Sewing community in Milton Keynes and Bedford rally together to make scrubs for the NHS

More than 3,000 sewing bees have rallied together to coordinate support and supply NHS-approved scrubs for Milton Keynes and Bedfordshire NHS frontline staff.

The army of tailors, seamstresses and crafters have joined forces to supply hospitals with scrubs they are so desperately looking for.

Scott Souster, director of Woburn tailors Souster & Hicks set out to raise £1,000 for the approved fabric needed to make NHS approved scrubs. Within a matter of days, the funds raised were more than £10,000.

Scott said: “Our business is currently closed, so we started to brainstorm ways we could do something beneficial with our skillset and time. I came across the community Facebook page Sewing for the NHS – Bedfordshire, Bucks & Milton Keynes and got into contact with Gemma Little, one of the admins and creators of the page. The money we have raised is going towards NHS approved cloth, and as it stands, we will be able to supply 750 scrubs to our national heroes.”

Gemma Little, owner of The Little Sewing Studio in Ampthill said: “The NHS staff are running out of scrubs. They can use many sets a day when treating patients and the demand has now outgrown their own supply. The staff that are saving us should not be having to buy their own protective scrubs, so we decided to rally up the sewing troops and show them we are 100 per cent behind them and will protect them in any capacity we can.”

“Lots of the Facebook group members have already bought fabric out of their own back pocket, in order for requests to be met, but they won’t be able to meet the demand all by themselves. So, this is why we have set up a crowdfunder to raise money to continue to fund the fabrics, threads and supplies needed to kit out these incredibly brave people."