By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Sewing has been part of the fabric of Nancy Gaus’ life since age 4, when her mother first taught her to sew. A fifth-generation seamstress, Gaus, who lives in Baldwinsville, owned a sewing business for 12 years. So when the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, Gaus decided to share her skills with healthcare workers in need of face masks and those looking to make masks.

“I really couldn’t find a whole lot of information about what designs were being accepted. There were a lot of rumors about masks being rejected by the healthcare community,” Gaus said. “The patterns were a little bit problematic; there were some errors in the patterns. I thought, ‘If I’ve got these questions, other people probably do too.’”

Thus the Syracuse Mask Project was born.

Gaus launched her website, syracusemaskproject.org, on April 2. Since then, the site has welcomed more than 1,880 unique visitors from the United States and abroad — metrics show hits from Canada, Ireland, Spain, Singapore and Brazil.

The site is home to patterns for face masks, networks of local sewing groups and suppliers, and a list of drop-off sites for completed masks. Users can also post requests for masks and materials or list what they have available to share.

“When I put the website together, I decided it really needed to be a clearinghouse for information,” Gaus said. “I asked some friends in the Syracuse tech community to help create the add-on of the site where you can fill in a form and ask [for materials].”

While Gaus originally intended the site to cater to her personal network, the project has grown immensely in its first few weeks. The site lists about a dozen drop-off locations — hospitals and healthcare offices across CNY as well as businesses such as the Calico Gals quilt shop in Lyncourt and Patchwork Plus in Marcellus.

“It turns out a member of some spinning guilds sent the link to family in Ireland,” Gaus said. “People are submitting tips and asking questions. I’m getting a lot of feedback.”

The Syracuse Mask Project allows Gaus to help many more people than if she just set out to sew a few masks herself.

“I described it to somebody as feeling like a fairy godmother — you can swoop back in and swoop back out,” she said. “It takes some of the pressure off me. I can sit down and I can make 20 masks, or I can share the information with others and we’re 10 times as productive if not more.”

Now that the website is up and running, Gaus can devote some time to sewing masks and scrub caps, which a friend in the healthcare field requested. Gaus plans to post her scrub cap pattern on the Syracuse Mask Project as well.

“Personally, I’ve done about 60 masks and I just delivered 20 scrub caps to a COVID testing unit downtown,” she said.

Now that New York state is requiring essential businesses and government agencies to provide their employees with masks, Gaus said the need for masks is skyrocketing.

“I got an inquiry from a police department. Their staff now has to wear masks. They’re saving their N95s for officers on patrol,” she said. “There’s a lot of places out there that are going to need masks that didn’t anticipate the need. We need people who can sew that can make masks and donate to these agencies.”

If you are not handy with a needle and thread, there are still ways to help, Gaus said. Volunteers are needed to drop off supplies, and sewists need quarter-inch strips of aluminum sheeting to make the fitted nosepieces for the shaped masks healthcare workers prefer.

“They’re actually beefier than the pipe cleaners and they can go through the laundry more times. It gives the mask a little bit more life,” Gaus said.

Above all, people can help by sharing the Syracuse Mask Project’s work with their own networks.

“I need people to just share the news,” Gaus said.

For more information, visit syracusemaskproject.org.