I’ve sewn nearly 10,000 face masks. I never imagined I’d do these 3 things in the process.

Before the quarantine, I didn’t sew often.

I’d sew the occasional curtains or drawstring summer skirt when I was bored one afternoon. My mom taught me to sew as a young child and I’ve always had a sewing machine. I’m in awe of the hundreds of beautiful quilts my mom has made over the years. It’s a part of the business that we own together and that I manage: a quilt retreat center and wedding venue.

When the Covid-19 quarantine and stay-at-home orders took hold, we lost virtually all of our Spring 2020 retreat bookings & weddings in 48 hours. Tens of thousands of dollars were just gone. We were a little panicky and trying to figure out a plan and how long we could last without any bookings. In the last few days of March, I suggested we launch an Etsy shop just for something to do because I’d been getting a lot of requests from local friends for the cotton face masks I was making. Within hours of launching our shop, the demand exploded and sewing masks took over our lives.

It became the best job I didn’t want and couldn’t quit.

In the midst of hours of lost sleep, back pain from sewing all day, weird quarantine meals, and scissor injuries, I’ve reflected on some of the strangest experiences I’ve had as a Coronavirus Mask Maker.

Here are 3 things I never imagined would happen when this all began:

1. I’d witness people giving face masks as gifts for special occasions.

I’ve donated more masks than I could ever count to first responders, senior citizens, essential workers, and community members in need. We’ve sent masks to hospitals all over the US, the domestic violence shelters, to libraries, nursing homes, delivery workers, and the Navajo Nation. The list goes on and on. There has been an incredible effort from crafters and quilters all over the United States to make, donate, and sell handmade masks to people who need them.

What I didn’t expect? Themed masks would become normal, not-weird-at-all gifts for all kinds of special occasions like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, and weddings.

It seems surreal to fulfill a Star Wars printed mask order in my Etsy shop with a gift message that reads, “Congratulations Cuz [Cousin] on your wedding day!” It got stranger when someone bought out our entire supply of child-size Trolls masks for birthday party favors (WHY are you having a party during a pandemic?!). If anything was an indication that masks are here to stay for awhile, this might be it.

2. I got a black market elastic dealer.

You read that right. Within just days of the CDC suggesting that all Americans should wear masks in early April, there was a major elastic shortage. Mask makers got creative with hairbands, T-shirts cut into strips, and other ties of sorts. My mom & I bulk ordered elastic from overseas, from small shops here in the U.S., and anywhere else we could find it, hoping at least one shipment would arrive quickly.

One day, I was standing in line waiting for Joann Fabric & Crafts to open to buy fabric. I had been standing there for about thirty minutes, my latte long gone, and the store still didn’t open for another 15 minutes, when this lady drives up in a nondescript black sedan and parks right in front of the line of a dozen or so customers who were waiting outside the store, six feet apart. The woman gets out and asks, “Does anyone need any elastic?”

I knew I was on the verge of running out due the postal service being delayed. So, taking a deep breath, I said “Sure!” and I bought 10 yards of white and 10 yards of black at her higher-than-normal pandemic prices. I also wrote down her phone number in case I needed more. Just a few days later, all of our elastic was still delayed in the post somewhere, so I called her up and made arrangements to meet up in a little-used county park to get more elastic, risking stay-at-home orders, somewhat sketchy surroundings, and looking like I was part of a drug deal.

3. I would still be sewing masks with no end in sight.

It’s mid-June now and around 10,000 masks have passed through our sewing machines. Some days, I sewed for 13 hours or more. While others in quarantine baked bread and watched Tiger King, we were making pandemic playlists containing such songs as Staying Alive and One is the Loneliest Number. Sewing all day also goes really well with podcasts, so it’s with a little bit of embarrassment that I say I’ve binge-listened all the seasons of Crime Junkie, Unexplained Mysteries, and about a dozen other science & history pods. I have learned (thanks Youtube) how to replace belts and donuts and completely disassemble, oil, and clean my sewing machine.

I haven’t gone more than one day without sewing in nearly three months.

At first we were in disbelief, saying, “Oh this, will be a great story about how we sewed one thousand masks,” and, “this probably won’t last more than a couple of weeks.” None of us anticipated being in a pandemic and there wasn’t a lot we could do to prepare for it as the long days of sewing and quarantine set in. Could we have stopped at any time? Yes. Did we think about it? Often. But our little Etsy shop saved our other business, gave us something to do during the Covid-19 quarantine, and also brought us together for countless hours of face-timing, sewing machines humming loudly in the background.