Show Love With Colour
Donation protected
Introducing 'Show Love with Colour'...
Colleagues, friends, and loved ones, who just happen to be tailors, seamstresses, and local crafters, are all joining forces to create scrubs for our beloved NHS.
We are some of the tailors in that equation and our tailoring apprentices and students are following suit.
Being in contact with key workers and frontline staff means that we are readily receiving information on what is most in need.
Last week we received a call for Children's hospital gowns, quickly followed by two more calls.. you'll guess how this story continues..... And this got us thinking, why not add a touch more colour, just how children are doing with their rainbows in windows all over the UK.
Colour will not magically fix everything, yet if we can brighten even a few darker days, this makes it instantly worthwhile!
As well PPE we will be making hospital gowns (and possibly pj's) in sizes for tiny babies, toddlers, older children, and adult gowns, that aim to lift as many spirits as humanly possible, not just in the now, but for as long as we can in the future.
If we can continue to contribute the NHS in future, our intention will be to keep the manufacturing of these garments in the UK, not only because it is kinder to the planet but also because it may help create jobs after the pandemic is over and could help to give a huge boost to our manufacturing industry again.
Project status so far...
Sampling is well underway. Patterns & instructions are 'good to go', as well as new patterns for more PPE gowns.
We have a number of tailors, apprentices, and students, ready to make the patient's gowns – they’ll also be making doctors non-surgical gowns. They are all giving their time freely.
All involved will be working in accordance with strict government guidelines. All logistics will continue to be carefully planned during and after the current lockdown.
We hope to be able to make 1000 + gowns and then go from there...
1,000 garments alone need approx. Each gown costs around £10 to make. and PJ's are approx £15 on average.
Some cloth has kindly been donated, and we have been offered huge discounts on 100% cotton from companies with stock all ready here in this country.
What's next and what we need to make it work...
Fabric supply is really short at the minute due to the majority of us being in lockdown, however, we are actively trying to be as sustainable as possible in sourcing materials, so where possible we will be using 100% cotton instead of poly cotton.
So far we have sourced just under 200 meters of colourful 100% cotton, enough for our first 100/120 garments.
To keep going we are asking for help to cover materials and some small courier charges.
We will do our best to keep everyone updated on our progress as we go forward.
It's slightly different to the work we do as bespoke tailors, but our roles have taught us to adapt. One thing most definitely remains, even with social distancing in place - all our garments are 'made for an individual by an individual', with a helluva lotta LOVE.
From ALL of us - THANK YOU SO MUCH for any small donations you are able to afford to our project.
Update 15/05/2020
We are still receiving requests for scrubs and what is becoming more and more obvious is just how many NHS services have had completely stop due to lock-down measures.
In addition to making our colorful gowns, we will now be making PPE uniform for Kaleidoscope, in the London borough of Lewisham. Such a vast number fo their patients who are children have not been able to receive the treatment they had prior to the COVID-19 breakout.
Kaleidoscope is a Children’s community nursing team which incorporates children’s Nurses/complex needs nurses/acute rapid response nurses/ children’s asthma nurses and health care professionals working in patient’s homes, clinics and other community settings such as special schools-delivering all kinds of treatment and support to enable children who are unwell (some with COVID-19/some without!) to stay at home with their families. A large proportion of our caseloads are vulnerable children and young people who have long term conditions, complex needs, or have cancer and are receiving treatment at home.
The scrubs we make for Kaleidoscope will be worn as a uniform in the current situation as historically these nurses have worn their own clothes, however, in light of the virus, they have been feeling vulnerable wearing civvies in potentially infectious settings.
Doing this will help with their 'Recovery Plan', to bring back ALL of the important services that have been put on hold!!
AGAIN - From ALL of us - THANK YOU SO MUCH for any small donations you are able to afford to our project to help with buying materials. The more materials we can get our hands on the more crucial PPE we can make, to help our NHS get back to a new normal!!
Colleagues, friends, and loved ones, who just happen to be tailors, seamstresses, and local crafters, are all joining forces to create scrubs for our beloved NHS.
We are some of the tailors in that equation and our tailoring apprentices and students are following suit.
Being in contact with key workers and frontline staff means that we are readily receiving information on what is most in need.
Last week we received a call for Children's hospital gowns, quickly followed by two more calls.. you'll guess how this story continues..... And this got us thinking, why not add a touch more colour, just how children are doing with their rainbows in windows all over the UK.
Colour will not magically fix everything, yet if we can brighten even a few darker days, this makes it instantly worthwhile!
As well PPE we will be making hospital gowns (and possibly pj's) in sizes for tiny babies, toddlers, older children, and adult gowns, that aim to lift as many spirits as humanly possible, not just in the now, but for as long as we can in the future.
If we can continue to contribute the NHS in future, our intention will be to keep the manufacturing of these garments in the UK, not only because it is kinder to the planet but also because it may help create jobs after the pandemic is over and could help to give a huge boost to our manufacturing industry again.
Project status so far...
Sampling is well underway. Patterns & instructions are 'good to go', as well as new patterns for more PPE gowns.
We have a number of tailors, apprentices, and students, ready to make the patient's gowns – they’ll also be making doctors non-surgical gowns. They are all giving their time freely.
All involved will be working in accordance with strict government guidelines. All logistics will continue to be carefully planned during and after the current lockdown.
We hope to be able to make 1000 + gowns and then go from there...
1,000 garments alone need approx. Each gown costs around £10 to make. and PJ's are approx £15 on average.
Some cloth has kindly been donated, and we have been offered huge discounts on 100% cotton from companies with stock all ready here in this country.
What's next and what we need to make it work...
Fabric supply is really short at the minute due to the majority of us being in lockdown, however, we are actively trying to be as sustainable as possible in sourcing materials, so where possible we will be using 100% cotton instead of poly cotton.
So far we have sourced just under 200 meters of colourful 100% cotton, enough for our first 100/120 garments.
To keep going we are asking for help to cover materials and some small courier charges.
We will do our best to keep everyone updated on our progress as we go forward.
It's slightly different to the work we do as bespoke tailors, but our roles have taught us to adapt. One thing most definitely remains, even with social distancing in place - all our garments are 'made for an individual by an individual', with a helluva lotta LOVE.
From ALL of us - THANK YOU SO MUCH for any small donations you are able to afford to our project.
Update 15/05/2020
We are still receiving requests for scrubs and what is becoming more and more obvious is just how many NHS services have had completely stop due to lock-down measures.
In addition to making our colorful gowns, we will now be making PPE uniform for Kaleidoscope, in the London borough of Lewisham. Such a vast number fo their patients who are children have not been able to receive the treatment they had prior to the COVID-19 breakout.
Kaleidoscope is a Children’s community nursing team which incorporates children’s Nurses/complex needs nurses/acute rapid response nurses/ children’s asthma nurses and health care professionals working in patient’s homes, clinics and other community settings such as special schools-delivering all kinds of treatment and support to enable children who are unwell (some with COVID-19/some without!) to stay at home with their families. A large proportion of our caseloads are vulnerable children and young people who have long term conditions, complex needs, or have cancer and are receiving treatment at home.
The scrubs we make for Kaleidoscope will be worn as a uniform in the current situation as historically these nurses have worn their own clothes, however, in light of the virus, they have been feeling vulnerable wearing civvies in potentially infectious settings.
Doing this will help with their 'Recovery Plan', to bring back ALL of the important services that have been put on hold!!
AGAIN - From ALL of us - THANK YOU SO MUCH for any small donations you are able to afford to our project to help with buying materials. The more materials we can get our hands on the more crucial PPE we can make, to help our NHS get back to a new normal!!
Organizer
Victoria Townsend
Organizer
