Volleyball is great for more than exercise, fun and socializing. It is also a super way to network and share our skills – off the court.

One of the women in my Saturday morning league is a doctor, and she had sent out a request for volunteers to sew cloth face masks. She needs them for patients who visit her clinic. So I took up the gauntlet and joined the ranks of other women who are doing the same thing — sewing masks.

Having been a seamstress for many years, I have accumulated more than enough supplies to put together some fashionably colourful accessories while also using up items I haven’t seen in years, and possibly would otherwise never have used.

I found a design on the internet, suggested by a nurse – it is for a double-layered mask with an inner pocket that could accommodate a filter. (I’m wondering if people actually use coffee filters?) With some slight modifications that seemed practical to me, I set to work cutting, and pinning, and stitching, and then trimming the hundreds of threads.

I ended up with 13 masks each with ties for the top and bottom. No, I will not be demonstrating how they are worn.

I hope these will be useful –  care went into each stitch and at each step along the way.

Thanks go to Linda, who has been coordinating this effort and who just now picked up my donations to deliver them to Barbara’s clinic.

Last week, I had a similar bit of volunteer work. I sewed 21 headbands that medical staff can wear with their traditional face masks to ease the tension of the elastics behind their ears. Kristin and her daughters added the finishing stitches and sewed on the buttons. It was a true team effort.

Helping out is what people do in times of need, and I was happy to be able to offer these services.

Just for the record, though, I will not be sewing Hazmat suits.