Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
Sign In
News

Stitch Remnants and Fabric Into Masks

By Maura Mahoney April 21, 2020
Maria Varela, a student atColumbia College Chicago, joined the faculty in her department on #ColumbiaMakesMasks.
Maria Varela, a student atColumbia College Chicago, joined the faculty in her department on #ColumbiaMakesMasks.Courtesy of Maria Varela

As concerns grew over the shortage of masks and mask covers for health-care workers, Maria Varela, a fashion-studies major at Columbia College Chicago, realized that her ability to sew had new value. “I have the exact skill people are calling out for,” she says.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

As concerns grew over the shortage of masks and mask covers for health-care workers, Maria Varela, a fashion-studies major at Columbia College Chicago, realized that her ability to sew had new value. “I have the exact skill people are calling out for,” she says.

Varela soon joined the faculty in her department on #ColumbiaMakesMasks, a project to create covers for medical-grade N95 masks to prolong their usable life, with an initial goal of producing 2,000 of them. More than 50 students, faculty, and staff signed up to participate. They were mailed mask-making kits, which included 100-percent-cotton fabric; flat, braided elastic; thread; sewing instructions; and a prepaid return envelope.

The department also shipped out about three dozen sewing machines for students to complete their coursework and contribute to the effort. Faculty members led virtual information and stitching sessions for the students to work together.

Other mask-making projects have whirred into action all over the country. Caroline Berti, a fashion designer and adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York, joined another FIT alumna, Karen Sabag, in March to organize Sew4Lives, a network of volunteers sewing masks. More than 4,000 have been delivered so far to hospitals, homeless shelters, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, a prison, and postal facilities.

Health-care workers in the Conemaugh Health System, in Pennsylvania, wear masks from Saint Francis U.
Health-care workers in the Conemaugh Health System, in Pennsylvania, wear masks from Saint Francis U.Saint Francis U.

Theater students at Sinclair Community College, in Ohio, have collaborated with peers in the costume department at Wright State University nearby to produce several hundred masks for essential workers in the region. The effort has given students an outlet for frustration and kept them busy, says Kathleen Hotmer, Sinclair’s costume-shop manager and an adjunct faculty member there.

And the pandemic prompted Bonnie Resinski, who has been sewing costumes for the theater department at Saint Francis University, in Pennsylvania, for more than 50 years, to remember yards of leftover fabric used for scrubs in a 1998 production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In less than a week, she stitched together 120 masks for local health-care workers, and she is making more. “As long as I have elastic and fabric,” she says, “I’ll keep going.”

How is your institution contributing to the “war effort” against the coronavirus? Tell us here.

Read other items in What Colleges Are Doing to Help Their Communities Fight the Pandemic.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Mahoney_Maura.jpg
About the Author
Maura Mahoney
Maura Mahoney is a senior editor for Chronicle Intelligence. Follow her on Twitter @maurakmahoney, or email her at maura.mahoney@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Illustration of a magnifying glass highlighting the phrase "including the requirements set forth in Presidential Executive Order 14168 titled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."
Policy 'Whiplash'
Research Grants Increasingly Require Compliance With Trump’s Orders. Here’s How Colleges Are Responding.
Photo illustration showing internal email text snippets over a photo of a University of Iowa campus quad
Red-state reticence
Facing Research Cuts, Officials at U. of Iowa Spoke of a ‘Limited Ability to Publicly Fight This’
Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues

From The Review

Football game between UCLA and Colorado University, at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo., Sept. 24, 2022.
The Review | Opinion
My University Values Football More Than Education
By Sigman Byrd
Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin