Dress-Designer To Mask-Maker: LI Businesswoman Adapts To Virus

PORT WASHINGTON, NY — Long Island business owners are feeling more financially and emotionally squeezed each day as the cases of the new coronavirus continue to climb. Some, however, are finding creative ways to stay open. That includes Nancy Sinoway, the owner of Nancy Sinoway Tailoring and Alterations Studio in Port Washington.

“Most people are depressed and freaked out," she told Patch on Monday. "I just said to myself, I’m not going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself."

For more than 40 years, her business has specialized in making and creating custom dresses for proms, weddings, bat mitzvahs and other special occasions. However, as her clients’ events have recently been put on hold or canceled, the need for her dress services has nearly come to a halt.

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“When the cancellations started to come in, I said to myself, ‘We’re going to be screwed big time.’ I was only thinking of myself at the time, but everyone’s impacted,” she said. “I have a staff to pay, and I’ve got expenses to pay. I said we are going to do something.”

Rather than close shop and ride out the storm, Sinoway decided to adapt to the situation. When life threw her lemons, she made lemonade. She’s recently turned her dress factory into a mask factory. While they aren't government-approved to prevent the spread of the virus, Sinoway said they're better than nothing.

“I have fabric here, and we are making masks,” she said. "We’ve already delivered a couple hundred. They are washable and reusable. Most masks are not.”

Coronavirus fears have led to a shortage of masks not just in New York but also around the world. According to Sinoway, the response to the masks from the community has been strong. On Monday, she said a local funeral home planned to purchase 50 of the masks for its staff. A local pet nonprofit has also expressed interest in getting 500 of the masks.

“We worked Saturday and delivered a hundred. We’re just fortunate that we’re able to turn it around and do this,” she said. “We are just trying to help."

Her small staff picks up the material to make the masks at the shop and then sews them at home before packaging them and delivering them to customers. Because of the demand for masks in her own community, Sinoway expects to eventually run low on material but, once again, she said she will adapt to the circumstances, even as things continue to get tough.

“We tried to order elastic, and nobody has elastic anymore. Most of our people, our suppliers, they’re closed. We are doing the best we can,” she said.

Once the elastic runs out, Sinoway said she and her staff will make the masks from cording, which is a slender length of flexible material usually made of twisted strands or fibers and used to bind, tie, connect, or support.

“Years ago, they didn’t use elastic, they tied them. So we’re going to tie them. It’s better than nothing,” she said.

Sinoway’s company is selling the masks for $10 each, with a minimum purchasing order of five.

“If people don’t want five and they only want two and they want to donate three. We’ll donate three to other people. It’s not a problem,” she said. “We are just trying to help, and I hope people continue to be kind to one another."

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