD
• Jefferson and Arapahoe County jail nurses
• Denver Homeless Coalition
• Clients, Family and Vendors

We couldn’t of pulled this off without Littleton Mask Makers!