INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Businesses across the state are preparing to reopen once the governor loosens Indiana's stay-at-home order. That means making sure their employees and customers stay safe from the coronavirus.
Pattern, an Indianapolis non-profit, is doing that many stitches at a time through StitchWorks, its new "cut-and-sew" program.
Over the past three weeks, 85 sewers hired by StitchWorks, have been cranking out isolation gowns for Eskenazi Health. The hospital needed 2,500 of them and fast.
"It's been non-stop. The goal was to get it done before we hit the peak in terms of people with the virus in the hospital," said Polina Osherov, executive director of Pattern.
Osherov said with the last gowns finished and being delivered, StitchWorks sewers are now focused on making face masks. They're not so much for health care workers but employers. That's because businesses closed for several weeks are preparing for when the governor re-opens and employees and customers return.
"We've had inquiries as high as 30,000 and as low as 25, so it runs the whole gamut," Osherov said.
The companies will pay for masks, and StitchWorks will pay the sewers, most of whom have been sewing from home.
"Some people are literally spending the entire day at sewing machines making [masks] and a lot of them have been laid off," she said. "So it's great to be able to say, 'hey, you're doing something great and here's a paycheck to go along with it.'"
Osherov said stitchers get paid $3 per mask, noting those with the most experience can usually sew five or six masks an hour, which can translate to $18 an hour in pay.
"We just love the fact of keeping that in the local economy," she said, "being able to support local makers and crafters and keeping it at home."