THE owner of a haberdashery shop and sewing school in Westmead has spent lockdown organising volunteers to make scrubs for NHS staff.

Vikki Loeber-Hughes of Nimble Thimbles had to close her business when the pandemic hit the UK but has used her spare time to help her sewing students and shop customers sew uniforms and bags for medical professionals.

They made their first donation of more than 20 sets of scrubs and more than 50 scrub bags to Great Western Hospital and Priory Road Medical Centre in mid-May.

Another 60 sets were sewn and sent off later on. Vikki and 20 other volunteer sewers have given up their time and put their sewing skills to good use by helping to keep NHS staff safe.

She said: “It’s the least we can do to help but it shows how everyone is pulling together to help at this difficult time.

“I saw something on facebook about PPE and thought ‘let’s get on it!’. They were so grateful, we’ve had thank you cards, it’s been really nice and well worth doing.”

The project has been paid for with funding from St James' Place in Cirencester and Aurelia Skincare. Nationwide Building Society printed the scrub patterns for volunteers to use.

Instructional videos have been made along the way to help those who are struggling with the making of the scrubs. These can be seen on nimblethimbles.co.uk

Vikki is looking forward to reopening her shop on the Westmead Industrial Estate next Monday after seeing sales through her website soar during lockdown.

She added: “Shutting the shop was not brilliant but I’ll survive. My website has kept me busy because the orders have gone through the roof.

“It seems like everyone decided to take up knitting and crocheting while they were at home. There’s been lots of demand for wool and sewing machines, and elastic for face masks.

“I hope this keeps going after lockdown ends because there are a lot of positives to taking up sewing and it’s brilliant that so many people are now.

“My sewing school can’t open yet but the bag-making classes have been popular. Pre-lockdown, I had 10 students in three ongoing classes and a few Saturday projects.”