DMU's fashion technicians work from home to make scrubs for health workers

A small army of home workers from De Montfort University's School of Fashion and Textiles have joined the campaign to make much-needed hospital scrubs for NHS workers.

While in lockdown the highly-skilled technical instructors, who are usually helping hundreds of students during term time, have been using their own equipment to do their bit as demand for scrubs in hospitals soars.

It was revealed last week that other technicians and lecturers from the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities, were visiting the campus to use DMU equipment so they can make as many plastic face visors, scrubs and scrubs bags as possible.

The army of volunteers is growing by the day with technical staff offering to take delivery of patterns and produce scrubs at home.

Laura Worthington, a technical instructor in DMU's Fashion Design department, said: "Since lockdown I have been working from home helping a local group make scrubs and I have just started making some scrubs with DMU.

"I felt I had the right skills and machinery to do this and I also wanted to help others who have been putting their lives at risk every day.

"I am proud to be part of the communities that are helping our key workers."

Heini Taskula, another technical instructor for Fashion Design, added: "During lockdown I have been working from home. I joined a local volunteering group and I have been making scrubs for our local hospitals.

"I wanted to help and keep our NHS workers safe. I have the right skills and the right machinery at home so it felt like the right thing to do."

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Diljit Kaur, a technical instructor for Contour Fashion, is also making surgical scrub hats as well as masks and scrubs bags from home, while also using the machinery on the DMU campus.

Gavin Kew, Faculty Operations Manager for ADH, said: "It is great to see that as well as people on campus we have an army of staff working from home to do what they can to help all those on the frontline.

"DMU is rightly proud of everything they are doing. It's only right that, during lockdown, we use all the skills we have to help those who need us most."