We have orders for 6600 facemasks!!! How will we do it?
I had never made or thought of a mask 2 weeks ago. Now we have produced, sold and donated over 2,000 and the #s are growing exponentially. We have pivoted our...
I had never made or thought of a mask 2 weeks ago. Now we have produced, sold and donated over 2,000 and the #s are growing exponentially. We have pivoted our business to meet this need, and keep our sewers employed in a time when other work has evaporated for them. We had a stockpile of napkin, uncoated fabrics in all our fun patterns which is perfect for the masks we now all must wear. Why not have a fun one?
As order volumes increase, our shipping department has decreased. My fabulous assistant, Loie, is working from home and not shipping orders or putting everything away as before. My husband David is working by my side until midnight getting orders packed and shipped. If we make a mistake, let us know and we are happy to bend over backwards to make it right.
We have gone from a manageable but bustling wholesale business with reps and stores, and 6-10 retail orders coming in on our website each day to 200-250 retail orders per day. We used to make pretty laminated products for your home and going out in the world to now producing 100% cotton potentially life saving face masks. It's exciting and exhausting.
It's what I do. I'm all in on every project. It's how I'll get thru this. It's what I can offer. I'm obsessed with finding the needs for our donations and make them happen. In my next email I'll share the charts my husband has been keeping, but here's my version: We put them on the website 5 days ago. # of masks sold: April 1 - 380 April 2 - 692 April 3 - 1519 April 4 - 1669
# of masks donated 1440 - we have work to do.
Right now, demand exceeds capacity. This will change next week as more sewers are making them. These sewers work in their homes, and can keep working thru the work bans. We put the masks in the dryer for 30+ min on high before we touch & pack them. We have been quarantined for 2+ weeks.
What will tomorrow bring?
Our stitchers have gone thru our donated binding for ties, all the rest of the aprons strings we had on hand, and now we are making our own bias tape out of our printed cottons and the possibility of the combos make me squeal with excitement. Why not make these fun?
Which brings us to the topic of print availability. You can ask us for what you want, but we may just ship what we have. in the end, something is better than nothing and we are doing the best we can. You can rock it!
We are finding our new rhythm.
We are making and shipping masks as fast as we can. Next week, we will be able to make 1000+ masks per day. We have shipped ~1200 so far, just picked up 900. We ship them out as fast as we can get more masks, and need to keep supplying donations as well.
NOTE: We are printing your orders and shipping label the day we get orders. This doesn't mean orders have shipped yet. You can check your tracking to find out where it is. Current orders will go out Mon/Tues delivering in 1-3 days via USPS.
Many of you locals want to come pick up. We are going to arrange a pick up area in our porch / front yard. Please do not linger. Call or email if you need something. We are here for you.
We love all of you and will have a big hug fest once this is all over. Hang in there!