People who sew as a hobby or as a profession have sprung into action in Mercer County to assist in battling coronavirus.

This includes some costume makers at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre. The theater has canceled all its plays due to the pandemic, so some of the theater’s expert costume makers have volunteered their time and sewing skills to make masks.

“We’re making a little casing across the top that we can put a piece of wire in so that it helps shape it over the nose,” says volunteer Cindy Thom.

Thom says that the masks she and others are making are a little more complicated than other masks.

“They fit a little more closely and they also have the ability to put a filter in them,” Thom says.

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The McCarter costumers are among dozens of volunteers sewing masks as part of the Mercer Mask Project, a Facebook group started by Cindy Rosen.

“We’ve been sending them to local hospitals, rescue squads, first responders, police, firemen,” Rosen says.

Other masks are donated to supermarket workers, the elderly and others at risk of contracting the virus. The masks are packaged and dropped off in bins outside of Rosen’s home and then delivered. Rosen says that she has delivered more than 700 masks so far.

Some of the masks are washable and are made of cotton. They are designed to fit over N95 medical masks, possibly extending the lives of those masks, which are in short supply.