Woman Learned To Sew Face Masks She Can Give To Health Workers [Video]

• Giselle keeps an old family heirloom that she never learned how to use — a 1922 Singer sewing machine.
• Good thing her husband knows how to sew and so taught her so they could make face masks.
• Now they have produced more than 450 face masks and they are not stopping just yet!

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Giselle Williams’ great-great-grandmother left their family with a very precious heirloom that has been passed down for generations — a Singer sewing machine. But it’s a little sad to know that she has never learned how to sew. Although that changed when the pandemic happened. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the US and closed many establishments, Giselle’s hairstyling business in Arvada, Colorado, was one of those that got affected. At the same time, she noticed how many people are contributing efforts, like making face masks, to help in the prevention of the virus. She thought she wanted to help too, but how?

Then she remembered they have been keeping a 100-year-old sewing machine — so old, it doesn’t even need electricity! The “Red Eye,” 1922 Singer Model 66,  functions by manually pushing up and down using the sewer’s feet in its pedal.

 But Giselle has never used that. It has been sitting in their guest room as an antique decoration. So this time, she thought it’s time to put it to use. Luckily, her husband is with her on this project and helped in restoring the machine. Then she went on to teach his wife how to operate it. 

Darin’s grandmother was a seamstress and every time he spent summer with her, he made his own hand puppets using fabric scraps. So basically, he knew how to sew. But that was already a very long time ago! Regardless, he taught his wife anyway.

“I haven’t used a sewing machine since my grandmother taught me back in the 1970s,” Darin said. “I looked at this old thing and thought, ‘Well, it’s fundamentally probably the same.’”

They then started making prototypes of the face masks and have since been receiving fabric donations from family, friends, and neighbors, who support their labor of love. Eventually, Giselle became really good at using the manual sewing machine and now they have been distributing face masks to help their community.

The first request they got was from local healthcare workers and an organization that makes sanitizers for frontliners. Then they also provided masks to churches, businesses, and restaurants throughout Colorado. What’s more interesting is they got requests from overseas like Japan and Thailand.

They have already produced more than 450 masks and now, they have a team working to produce more! Meanwhile, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has heard of their good deeds and recognized Darin Williams, who was also with the U.S. Air Force, by making him the spokesperson for the #StillServing campaign.

We can only imagine how proud Giselle’s great-great-grandmother would be. Her legacy is truly old but gold!

Source: Good News Network