ISLAND LIFE

Lyn Hellewell loves the intimacy of her tiny attic workspace at Peregrine School at Nicholls Rivulet. As production manager of the southern Tasmanian school’s sail bag fundraiser, Hellewell makes bags out of recycled sails to sell online and at Salamanca, and co-ordinates volunteers who work on the project.

“The sewing machine I work on is at one end of the room, and then there’s a huge cutting table where we cut and design and do all of the making of the bags,” she says.

“Once you’ve got about four or five people apart from me in there, it’s getting pretty cosy.”

Hellewell is pictured at her sewing machine at the Huon Valley school where she works three days a week making a range of bags. The collection includes large gear bags and smaller utility/toiletrysize bags made from donated sails.

The fundraiser began in 2013, and raises enough money to offset the tuition fees for the parents who volunteer in the loft.

Though the room in which she works is small, Hellewell says it’s a nurturing place.

“As well as producing these fabulous bags, we’re building social capital in that loft,” she says. “It’s turned out to be about so much more than making bags.

“We’re all up there putting the world to rights, and helping each other out while we’re working away on the bags.”

Find Peregrine School’s sail bag stall at Salamanca market each Saturday, or search for A float by peregrine on Etsy. To donate sails, send an email to fundraising@peregrine.tas.edu.au