POCATELLO — Emily Housley sets up her sewing machine at the kitchen table to contribute toward protecting the public from a coronavirus pandemic.

Housley, a consumer economics teacher at Century High School, is one of many local crafters who have been mass producing cloth face masks to supply area health care providers and other entities in need of them.

A few of her colleagues at Century have also taken to making face masks as a means of productively passing time while cooped up at home amid the outbreak of COVID-19, a novel coronavirus strain.

Housley rounded up her fabric scraps and solicited donations of elastic bands and other quilting materials from friends and neighbors: Elastic bands are now in short supply at local craft stores.

Her assembly line also includes her children — Eden, 11, and Kora, 9 — who are on spring break with little else to do and face the likelihood that school will move to online instruction once their break ends.

"They've been my little manufacturers," Housley said, adding making masks for about three hours per day gives them a better alternative to watching videos.

Housley's inspiration for the project came when she visited with a Health West doctor, who told her they were short on masks. She starting making masks and made a plea on Facebook to recruit coworkers to join in the effort.

"What I hope my kids see is that I found a way to help and not just be scared," Housley said.

Her first 50 masks went to Health West, to be worn over medical-grade N95 masks to extend their use. Heritage Home Health & Hospice has requested the next batch of 50.

Portneuf Medical Center spokeswoman Mary Keating has received several calls recently from doctors' wives, hospital volunteers, local Relief Society members and others seeking recipients for batches of handmade face masks. Keating plans to post information about outlets for face masks on PMC social media sites.

Keating likens the crafters who are now making masks in support of the war against coronavirus to modern-day Rosie the Riveters. Rosie was the star of a World War II campaign aimed at recruiting women to support the war effort by taking up jobs at factories and shipyards.

Doctor Georgia Milan, medical director of the Pocatello Free Clinic, said several patterns for face masks are available online, but she advises using a design that fully covers the nose and includes a protective layer of filler with heat-resistant backing between two tightly woven pieces of cloth.

Milan acknowledges handmade face masks can't fully protect people from contracting the virus, which is small enough to pass through pores of cloth. However, the doctor said masks are useful in keeping people from touching their face and containing secretions to near the nose and mouth, which should help slow the spread of the virus for people who are forced to live in tight quarters.

Milan, who worked with her daughter to make several masks and has been seeking additional masks, donated many of them to the local Aid for Friends homeless shelter. She's also been sending them to help refugees living in tents in Mexico along the southern border of the U.S.

"I think there's value to (masks)," Milan said.

Milan also found homes for masks made by a mother-and-daughter team who work at Century.

Century Principal Sheryl Brockett and her daughter Meagan Brockett, who works as the school's media clerk and head cheerleading coach, recently made a batch of about 20 masks in an hour and a half.

Meagan Brockett has a history of crafting to help people in need. Last summer, she made 80 pairs of pajama pants to donate to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. She also made the hospital several dolls, each with its own medical gown, to serve as visual aids for doctors explaining medical procedures to children.

The Brocketts are using a pattern provided online by Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, Washington.

"We just feel like it's something we think we can do to help contribute to the wellness of our community," Meagan Brockett said.

Mass producing handmade crafts would normally be the type of activity Linda Davies, of Pocatello, would enjoy doing with a big group of friends. Instead, making masks has been a solitary activity for Davies.

Davies made her first batch of 40 masks at the request of a friend who runs the local in-home care business Care Connection of Idaho. She's been flooded with requests for masks ever since and has continued working about seven hours per day on making masks.

"There are so many private individuals reaching out and saying, 'My husband had open-heart surgery; I'm pregnant; I'm 80; I live in a nursing home.' So everybody really wants them," Davies said.

Nonetheless, crafters have had a hard time finding contacts to take their masks and distribute them to the right places. Many have dropped off their production on Davies' porch. She's self isolating now and wishes to stop accepting masks from other crafters.

"They have no idea of what to do with them after they are made. Nobody has developed a central location (for taking masks)," Davies said.

As a quilter, Davies has an ample fabric supply. She's had to order elastic online, however, and she's found that the coronavirus has had an impact on delivery times.

"I paid for expedited shipping. That was a week ago, and it's still not here," Davies said.