The dental technician, who moved to Edmonton for school in 2012, was one of the first to be laid off as the government closed services like dental offices and denturists so she took her other passion, quilting, and turned it into making masks. Initially it was for her and her husband but soon after requests came flooding in.
“My friends and I, we're all quilters so we're all kind of obsessed with quilting,” she explained. “They made themselves a nice little mask to go grocery shopping, so I made one nice little mask and then the husband wanted one and then all of his friends wanted one and then all of their friend's friends wanted one and then it kind of went from there.”
Rehm’s husband is a civilian working for the Edmonton Police Service and with the shortage of N95 masks his coworkers wanted something to protect themselves, so Rehm donated a batch to them before taking requests from relatives and residents in Athabasca and area.
“All of my Athabasca relatives all wanted a mask and I was driving back and forth so I said I'll make it all in one day, anybody who wants a mask can get one,” she said.
Her quilting friends have donated the scraps to Rehm who used them up in her first masks and she’s now buying the fabric she needs to make the 80 masks she delivered in Athabasca April 19, and more orders keep coming.
"They always give me all of the scraps – what they consider scraps – so I had a goldmine of scraps from all of them,” Rehm said. “And once I ran through all of that, now I'm purchasing fabric, the cool thing is stores are still doing curbside pickups.”
All of her masks are two layers of high-quality cotton with a pocket for a filter.
"I haven't been suggesting any filters. I have just been telling people to go online and do their own research,” she explained. “I know some people have done vacuum filters, some people have done coffee filters, some people are fine with just cotton.”
While not designed or intended to replace N95 masks Rehm said she has been contacted by nurses who want them for their families.
"A lot of nurses were getting in touch with me for their families and stuff because there's a lot of people hoarding medical masks,” she said. “So, if normal people have a cotton mask, then they can give up some of their medical masks to the medical professionals.”
Rehm’s masks are curved and fit tight to the face, a design she has stuck with after receiving feedback saying it’s the most comfortable one to use.
"Then I started putting a little metal nose piece in them so they can conform to your nose a little bit,” Rehm added.
She is able to make 30 masks in two days and has made over 180 so far. After donating as many as she could, she is now charging $8 a mask to cover costs, both adult and youth sizes.
“That totally covers the cost of it,” she said. “I'm not really looking to make a profit off of this; it feels weird to be profiting off of a pandemic.”
Rehm can be contacted at [email protected] to place an order and accepts payment by e-transfer only.
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