The demand for cloth masks has been quite astonishing. Since our order form went live, we received orders for almost 500 individual masks. This includes about 150 masks that are donations directly to medical professionals. We are cutting, pressing, sewing and washing masks as quickly as we can.

While Facebook and Instagram will have more up to the minute updates, we wanted to take a moment to post here as well. Wherever you choose to follow us, we want to make sure you get all the information and status of your masks.

We are working in batches as all the masks have to be washed before we ship them. We have had the first few batches ship in the past couple days. We expect to have a significant amount completed this weekend, with the goal of being 80-90% done by the end of the coming week. If we can hit that goal, we will start taking new orders again.

To the left is a time-lapse video of Ruth sewing masks through the first stage. It is at this point that ties are attached and the inner and outer fabrics are seamed together. This time-lapse covers about 45 minutes of actual time and the assembly of about 27 masks.

After this initial assembly, the masks have to be turned so they are right-side-out. Then they get pressed before pleating and top-stitching.

The time-lapse video on the right shows the next steps: pressing and pleating. This video makes two hours’ worth of work look like a breeze.

After the masks are pleated, they get another quick zip through the machine to stitch all those pleats in place. Then the nose wire is sewn in place and all the masks go in the wash.

Masks get a final ironing before being packed up to ship.