Groceries delivered, and on the mend

With my husband and I both having Symptoms, we had to depend on others to grocery shop for us. They were able to get everything on our list, except for non-microwave popcorn.

I am slowly recovering, still low energy but that is to be expected anyway, being in the third trimester. I'm in the in-between phase where I can see everything that needs to be done, but I can't yet do much more than the basics.

So I am taking on a quick sewing project, that I can mostly do sitting down:  using a tie-dyed sheet that was in the fabric my mother-in-law gave us to make a skirt.

I have two simple A-line skirt patterns that I have been using for the past few years:  one with only front and back pieces, and one with four pieces (sometimes called "gores"). To reduce the amount of cutting and sewing, I chose the two-piece pattern.

I referred to my prior wardrobe planning booklets for the length, took a measurement from one of my existing skirts to get the width at the hemline, and used my present waist measurement.  (All of these measurements need some extra added for seam allowances, and for ease of movement.)

I cut out the pieces in one go with the measuring and planning, and will start on the sewing later. I am going to overdye the skirt with some dye that I want to use up.

We haven't needed face masks at all yet, since we haven't gone out, but I am thinking of trying out this pattern. The video there is helpful in understanding how the elastic loops go inside the mask during sewing, so that they will be on the outside when you turn it right-side-out; sewing topology can be tricky.

I have enough elastic on hand to make two or three masks, I'm guessing. I think it would be possible to make up to one-half or maybe even two-thirds of each ear loop from non-stretchy material, to conserve elastic. Or there could be longer ties that tie at the back of the head.

I've been following this blog on the reaction to coronavirus in the Manila area (population 30 million).

I'm beginning to wonder what coronavirus is going to do to other chains of supply and manufacturing in the medium term, especially in regard to textiles, which is yet another domestic industry that moved overseas decades ago.