DOWAGIAC — When Rhonda Yuras was diagnosed with a natural rubber latex allergy, she did not realize how even something as simple as driving a car and holding a steering wheel could cause her to have a breakout.

This inspired Yuras, who moved to Dowagiac in 2019, to craft her own fleece steering wheel covers because of limited options available in stores.

“Most of the covers you find in the store are also rubber so that doesn’t help me,” she said.  “I’ve had fleece steering wheels. In the past, you could find them in the stores and stuff, but nowadays, you can’t. I figured I would try to make one.”

The first fleece steering wheel cover she created turned out how she imagined. For the past few months, she has created custom patterns and prints and sells them through her Facebook page, Rhonda’s Crafts. She also travels to local craft shows to share her creations with the community. At a craft show in December, she sold 19 of her steering wheel covers and handed out business cards to interested customers.

The first step in her process is browsing fabric stores for small enough patterns that will fit on the size of a steering wheel. She has to choose smaller patterns, otherwise the covers will not look right, she said.

“I just try to pick out designs that people will like,” she said. “I actually had people suggest a few things, so I went and got those.”

The steering wheel covers come in array of colors and tie-dyed fabrics, but one particularly interested Yuras — a fabric with unicorns. Although the fabric is more difficult for Yuras to work with because she adds an extra liner, it is the one she uses when she drives her truck.

The allergy that inspired Yuras creation is not well-known, she said. A 2016 article in the Journal of Occupational Health used data analysis from limited studies to suggest 4.3 percent of the general population worldwide could have a latex allergy.

“There are people that don’t even realize there is latex in the pen grips that you write with,” Yuras said. “A lot of times at restaurants, I go to sign my check when I eat out. I have to use my own pen, and it throws [wait staff] off. I tell them about the allergy and they say, ‘Oh I never thought about that.’”

During a visit to a latex free hospital, she even caught a receptionist off guard because she had to use her own pen without a rubber grip.

Yuras added her steering wheel covers can also serve as a means of comfort for drivers during inconsistent weather conditions.

“In the winter time, your steering wheel is always cold, and it protects you from the freezing wheel,” she said. “Also, in the summertime, the wheel gets hot, and the cover will protect your hands from the hot wheel.”

Currently, Yuras’ sales have stayed local as she figures out the logistics on how to acquire payments and ship the covers to interested customers living in farther locations. 

“Once I figure out a way that people can get me a payment, then I will start making orders and sending them out,” she said. “There is somebody in the Upper Peninsula that wants one, but I have to figure out how to get payment from her.”

Yuras plans to keep selling her covers as long as people are interested in purchasing them.

“It does help people,” she said. “You got the people with the temperature side, and then you have people with the latex allergy, and some people just buy them because they like them.”