By Shelly Sommer
An interesting sewing challenge has popped up, to make fabric straps for medical-grade face shields needed by doctors and nurses in Colorado.
Some of you may have seen a news item about make4covid, a network of makers who are manufacturing real PPE for front line health workers in Colorado working directly with COVID patients. The network spun out of Engineering at CU Boulder and they have a goal of producing 10,000 face shields for our doctors and nurses.
And guess what they need to hold on those face shields? Sewn fabric straps!
I’m going to be sewing 50 straps for this project and I’d love you to join me. If you’re interested, we can make our own little network to produce straps over the next couple of weeks. The straps are pretty easy to construct—they’re basically a fabric tube with a bit of elastic inserted and a buttonhole on each end. The other part of the challenge is following some special cleaning and handling procedures (wiping down surfaces and tools w/disinfecting cleaner before starting work, placing in process and completed straps in sealable plastic bags, etc.). They are pretty strict because they’re trying to provide a consistent product made under controlled conditions. But they have a handy worksheet for it and the procedures are easy enough to follow.
If you think you might be up for making some straps, either email me (Shelly’s email is in the member area) or join the network yourself at https://make4covid.mn.co/ (join the “Sewing – Back Strap Team” once you’re in). These shields are going to save some lives and together we can get more of them out to the medical folks who need them.
