Sewing group scrubs up for Islay care home staff
Members of sewing group Islay Quilters and their friends have been busy stitching in support of NHS staff at Islay’s Gortonvogie Care Home in Bowmore.
Amid reports of widespread shortages of protective clothing for medical staff dealing with patients suffering from COVID-19, the quilters began producing scrubs for staff there.
Scrubs – now worn by all medical staff dealing with patients – are designed to have few places for infection to gather and to be tough enough to be washed at a high temperature. Also called ‘theatre blues’, they take the name ‘scrubs’ when put on by surgeons sterilising their hands and arms – or 'scrubbing in' before operating.
The work of the quilters is supported by a £1,000 donation – to cover the cost of materials – from Islay’s WW100 Legacy Fund. The fund, raised during the centenary commemorations in 2018, stands at £20,000, about a third of which is earmarked for alleviating the effect of coronavirus and lockdown on the island.
Anthony Wills of Kilchoman Distillery, which donated the proceeds of a unique cask to the fund, said: ‘We are living in unprecedented times. It is a wonderful idea to donate some of the legacy fund to support the community.’
Rae Woodrow of Islay Quilters said: ‘We are delighted to be working with other volunteer sewers across the island to put our skills to good use.’
The rapid hands-on response by the quilters and other Islay sewers to the current crisis has echoes of how Islay women came together in February 1918 to sew, overnight, an American flag for use at the first mass burial of US soldiers killed when their troopship, the SS Tuscania, was torpedoed off the island.
Islanders then behaved with great humanity, caring for the survivors and gathering and respectfully burying the bodies of 126 victims whose bodies were washed up on Islay.
In 2018, Islay Quilters commemorated the women who sewed the flag by hand stitching an American flag for use at the centennial commemorations.
Sharon McHarrie, chairwoman of the Museum of Islay Life, custodian of the legacy fund, said: ‘This is a fantastic idea to use the fund in such a way. It reflects the way the community responded in 1918 and continues to do so.’
The original US flag sewn by island women in 1918 is currently on Islay, on loan from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
The Museum of Islay Life is closed due to the pandemic but Jenni Minto, museum manger and convener of the WW100 commemorations on the island, said: ‘While it is a shame we can’t currently let the public see this unique and historic artefact, it is gratifying the spirit of community and coming together in difficult times still thrives on Islay.’