Sew’in owner Anne Jaquiery-Newall said during lockdown all orders stopped for her dressmaking service at her St Kilda studio.
During lockdown, she began using spare material to make face masks for her family to wear.
Word spread across Dunedin, and about 250 masks sold; then lockdown was lifted.
"I thought that was it."
Then a second wave of Covid-19 hit New Zealand and word of her masks again spread.
On the day Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 on August 12, the studio took about 250 orders from across New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
The orders intensified when on Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement that masks would become mandatory on public transport under Covid-19 Alert Levels 2, 3 and 4 from next week.
The studio has taken more than 460 orders for nearly 2400 masks.
So far, nearly 1000 masks had been made.
To help make the shortfall, she called in extended family — her mother, daughter, grand-daughter and a family friend.
The seamstresses had been working six days a week.
