The Mask Making Maven

By Jill Cousins

Like most women of my generation, I learned how to sew in home economics classes, both in junior and senior high school. I’ve always liked sewing – embroidery, cross-stitch, knitting, etc. – and I learned how to use a sewing machine at age 12. But when I started seeing posts on Facebook about women making masks to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was skeptical of my own ability to do the same.

Yes, I had a sewing machine in my Winter Springs home, but it had been years since I used it. When my friend, Maitland resident Laura Cohn, posted in early April on Facebook that she had joined a local mask-making group and was looking for more volunteers to join her, I immediately responded... telling her I had fabric scissors and would be honored to cut out the patterns.

I gathered all the reusable shopping bags I could find (the best nonmedical grade material) and began cutting out masks. But in the back of my mind, it was nagging me. I should be sewing masks, not just cutting fabric. So, I called Laura and asked her to show me how to sew the masks, and after her five-minute FaceTime tutorial, I was on my way.

I joined the Orlando Face Mask Strong group about a week later, and within a month, I had sewn 100 masks that were donated to the local healthcare community, in addition to a couple dozen masks for family and friends. Less than a week later, I received an invitation from another friend, Jill Goldsmith, to join a group she created called The Jewish Pavilion Mask Challenge, which was making masks for residents and employees at elder-care communities.

Laura and Jill, both fellow members of my synagogue, the Congregation of Reform Judaism, were such an inspiration to me. I was also motivated by the memory of my twin sister Andrea, an excellent seamstress who died of cancer at 28. I actually used thread from her old sewing box to stitch together these masks, and that warms my heart.

Jill, in fact, is a lifelong seamstress, who began making one-of-a-kind fabric and vinyl handbags after her recent retirement. When the pandemic started, she took a look at her stash of fabric and realized she could make home-sewn masks. After a talk with her sewing buddy, Deana Schott, who was making masks for seniors in her neighborhood, Jill was inspired to help seniors in the Jewish community served by The Jewish Pavilion.

Jill got the green light from Pavilion director Nancy Ludin, who emailed the directors of the facilities her agency serves. Within two minutes, she had requests for more than 400 masks. To date, Jill has personally sewn nearly 300 masks, for both the Pavilion and for friends. She received help from several friends who made masks, cut and washed fabric, and donated elastic. Jill even put together mask-making kits for some of  her volunteers.

“I envisioned this group to be a repository of all things mask-making for other sewers who wanted to make masks or help The Jewish Pavilion seniors,” says Jill, who lives in Altamonte Springs with husband Pete Johnson. “Our motto during this time has been, ‘We can, so we do!’”

Orlando Face Mask Strong

Laura, whose husband Rick is a local ophthalmologist, started her mask endeavor in mid-March. She had purchased thousands of dollars worth of masks for her husband’s office and ended up donating most of them to local nurses who were working in hospitals in dire need of masks. At the same time, Laura began making face shields for the staff at her husband’s office, as well as local healthcare workers.

After seeing a Facebook post by a friend who was sewing masks for Orlando Face Mask Strong, Laura immediately got on board. She even got assistance from Rick, who helped with pickup and delivery duties and even created a mask pleating tool out of cardboard and duct tape. Laura estimates she has made more than 150 masks, which she says is “small potatoes” compared to some of the group’s fabulous volunteers.

“Orlando Face Mask Strong was an amazingly organized group, considering it was thrown together in a couple of weeks,” says Laura, who learned to sew at age 16 but hadn’t done much sewing for the past 20 years. “Making masks to help healthcare workers really helped my mental health during our lockdown time. It gave me comfort to know I was doing something productive and something that was vitally needed.”

I felt the same way. And I know my twin sister and my home ec teachers would be proud.