Costa Mesa's 'Dream Seam Team' raises money through mask-making

Peggy, left and Ted Engard, as well as Kathy Gordon have been making masks since the pandemic started.

By Matt SzaboStaff Writer

Published Sept. 1, 2020 Updated Sept. 2, 2020 2:53 PM PT

Throughout the novel coronavirus pandemic, which is entering its sixth month, there have been those who have gone above and beyond in an effort to help.

With just a sewing machine and some fabric, Costa Mesa resident Peggy Engard has been one of those people.

Engard and her friends, Kathy Gordon and Cynthia Corley, have been sewing masks since the pandemic began in March. Engard’s husband, Ted, comes up with the designs.

They call themselves the “Dream Seam Team” with a smile, asking for just a $5 donation per mask. Their work has helped ensure that many disadvantaged people can smile too.

Last week the team surpassed raising $10,000 for the Los Angeles chapter of nonprofit Feeding America, which has a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries across the country.

“At the very beginning, I was making masks for my friends and my book club, things like that,” said Peggy Engard, who taught kindergarten at Costa Mesa’s Pomona Elementary School for 41 years before retiring in 2004. “I just said to pay it forward, then I started getting little gifts on my doorstep. I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s not exactly what I meant.’ Then I started researching what was the best thing to work for at this time during the pandemic, and I found Feeding America.”

The need for the masks continues. The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 19 additional deaths due to COVID-19 in the county Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,007. Also, 317 new positive cases were reported, and there have been 49,142 cases to date.

Of the cases in Orange County, 295 are currently hospitalized, and 89 of those patients are in the intensive care unit. There were 7,605 tests reported Wednesday, part of 664,745 cumulative tests to date.

Ted Engard and his wife Peggy show a special hand painted mask at his home on Tuesday.

Engard, who is at Joann’s Fabrics often to get the materials, produces 20-25 masks per day in her sewing room upstairs.

“I got another deal today,” Engard said excitedly on Tuesday. “They had ‘Star Wars’ material for the first time in forever. Even though I have hundreds and hundreds of masks being made, I still go in and buy more every Tuesday.”

She and her team have made 4,679 masks in total, she said. They have also made donations to local nonprofits like “Share Our Selves” (SOS) and “Save Our Youth” (SOY). SOS gave out 500 masks along with backpacks last month as children got ready to go back to school, Engard said.

There are more than 300 mask designs available for purchase on the sewing team’s website, which was designed by Engard’s daughter-in-law, Samantha Wellengard.

“Peggy has always had a huge heart and she’s always been super-active in her community,” Wellengard said. “It didn’t surprise me at all that she started to create masks with her talent and her sewing machine when all of this started … She’s in a position to help and she doesn’t hold back.”

Engard, who said she started sewing in the fourth grade, has had time on her hands. Vacations to Russia and Hawaii have been canceled this year due to COVID-19. She and her two helpers each sew from home while Ted Engard, a former longtime Newport-Mesa Unified School District music teacher, aids in the creative process.

“At first, she said she was making them and I thought, ‘Do you need help?’ Gordon said. “She said, ‘No, it’s OK,’ and then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘I need help!’ … We’re kind of addicted. It’s really fun to do.”

Some of the masks they have made have pointed messages on them, like “Don’t contaminate me, bro,” “Protecting you” and “Masking up is ‘maskuline,’” though Peggy Engard said those masks don’t sell as well.

Ted Engard and his wife Peggy display a special hand-painted mask at his home on Tuesday.

She said the mask-wearing issue hits close to home, as her nephew is a nurse at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

“The most disturbing thing is that they’ve politicized this mask-wearing thing,” Engard said.

“My nephew puts himself and his family at risk every day trying to save the lives of people who maybe refused to wear a mask, or maybe were exposed to someone who refused to wear a mask. That’s the part that really bugs me. It’s not an individual rights thing, because if you don’t mask up you’re endangering other people. That’s what gets me going on the soapbox.”

Many of the masks are more fun. Ted Engard’s newest creation is a collection of four masks, each of which has two days of the week on them. One of them says “Sunday” on one side and “Funday” on the other.

“I have so many masks,” Peggy Engard said. “They’ve covered the bed, they’ve covered the ironing board so I don’t iron and they’ve also covered my desk. I have lots of things underneath that I can’t get to, but that’s OK.”

The Engards have made nearly 5,000 masks since the pandemic started.

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Costa Mesa’s ‘Dream Seam Team’ raises money through mask-making

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