Pittsburgh pizza shop owner stitching facial masks for employees, neighbors

When Martina Hanoglu saw people in her native Czech Republic making homemade facial masks for possible protection against the coronavirus, she pulled out her small sewing machine.

For the past two weeks, Hanoglu stitched together cotton masks and distributed them to employees and Downtown Pittsburgh neighbors from her pizza shop — Giovanni’s — on Sixth Street.

“She made one for me and I personally like it,” said John Valentine, a Downtown resident and executive director of the Downtown Community Development Corp. “It’s got two pieces of cloth, and it creates a pouch and inside the pouch you can put a napkin, which is what I do. It really gives you three layers. Is it protecting you? I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, but it can’t hurt. I’ll tell you I feel better going out with that on than going out with nothing.”

Hanoglu is aware of the debate over the efficacy of facial masks.

“It’s still better than nothing,” she said Thursday. “The more people who wear it, the better protected we are.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of medical-grade masks for anyone who is sick or showing symptoms of covid-19, but said healthy people don’t need to wear them unless they are a health care worker or someone caring for a sick person. The medical-grade masks are in short supply.

An international movement called #Masks4All is promoting the use of homemade masks by the general public to help prevent the spread of the virus. The goal is to supplement the most important actions: social distancing, hand-washing and not touching your face.

Hanoglu said she started making masks for her employees and family. She said business is down by more than 80 percent and she wanted customers to know that her cooks and drivers were taking safety precautions.

Then friends and Downtown neighbors started asking her for them.

“I have just a little sewing machine and I’m making them out of fabric,” she said. “It’s 100% cotton. My point is the fabric has to be good enough to handle boiling water when they are washed. That’s how I spend my evenings now.”