A local woman is using her talents to help those in need during the coronavirus pandemic.  

In light of the shortage of face masks across the country, Jackie Storey has begun making her own and donating them to healthcare workers.  

Storey has been sewing since her middle school days in a home economics class and, when her small business suffered a slow down because of the pandemic, Storey said she was left with a lot of time of her hands.  

“I am by no means a professional seamstress, but sewing has been a hobby of mine for years,” she said, “and I thought, ‘I have all this fabric, so let me just do what I can do to help out.’”  

Storey said she has handmade 50-60 masks total and plans to make 70 more in the coming weeks.  

“It’s a lot of masks, but they need them, so I’ll keep doing them as long as they need them,” she said.  

Storey can create a mask from start to finish in about 17 minutes, and she said people have donated materials to help her make more.  She said Charles Wilson, who owns Absolute Printing Solutions in Somerville, donated two boxes of 100 percent cotton T-shirts.  

“I had a lot of fabric that I wasn’t using, but any donations that people give are very welcome, and they will help me make more masks,” she said.  

Necessity is the mother of invention for Storey, who – after running out of elastic and faced with a nationwide shortage – resorted to plastic hair ties to finish her masks. She said the cheap hair ties she buys at the dollar store fit perfectly around most people’s ears to secure the masks.  

Storey’s masks have been shipped to Decatur, Cullman, Huntsville and Rogersville – and more orders come in daily.