A team at Squire & Partners – architects and designers based at The Department Store in Brixton – including in-house clothing and textile designer Isabel Fletcher are collaborating to produce free PPE resources for South London NHS hospitals with weekly outputs of 120 visor headbands and sets of scrubs with customised patterned pockets and messages of support to frontline workers.
Tim Gledstone, Partner at Squire & Partners said: “We asked ourselves, what can we do to help? We can all say thank you, we can all use our skills. Squire & Partners’ One Love NHS project provides essential PPE with an extra dose of love and appreciation for NHS frontline workers through the joy of design and making. It goes beyond the necessary and the uniform to create warmth and appreciation of human care at a time when we’re all physically far apart.”
The team are producing NHS Scrubs where the basic approved design is enhanced with pockets of bespoke fabrics as well as rolling out 120 3-D printed visor headbands a week at the Department Store modelshop. Squire & Partners are also offering free patterns through the For the Love of Scrubs facebook page if you have a sewing machine and would like to get involved.
NHS Scrubs
The practice’s modelshop team – including in-house textile designer Isabel Fletcher – have been creating sets of scrubs to order for local hospitals.
The scheme is part of a collective effort organised by the South London and Croydon branches of For the Love of Scrubs, who have supplied over 1,000 sets of scrubs to local NHS hospitals.
According to Squire & Partners, the two-piece sets are handmade to NHS standards and feature a customised breast pocket using offcuts of bespoke patterned fabrics from The Department Store.
“Later sets will have a digitally printed fabric designed by the practice with ‘One Love NHS’ to send a message to frontline staff that we’re all in this together.
“The process of making scrubs involves collecting approved fabric which is then washed, dried and cut to shape before sewing, customising and delivering the finished product to a central distribution point.
“In enhancing the pockets with uplifting patterns, using contrasting thread colours and including messages of support for NHS Heroes, the practice hopes to spread a bit of joy in the wards of local hospitals whilst providing staff with much needed PPE.”
Squire & Partners is also providing For the Love of Scrubs a free print service for scrub patterns in various sizes, also extended locally in Brixton to anyone who requires scrub patterns for making at home.
Anyone interested to find out more about creating scrubs for the NHS can sign up to For the Love of Scrubs on facebook.
3D Printed Visors
Following approval of their prototype and allocation of a production ID, the Squire & Partners modelshop team are creating 120 visor headbands a week for distribution to hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries nationwide.
The headbands, created using recycled PLA with an Ultimaker S5 3D printer, also feature the message of ‘One Love NHS’ by the right ear. The team deliver a box per week to the distribution centre, as part of the COVID-19 initiative for the NHS organised by The Industry Prints with the National 3D Printing Society.
The headbands have visor screens added before being sterilised and distributed.
