Well, I can’t read their minds…
In my commune, we have scissors ready… and cloth at hand… but have been told to hold-fire for the moment… since all current requests have been fulfilled.
Stella,
It is indeed difficult to understand why local communes are turning away offers of help. The government is only offering some, and as yet undetermined, finance for supplying non-medical facemasks. Even so they will have to be paid for from taxation, whether that is local or national.
Part of the problem may well be that in the rural areas, particularly those in the “green” departments, a lot of people are not taking the crisis that seriously as they can’t see the consequences of large numbers of deaths and the health service struggling to cope.
Grahame Pigney
P Help save paper - please don’t print this email unless you really need to.
P Sauvegardons la planète. Avez-vous vraiment besoin d’imprimer cet e-mail?
We just made 200 of these for the village. They are very simple but they are double thickness. Regarding tapes versus stretchy loops the stretchy loops are far more practical, also if you have thick hair like me the tapes are a real pain.
1 Like
Very similar to those which have been distributed to everyone in our commune. 
Forgot to say these are woman’s we made children’s and black pinstripes ones for men.
1 Like
We made them for men, women, kids, a right mixture… like the old TV advert… all the colours in all the sizes…
Anne,
On the other hand tapes last far longer. As we are likely to need precautions like this for 12,18, even24 months or more that could be important.
Tapes are easy to make and elastic is already difficult to obtain in some places.
Grahame Pigney
P Help save paper - please don’t print this email unless you really need to.
P Sauvegardons la planète. Avez-vous vraiment besoin d’imprimer cet e-mail?
I think it is horses for courses, actually, Grahame…
Many folk have difficulty with tapes…while others have no problem at all.
offering both might be one way round it…
Meanwhile… our first batch are in different sizes and with different length loops of elastic…
Personally, I’ve chosen thicker elastic, which I find more comfortable…OH has chosen thinner stuff… more like elastic string… 
Our son has been using a homemade non-medical mask a couple of days a week for the last month while he volunteers at the food bank. The elastic already needs replacing as it has all but lost its stretch. Somewhat inevitable when the recommendation for washing them is a 60 degree C long wash.
Grahame Pigney
P Help save paper - please don’t print this email unless you really need to.
P Sauvegardons la planète. Avez-vous vraiment besoin d’imprimer cet e-mail?
Aha… ours is hot hand wash… and steam iron…
Whatever… this is a learning curve right across the board. these masks are only meant for 3 hours… and I don’t intend to be wearing mine for that long anyway…
folk in special conditions will doubtless prefer different masks… these are for the ordinary person going out for a little from time to time…
Madame has now received the mask kits from our mairie, and a link to the instructions -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dODbtKwDo7c&feature=youtu.be
The fabric is a rather sinister black.
Anyone planning a new career as a bank robber should contact me and I might be able to send you one in a plain sealed envelope. . . . . 
2 Likes
The way things are going, it might be an option…
Fascinated by her machine that seems to cut the thread by itself. Shame they are black. We could do with something more jolly.
I thought Macron and his entourage could have chosen something other than black masks. I guess they wanted to look serious, so weren’t going to have flowers or teddy bears, but the black just made them all look sinister. A fine blue, white and red pinstripe perhaps?
Maybe makes it easier to tell if people are wearing the “officially approved” design?
all the colours in all the sizes are OK for Joe Public… 
Workers/folk who need specific masks are provided with them…
Someone sent me this 
1 Like
Oh that is absolutely me. No way am I even going to try! Thank you!
I just bought a box of 50 from Intermarche, much simpler and probably a lot more efficient, filtering wise.
1 Like
Perhaps, but using up some old material and making ones is better for the environment than more disposable goods. Since I’m not convinced masks are much more use than a fig leaf I’ll keep my 30€ for other things and have rustled up some for the family.
“Many commercially available masks are made from layers of plastics and are designed to be single-use. According to an analysis by scientists at University College London, if every person in the UK used one single-use mask each day for a year, an extra 66,000 tonnes of contaminated plastic waste would be created. The use of reusable masks by the general population would significantly reduce plastic waste and the climate change impact of any policy requirements for the wearing of face masks, according to the UCL team, led by Prof Mark Miodownik. They say that according to the best evidence, reusable masks perform most of the tasks of single-use masks without the associated waste stream.”
1 Like