For The Love Of Scrubs Stamford Lincs/Rutland prepares for name change as its popularity soars

A sewing group whose popularity has snowballed throughout the coronavirus pandemic is about to change its name.

For The Love Of Scrubs Stamford, Lincs/Rutland was formed at the start of lockdown as part of a wider national movement to help make garments for frontline health workers.

But it gained more momentum than its founder, theatre costume designer Miriam Davies, could ever have foreseen.

With 1,100 members all eager to help out, the group now wants to broaden their offering and help any organisation that needs them - even after the Covid nightmare is over.

So in two weeks’ time they plan to change their name to For The Love Of Sewing Stamford, Lincs/Rutland.

Miriam, who works with Stamford Shakespeare Company at Tolethorpe, said: “Our plan is to still stay in association with For The Love Of Scrubs and continue that work. But the small name change means we can start to open our arms wider for any other medical sewing needs that may arise in the community.

“For example some of our wonderful sewists have been knitting premature baby hats for the prom baby units. We just want to be here for the community, to keep ticking along in case we are needed again in a big way, and to offer our help in other areas as well.”

She added: “Our biggest thing is that people continue to contact us with their needs. We’re all really excited for this next chapter!”

Meanwhile, the group raised a whopping £1,698 alongside another team of volunteers, Helping With Headbands, at Bourne Market on Saturday.

They were selling face masks and coverings from a pop-up stall, which had already proved a hit in Stamford on July 18 when more than £2,500 was raised.

All the cash goes back into providing materials for the groups to continue their vital work.

Miriam said: “It was an absolutely fabulous day! Bourne was beautiful, there was a steady stream of people and we implemented social distancing measures successfully. We’ve got it down now and will be back on Stamford Market this coming Saturday, August 8, with those measures in place.

“It’ll be awesome to see people down there again!”

Since it began at the start of April, the group has made almost 20,000 garments including 2,700 scrubs, 8,800 scrubs bags, 2,000 hats, 2,700 headbands and 3,500 face coverings.

For more information check out the group’s Facebook page.