CORONAVIRUS WEEK 25: NHS SCRUBS SEWING UPDATE

I have finished sewing 3 more pairs of NHS scrubs.  Here they are below.  I give them to John who gives them to anyone who wants them (not for OR or normal use, i.e. for children's hospices or care homes for example.

I am still using the fabric I was sent by the shop who supplied fabric at a knock-down price for signed-up sewers of Scotland NHS Scrubs in the early days of Lockdown.

The story of the above photo... just for the record:

The top pair, Pair number 1, are a made of brown cotton for the bottoms and kiddies' patterned cotton for the top.  I found the brown cotton sent to me was faded in places as if the material had been sitting in a window in the sun. (That is OK; I just laid out the pattern pieces to accommodate.)  I put the finished bottoms aside and later purchased the blue Winnie the Pooh fabric from John Lewis's to make a co-ordinating top.  The material was OK (but needed at lot of straightening!) 

Pair number 2 in the middle is made from a piece of Marimekko fabric I bought years ago in Sweden and made into a tablecloth.  It was  slightly faded and had a few marks on it from spaghetti hoops or some such orange food colouring but OK for this project. It sewed up fine; lovely weight of cotton and no dye running.

Pair number 3: I had 4 metres (enough for 2 pairs of scrubs) of this sent from the fabric store supplying NHS sewers and this was me using it for the first time. When I got it I put it in the washing machine to make sure it was 'pre-shrunk', then dried,straightened and ironed it, then folded it and put it aside.  

A couple of weeks ago I decided to cut out the first of 2 pairs of scrubs from this piece.  When I complete both top and bottom I noticed that there was a soiled mark on the top so I put into the sink to wash it.  Oh my goodness!  The dye ran something awful!

Because I had put the original 4 metre piece in the washing machine I had not noticed the dye problem!  Needless to say, while I was not charged a lot for the material I was vexed to find this problem and that the rest of the fabric unusable i.e. I will not be able to use it for scrubs.

Finally ... again, just for the record, I raised the V shape opening in the top so it wasn't so deep.  By doing (these and) the other scrubs I made were not taken but the sewing co-ordinator as they did not meet the NHS specification.  Quite right, of course. (They have to go over the head really easily without brushing against the skin - fair enough.)

The good news, of course, is that I really enjoy sewing these scrubs and do lots of other bits and pieces in tandem, e.g. altering Oxfam shirts for Iain, using up really good fabric in my stash for various household or sartorial projects.