Many people began making their own masks once the pandemic began. However, now that the mask mandate has been lifted, sales have come to a halt.
Stitchin’ It In Sask is a Sasktoon family run business which started up last year.
Liz Potter and her sister-in-law Tasha Lalach began helping Liz’s mother-in-law, Cindy Lalach, make mask for her kids.
Since kids had to go back to school with masks, Liz figured they might as well make ones for them to keep them safe and stylish.
Cindy has always handmade her children’s clothes, meaning sewing for her grandchildren was a natural next step.
When other parents and people in the community started to notice their every-now-and-then work, it quickly sparked into a very busy business venture.
“Some days we would work all day sewing just to catch up especially around Christmas. There was some days we were putting in 12-hour days just sewing,” said Liz.
The group managed to track how many products were made, but they have not come around to adding them all up yet.
Liz believes they probably would have made thousands of masks over the last year, but since the mask mandate was dropped, no orders have been made.
“Right about mid-June was probably when we stopped getting orders for masks,” said Liz.
With sales being low and the kids needing clothing for summer, Cindy started to get creative.
She began sewing bucket hats, bibs, aprons, caps, bows and now also makes bandanas for dogs.
All items are for sale, along with masks, with plenty of different fabric style for all ages.
Tasha also shares her hand with custom vinyl, which has become popular as well.