- In Lyon, seamstresses and designers are running their sewing machines at full speed to create fabric material in the face of the shortage of masks in France.
- "20 Minutes" contacted two of these Lyonnaises who are participating in this gesture of national solidarity intended for carers and individuals.
In her apartment in Croix-Rousse where she used to create, Zélia Smith did not take long to find an idea to occupy her confinement. For fifteen days, this 31-year-old Lyonnaise, costume designer at the Lyon Opera and creator of multiple textile works, has embarked on the design of fabric masks. "It is a solution for troubleshooting in an extreme situation", underlines the young embroiderer, aware that a fabric material does not provide the same protection as the FFP2 masks which caregivers are sorely lacking in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic.
Like other creators in Lyon, who also launched into the manufacture of masks in emergency, the Lyonnaise did not fail to see circulating on social networks a pattern made available by hospitals, including the CHU of Grenoble in Isère . This finished convincing the costume designer to run her sewing machine for a good cause.
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Mask factory! 😷 After having heard almost everything and nothing on the making of homemade masks in recent days, I had first decided not to strike a sword in the water and wait for clear instructions on the path to follow. Then several messages from caregivers from all backgrounds made me a little aware of the urgency of the situation for those who are in this famous "first line"! It is not just a personal initiative, it is a response to the requests received. Thank you to @letextilelab for providing the fabrics necessary to make this first series, which will go to the Vinatier de Lyon caregivers, who are also in shortage of masks. 🤝 Numerous Facebook groups (small solidarity masks) and Insta (@sauvetonsoignant) put applicants and dressmakers in touch, do not hesitate to register if you are concerned, on one side or the other ! OmmeAs we are visibly more reactive than the state in this enormous emergency, each little helping hand will count while waiting for the returns of stocks! To your machines !! . . #masks #masksfactory #sauvetonsoignant
A post shared by Tropical & Lunar embroideries (@zeliasmithbroderies) on Mar 20, 2020 at 9:05 am PDT
"Lyonnais caregivers contacted me when they saw that I was making masks and they explained to me that there was such a shortage in hospitals that it would always be better than what they sometimes had available", adds Zélia , which produces, depending on the day, around twenty cloth masks. Equipment that everyone can wear even if it seems more suitable for individuals, less exposed to the coronavirus than medico-social workers and caregivers, on the front line. “The mask, made of 100% polyester fabric, with a tight mesh, waxed canvas and a cotton mesh to protect the skin, must retain the postillions. A sick or contaminated person without knowing it will have less risk of contaminating those around him, "adds the young woman, who has already sold several models for free to the public but also to hospital staff and nursing homes.
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• Slip • During these times of confinement and stay-at-home, @hermanitas__ changes target and product: I decided to make sex covers for my neighbors! (I really like this joke, sorry for those who read it or hear it for the 10th time already). Truce of joke: since the beginning of this dirty business, I alternate between fairly quiet periods, and moments of panic (all from home of course). Suddenly, for a few days, I completely stopped reading the media, and olala I am doing it 1000 times better. For a few days now, I have decided, like a lot of seamstresses and designers in France, to use my time to sew on masks. At first for my neighbors, then for people in need: priority for caregivers and traders, garbage collectors, bus drivers, employees of all kinds who continue to work. Thanks to the @sauvetonsoignant page which connects people who are looking with those who make, in each department, a nursing office in my neighborhood has been supplied, and this will soon be the case for another. Like me, even from home, locked up with a sewing machine, we can be useful. Phew! If this is your case, go ahead. Certainly the fabric masks are controversial as to their level of protection, and let's agree: they do not protect from covid19 but can still prevent projection of postillons and therefore faster spread of the epidemic. Let's agree on something else: I make the masks in agreement with two friends of doctors, one anesthesiologist and the other emergency doctor, and following many messages from caregivers. People who criticize cloth masks are usually on TV sets or warm at home; the nurses who write to us are they in the middle of a battle, and prefer that rather than nothing. So get to your machines! For the tutorial, I first used that of the Grenoble University Hospital, then that of the @atelierdelacreation which is faster to do. Cotton, fleece, elastics ... and let's go !! • • • #masques #masquesentissus #masqueslyon #lyon
A post shared by Hermanitas (@hermanitas__) on Mar 24, 2020 at 12:49 am PDT
"The need to be equipped with the most fragile"
In this period of health crisis and great shortage of suitable protective equipment, Juliane Sievert is not unemployed either. Even if she had to close her store of ready-to-wear Boutique XIX, located in the center of Lyon, this designer spends many hours in her workshop. To also make fabric masks and participate, like Zélia, in the "collective solidarity effort".
"I saw like everyone else on social networks that there was an immense need for masks, from all sides," said the young woman, mother of a little boy with a motor disability. "I see with Nils this need to be well equipped when we are with fragile people," said the young woman, who has multiplied the prototypes to offer a fabric mask as reliable as possible. For this, she used fabric available in her shop, poplin, cotton sateen and technical fabrics, and produced material in three layers with very tight knit. Its latest prototype is close to a surgical mask at multiple points.
The small production of colored masks, washable and therefore reusable, is again intended for everyone. “For caregivers, I would be happy to offer them. But for the general public, I sell them at low prices. My shop is at a standstill, I cannot finance everything ”, underlines the mother who even asked for an approval of her creations to the general direction of armaments. "I want to do things well and I would like to know if these fabric masks are really effective or if it is useless," she slips, with already little idea of the answer. Because even if the debate on the effectiveness of the different types of masks is far from being settled, many specialists agree that, to avoid the spread of the virus, it is better to wear a mask with imperfect effectiveness than not wear nothing at all.
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