CARSTAIRS – Carstairs seamstress Lorna Grossklaus has really being doing her part to keep residents and other Albertans safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting in March, she has been sewing adult, young and child non-medical face masks in her Carstairs workshop, with the coverings going to local and area residents, businesses and elsewhere.
“A lot of them have been for customers, friends and families,” said Grossklaus.
To date, she has produced more than 1,400 of the 100 per cent cotton masks.
“I can make about 50 in a day,” she said from her workshop.
As well as making masks for local and area people, she has also supplied many face coverings to staff at the Calgary International Airport.
“One of the ladies there was trying to find sources for all the security guards at the airport, so I’ve made mask for all of those people,” she said.
The Canadian Malt Company also just took 300, she noted.
She started the masking-making project after a request from a few local people, she explained.
“It was probably at the beginning of March that some of my regular customers started asking me if I could make masks,” she said. “That’s when they first starting asking. The original request came from people in Carstairs.”
She got the pattern for the masks from the World Health Organization’s website.
“I use 100 per cent cotton because that’s what they recommend,” she said.
She has been selling the masks at cost.
“I didn’t think it was something that, with what is going on, that people should make a killing off of,” she said. “I feel right with this.”
Asked why she undertook the massive sewing project, she said, “I have a lot of high-risk people that I’m around, including regular customers who have been going through cancer treatment and different things like that. They asked if I would make them and I said OK.”
Grossklaus has been a professional seamstress for almost 40 years.
“I took the 4-H clothing club for a few years and the rest has been self taught,” she said.
Asked if she plans to continue making the masks for the foreseeable future, she said, “As long as people are wanting them I’ll keep doing it.”
Anyone interested in getting masks can call her at 403-337-3804.