Sewing teacher’s ‘war’ effort
When the rest of the country went into lockdown Jenny Imrie was busier than ever setting up a ‘‘factory’’ to help win the war against coronavirus.
The New Plymouth woman runs an outsourced team of 24 workers who are sewing 100 sets of hospital scrubs at sewing machines around the province.
‘‘You feel like you’re helping the war effort really,’’ Imrie said.
Since the Covid-19 crisis began hospitals changed protocols around staff wearing the sanitary clothing, known as ‘‘scrubs’’, to and from work. Instead they must be left at work, which meant the number of sets hospitals need has shot up.
When it became difficult for the Taranaki District Health Board to source them through its usual supplier, it looked for a local solution and found Imrie, a sewing teacher in the region with 30 years experience and 100 students to call on.
‘‘I jumped at the chance because I thought it was a really good chance to do something to help,’’ the 63-yearold said.
Each set takes roughly three hours to make so Imrie enlisted the help of 24 of her sewing army to make them from their homes. Once they are finished Civil Defence workers arranging contactless pick-ups and deliver them to the hospital.
‘‘You can only do what you can do because we’ve got limited resources. We’re not a clothing factory, we don’t have industrial sewing machines. We’re not geared up for it but everyone was so keen to help.’’
To get the makeshift factory up and running Imrie had to source 400m of navy and grey poly-viscose material, 100m of elastic, and 100 rolls of thread.
The logistics were a nightmare but through her wholesalers and contacts they managed to make it work, she said.
Imrie used to teach sewing at CC Wards, then at Spotlight, and around seven years ago she moved to a classroom at the Western Institute of Technology (Witt).
It’s the same classroom where she taught a fashion design class 25 years ago.
‘‘Witt has been very supportive,’’ she said. ‘‘Every time I leave the building someone has to come in and clean.
‘‘A big thank you to all of my support team, everybody rallied around to make it happen.’’
Craig Thorne, Taranaki emergency management advisor, said Imrie and her sewing students were a temporary solution to get through the next few months until the usual supplier of hospital scrubs resumed.
Imrie has been deemed an essential service by TDHB and Civil Defence to fulfil the order.