The state’s first industrial cut and sew operation was scheduled to open this month in the Circle City Industrial Complex. Instead, the organization known as Stitchworks Indy employed local fabric artists to stitch essential personal protective gear for health care workers.

Emily Gartner has a sewing studio in the CCIC. The professional seamstress would normally be creating fashion and teaching classes, but now she's making surgical gowns for Eskenazi Health Care workers.

WFYI’s Jill Ditmire spoke with Gartner by phone about her new work and her plans to get back in her studio and to teaching as soon as the CCIC building opens again.