Stitch - Scrubs Made in UK
Ruislip, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us supply our NHS staff with fit for purpose UK manufactured scrubs, upskill our local people and create sustainable employment.
Stitch is the brainchild of Sital Punja FRSA, an artisanal womenswear manufacturer, who turned her workshop into a Scrubs cutting/assembly/dispatch hub, following her husband’s Covid 19 recovery.
Our Mission
It is a sustainable social enterprise which aims to create a virtuous circle where the needs of the local NHS and healthcare workers are met by the skills of the local community which ensures the wealth remains in the local community and allows local community to thrive.
- Addressing the problem of local unemployment through upskilling and creating career pathways for local people to have transferable skills
- Creating local regional supply chains manufacturing scrubs and other apparel workwear which keep wealth in the community
- Building resilience so that our NHS and healthcare institutions never need to be in short supply again and be hostage to frayed international supply chains and price gouging in times of high need.
Response To Pandemic Shortages
During the Covid19 Pandemic, 1000's across the nation dusted down their sewing machines and started making scrubs for our frontline healthcare teams. Supply could not meet demand and our healthcare teams were left calling on volunteers to keep them safely clothed.
In Hillingdon, we implemented a community cottage industry with over 350 volunteers from sewers to drivers to administrators.
Being local, we were able to respond quickly to the bespoke needs of hospital departments and care homes by redesigning scrubs and gowns that were fit for purpose. We trained and upskilled our home sewers online to ensure high quality was maintained.
- We found that health staff were finding standard issue scrubs stifling with the increased PPE requirements, so we sourced a light weight poly cotton that could still be washed at 65 degrees.
- We found that extra pockets were essential to prevent medics and healthcare teams putting equipment on surfaces to help in the prevention of cross contamination.
- We found that responding to requests of different single colour scrubs allowed health teams to identify the various specialties in the new Covid 19 working environment.
- We found that side vents were essential to a garment that needed to fit both sexes and accommodate different body shapes.
- We found that comfort during long intense shifts was essential to the wellbeing of healthcare staff.
Feedback From Healthcare Teams
The feedback from our healthcare teams have been overwhelming. We are humbled that they prefer our scrubs to their regular ones. Our Medics and healthcare staff deserve scrubs that fit well, are made well and make them feel comfortable to do their vital jobs.
“Thank you for the scrubs and listening to our need for extra pockets. It means we do not have to leave items on surfaces. Thank you for keeping us safe.” Linda (Head Nurse – Hillingdon Hospital)
“Thank you to For the Love of Scrubs – Hillingdon Group. I love the heart denoting who made them, the perfect sizing and attention to detail, including the pen pocket that I’m still impressed with.” (Hillingdon Hospital)
“Because of you so many of us are protected and comfortable at work. Every time I’ve reached out to you for help you’ve always been there for us. When we needed ear defenders for the pharmacy department, for the children on our paediatric wards and scrubs for those members of staff that needed them. Every item we have received has been of such high quality and sent with love.” Ashifa Trivedi (Pharmacy and Paediatric Hillingdon Hospital)
“Thank you for creating special gowns for us to keep our staff safe. The Head of Quality Control was so impressed with them.” Hannah Cader (Ruislip Care Homes)
“Thank you for responding so quickly to the crisis.” Ritu Prasad (Covid Hot Hubs)
The Opportunity
Even though lock down is easing, scrubs are still needed as more healthcare teams than ever before are wearing them. This is their new norm.
Now is the time to make scrubs in the UK to support the British economy and our British workers with better quality, faster delivery and fit for purpose garments, so that our healthcare teams can do their jobs no matter what the circumstances.
We are currently working with two Healthcare Trusts in London to initiate the first hub. Once set up, we will approach healthcare trusts region to region using a social franchising model of creating local manufacturing hubs for local healthcare teams.
Funding Required £80,000
We are crowdfunding to raise the money for the equipment required to set up our first hub.
- 1 x Automated Laying Machine
- 5 Lockstitch Machine
- 5 5 Thread Overlocker
- 2 Pocket Setter
- 1 Automated packing machine
- 2 x Industrial Irons
Who We Are:
About the founder - Sital Punja FRSA
- Winner of Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007 with Sari an ethical upcycling fashion concept.
- Has worked extensively to support British garment manufacturing by developing skills and local labour.
- Co-ordinated mass manufacturing including over 2000 costumes for 2012 London Olympics.
- Revived a failing factory to work with leading British designers
- Founded Threads London Limited in 2013, an artisanal dressmaking service specialising in womenswear.
- Took over the management of the scrubs project 18th April 2020 and rapidly scaled up production distribution and volunteer engagement to increase impact.
Media
The community scrubs project can be found on Facebook @ScrubsForHillingdon
Please click on the links below to see further media coverage.
With your help we can supply good quality, competitively priced scrubs made in the UK. Please pledge to Stitch
Thank you for your support.
This project closed unsuccessfully on 12th August 2020