Grateful Series: Charlotte Wescott

Charlotte Wescott at her sewing machine making masks.

Why I Sew Masks   

Up until mid-March, I spent my days happily designing and knitting dog sweaters. Aran knit complicated sweaters for dogs and beautiful hand dyed wools in jewel tones for dogs. Then coronavirus hit the country, and I haven’t knit a stitch since. Seemed kind of lame to knit dog sweaters when people are dying from this virus and the medical teams don’t have enough protective gear to save themselves as they try to save the desperately ill. So I started sewing masks.

I am a sewer. Have been a sewer since I was a child. I learned to sew under the sewing machine table in my mother’s room. I would sit on the floor and work the foot presser with my hands as my mother would guide the fabric through the machine, telling me when to start and stop. She had incredible patience and sense of humor. And she taught me to sew and to love sewing. She made my clothes and then made matching outfits for my dolls. She taught me the value of scraps of fabric and how to turn them into quilts. If she were still here, she would be staying up all hours, too, making masks.

My brilliant daughter and future son-in-law have pitched in, too. Marina is the artist in the family. But she can handle the rotary cutter and serger like a pro. Eric works the iron. We listen to music and make masks.

Last count, 1,020 masks have gone out the door. To hospitals, nursing homes, food banks and anyone who needs them. All I ask in return is that they stay healthy, be kind and pay it forward. And if they have any spare cotton fabric, elastic, or thread, please leave in the basket on my porch. And so I keep sewing.

Charlotte Wescott lives in West Orange, New Jersey.