BUFFALO, N.Y. — We've been telling a lot of stories of local people sewing masks for hospital workers. This one stands out, because up until now, this woman was only using her sewing skills for swimwear.
Kerry Christoper has operated her company, Bikini F-X, as a side project out of her basement for the last five years. She makes custom bikinis for local body builders. Many of her clients are in the healthcare industry, and as the COVID-19 crisis has escalated, they started to ask her if she could make them masks instead of bathing suits.
She taught herself using a tutorial on the JoAnn Fabrics website using a Bills print. They were such a hit, people started donating to pay for her supplies so she could make more.
"Within a matter of a week we raised just about $3,000 from various community members," Kerry told 2 On Your Side. "I had people dropping off boxes of fabric on my front porch, and I now have a team of seven girls, the majority of them are my bikini clients, that are helping me out."
The operation has produced more than 1,000 masks so far, which have all been donated to local healthcare workers and other essential workers.
The first round of donations is closed, but Christopher says she can always use more 100 percent cotton fabric, as well as people to pick up and drop the masks off .
You can get in touch with her by emailing BikiniFX@gmail.com.