Surgical Masks Made By Our Chicago Factory
Our Chicago factory is now taking personal orders for masks. You can also donate masks to health care workers in need.
Thank you for helping to keep Sew Precise's seamstresses employed!
Let’s make a difference together - while apart!
This weekend we had an idea that would help solve two problems.
Problem 1) There is a shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) in our healthcare system right now. Many medical systems and facilities have already put out a call for donations of homemade surgical masks.
Problem 2) The amazing factory we work with in Chicago is now closed for a month while all of Illinois is on a statewide shutdown for non-essential businesses, which means paychecks will soon stop for their seamstresses as projects dry up from clients around the country.
However, most of the seamstresses have professional-grade sewing machines at home. While it’s not feasible for them to continue working on large production runs (like, say, the Princess Awesome spring line) from their individual homes, they can definitely work on small projects - like surgical masks.
Here’s our idea: Raise enough money so the factory workers can produce surgical masks at home. Then we could help alleviate the problems in two ways:
Solution 1) Create needed protective gear for our heroic health care workers.
Solution 2) Create work and paychecks for the workers at the Chicago factory.
We wish that we had the funding to do this ourselves. Unfortunately, as a small business in the current difficult economic situation, we just can’t do it entirely on our own.
So here’s the plan: Our factory, Sew Precise, and their dynamic leader, Selvana Ashak, will coordinate the home production of surgical masks, and deliver or ship them to medical facilities in need.
In order to make the logistics work, we needed enough funding to make at least 1,000 masks. We hit that minimum threshold! Yay! Now we're trying to get to 10,000 masks. We told her we think our amazing Princess Awesome & Boy Wonder community is up to the challenge. What do you think? Can we do it?
- Donate the cost of a mask. Each mask is $8 - the cost of materials and labor. No mark-up or profit whatsoever.
- Our factory now has their own site to take personal orders and donations.
Now that we have the funds to make 1,000 masks, Selvana will immediately start on production. She spent the weekend making prototypes and coordinating with her fabric suppliers for contact-free pick-ups.
So, friends, can we do it? Can we get 10,000? Will you help?
We know you will. Thank you so much for your support!
