Thanks, sleeve. I have an 11 yr old opened BOS of the no vent N95 respirators. Date says (c) 2002 or close. Time flies. I think these were for SARS outbreak. surprisingly the yellow rubber like bare elastic is still good. The exhaust vent types were purchased in early January 2020. No one of my siblings wants any, saying that their too uncomfortable. I mostly stay HOME. We don't socialize, and make very few trips out. But, yesterday was a gorgeous day and I went with a masked neighbor who seems very careful to buy some tomato plants, lettuces, organic milk and deli salads (darn pricy) at at super aware country store. Only a couple people in at a time with masks, distancing and no bags from elsewhere. Half gal milk = $7.75 in glass bottle ($1.50 if return bottle). A cup of bean salad, $4. I will figure out their recipe. I put it through the mass spectrometer in my mouth. I wore an old, non vented N95 and safety goggles. Mask was u o for table and hot. I DID keep messing with it, so was glad I was pretty much in the clean rural woodsy boondocks. (But you never know). When we passed through a working class small city, I went into a store for wine. I had on my gear, the cashier had on a cowboy bandana. A 30-ish woman came into the store, o mask, and barbed into my shelf area. I left For the cashier. She was right behind me, no mask, no distance, no sense. I asked her to please back up (like 5 feet!). She had a bunch of pink and lavender colored toy wine. She looked at me as though I’d told her that there was a deadly global pandemic. Meh. No worries. No cares. My friend encountered a couple of women in a grocery store. No mask, crowding her. She asked them why they were not wearing a mask. They fired back that it was their freedom of choice, blah blah. The State is on MASK rules if outside your home. Oh, and distance. What is with these clueless people. Flyovers are okay, but how about some public service announcement, mini tutorials on infection control? Think I might tell the next maskless fool who won’t keep back that, oops! You e got something stuck on your face! Then disappear as they rubs cooties into their fave with dirty hands. I won’t do it. But what is with the clueless, right to infect others, mask-less zombies? At least they didn’t shoot us in the back of the head (Recent MI news). I spotted a 25Lb bag or organic, unbleached, AP flour for $25. Maybe I should go back to the clean store for it. But that’s a lotta flour.

I made the craftpassion masks and I find them to run a bit small, too. I would step up a size in all of the sizes and use the patterns with SA drawn in as finished lines and add an additional SA to it. I like the one for the nurse, too. There is a longer dart at the nose and a shorter dart at the chin. What I have settled on that seems to work best for me as far as the ties goes, is to create a casing on each side of the mask, either of these two masks. Then run your tie in one continuous strip up through the casing from the bottom, across the top , down the casing on the other side and have it tie around the back of your neck. Put the mask on, sit the upper ties on your ears, and then pull down on each side of the ties to cinch it up and then tie it around the back of your neck. It makes more sense when you actually do it. I have actually made the ties longer so that they can be crossed over in the back and brought around to the front of the neck and tied because my husband cannot tie behind his head very well. I have found that you can make ties from a good solid interlock knit fabric or a rib knit. The rib knit will have more stretch. This method works well with fabric ties too. I have found that you can make pretty ties if you make them as you would an old fashioned sash on a an old fashioned little girls dress. We used to make them for little girls dresses. They were a couple of inches wide and either sewn and turned or they were narrow hemmed. If you make a sash type of tie, you will also want to make your casings a bit wider than you would if you were going to use something more narrow. But, I have found that, to avoid elastic, you can make ties out of different materials and they work well when threaded in this manner. Just remember to keep in mind how thick or wide your material for the ties is. It needs room within the casing to be able to draw easily. I have found that this arrangement of ties gives the ability to cinch it up nicely with many different things that are used for ties. It has been my experience that the continuous tie should be about a yard long for most cases. If you are making a sash type of tie, I would use a full width of 45" wide fabric. I found that this method works for both the pleated and the non pleated masks. Ali.....I woudl suggest that you make your mask a bit deeper and make each of the pleats a little deeper. I have added two inches to the depth on some. I notice that a lot of people get that little gap on the sides of their masks. It is my opinion that adding the ties as I have suggested does take care of that gap most times. I also sew any interlining to the facing piece and not the front piece, and I cut out the bulk in the seams. I just can't help myself but to apply old fashioned old school sewing of understitiching, top stitching, grading seams, basting to the seam line, easing, hemming, etc. It is the way I learned to construct and to sew.

Arapaho, I stopped bringing a purse to the grocery store for 2 reasons. One, it took up precious room in my cart, which I now fill. Two, I did not want to contaminate any more items than needed. I only bring in my phone, for Apple pay, a printed list, small wipes and sanitizer. First I carried them in a tote bag, but the clerks mistook my "purse" for a grocery bag and each time would start explaining that we have to use plastic. So then I looked around, and I always keep nice shopping bags for things i might have to carry, and I found this, below. This is my new "purse." I had to laugh to myself that I still carry a "designer purse." PS, FWIW, the FDA seems to think we should not worry about virus on surfaces.

I have a mask story to add (not a rant , since none of my loved ones were endangered). A few weeks ago, I ran into an old friend. She lives, and works, in the small village where I grocery shop, and we were both there during designated senior hours. She recognized me, although I was wearing a mask, but she wasn't wearing one. I asked if she had a mask, and she said that she had only one, disposable, which she was saving for the days she had to take her father to his medical appointments. I asked if she'd like me to make her a fabric mask, and she graciously accepted. I dropped it off to her the same day, with some shop towel filters, as I was on my way to drop off my father's groceries. Today, as I was leaving the grocery store, she was arriving--sans mask. I jokingly asked why she wasn't wearing her mask, and she said that she didn't think she needed it unless she was in close quarters with others. When I pointed out that by wearing a mask she was protecting others, she responded that she didn't need it because she's "been good." I'm disappointed that I gave her one of my nice, 600TC Egyptian cotton face masks, and she doesn't wear it. :[ At least she has it if she changes her mind.