Barrio Logan seamstress Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski has made more than 1,000 cotton face masks this week for community members, local businesses and homeless shelters.
Hospitals can’t use hand-sewn items, but nurses, grocery workers and the homeless are eager for protection
By PAM KRAGEN, ANDREA LOPEZ-VILLAFAÑA, MARCH 24, 2020
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused global supply issues with surgical face masks for hospital workers, officials from three major local healthcare organizations are discouraging home seamstresses from donating their own hand-sewn crafts.
Barrio Logan seamstress Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski is making hand-made face masks from her sewing studio “Sew Loka” in Barrio Logan from instructions on the CDC website.
(John Gibbins/John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Seamstress Claudia Rodriguez-Biezunski, who runs the Barrio Logan tailoring studio Sew Loka, has made more than 400 masks since Friday, including a recent order for 30 masks from the Alpha Project bridge shelter not far from her studio. She has also received numerous requests for masks from nurses and grocery workers.
“I never thought that something that I love to do would become such an essential thing,” said Rodriguez-Biezunski, who offers the masks for free on her Instagram page. She got started when she heard that stores and hospitals were running low on face masks and she decided to make them to at least give people some peace of mind.
Rodriguez-Biezunski said making the masks has been therapeutic and also gives her a sense of purpose. She said there are times when she worries about what is happening, especially because she doesn’t have health insurance.
“The sewing community has really come together … it’s really cool to see that,” said Rodriguez-Biezunski, who is accepting donations of elastic or other material. “I’m a small-business owner so it’s very difficult for me to say, ‘let me donate money.’ So this is my sense of contribution … I can donate my time.”