Gabrielle Carson sat up in bed one March morning, shortly after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Pause” order, and said, “I’m going to make masks.” She, like many other New Yorkers, had closed her business to comply with social distancing. Her shop sells made-to-order party clothing of her own design. 

She realized she could mobilize the team of freelance people who sew for her regularly, provide them employment and also help healthcare workers. Gab, as her friends call her, reached out to political contacts and offered to make the N-95 masks that healthcare workers need to treat Covid-19 patients. But she couldn’t break through the bureaucracy.

Undaunted, she thought, “Why don’t we just make regular masks? Maybe people will wear cotton masks and leave the surgical masks for our healthcare workers.”

So she called suppliers. She started with a notions store, Daytona Trim, in New York’s garment district. The owner, a man she knows only as Abraham, said he could supply the elastic. “He’s the nicest guy. He told me to come on a day when everyone who needed elastic for masks would come. But he would leave everything outside.”

Then Gab went online looking for cotton. She settled on Japanese cotton from B&J Fabrics, which specializes in sustainable fabrics. She ordered it and they too told her they would leave it outside of their door on Seventh Avenue.

But then she had a problem. Before she could cut the fabric, she wanted to wash it. “All the laundromats are closed. I began calling friends asking if I could come over to use their washing machines, or the washing machines in their buildings.” Several agreed and with the cotton washed, she was ready to make the pattern and cut the pieces to give the people who sew for her.

“All of my contractors are either Chinese or French and they have been working with me for many, many years,” she said. “But everyone seemed to have a problem that made it impossible for them to do the work.”  So she began calling people who knew people. “I called a factory owner in midtown and he persuaded women to come in and work. But then he closed the factory and the women took the work home.”

Her approach changed. If she couldn’t find a central location, she’d go to the people who do the work. Now, she said, “We cut the pieces in the studio and then I have to deliver them to the women doing the sewing and later pick them up.” She laughed as she told me the story, talking on her cell phone as she headed to pick up a bundle of freshly made masks on the Lower East Side. 

“We have 100 washable masks coming in every other day,” she said, sounding amazed. “But we need that number coming in each day. Suddenly, I became the mask lady.” When she started out, she hadn’t realized that the masks would catch on like they have.  She sent an email with a photo to her clients.

The orders started coming in immediately. “Some people order twenty, some order one. I’ll ship two for a couple and then they order for the lady next door. One lady bought 500 for everyone in her company.”

While President Trump won’t wear a mask, and said the federal government is not a “shipping clerk,” Gabrielle Carlson wears a mask and acts as her own shipping clerk.

“I placed 85 packages on the counter at the post office and the lady said, ‘What’s this?’ I said masks and she smiled and started to process them.” This new business has made her acutely aware of how kind and resilient people can be. “I’m grateful for those who are willing to work, cut and sew. We’re seeing extraordinary humanity.”

You can order at GabrielleCarlsonFaceMasks.