Orbost resident, Karlee Coles, created small business, Homesewn Orbost, during the first lockdown as she quickly picked up the skill of sewing and taught herself to create children’s clothes.
“After Orbost had it’s recent COVID scare, I was really worried for the community and especially for the elderly and more vulnerable people of the town who may not have the finances or have easy access to a mask supplier,” Karlee said.
“As sewing is one of my much loved hobbies I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to help from home and to assist the community where I could through this hard and scary time.”
Many businesses quickly changed to this model and began sewing masks to turn a profit, however Karlee was not one of those as she chose to make the masks for free as a goodwill gesture to the community.
While there was no choice on fabric, Karlee simply looked through her fabric stash and made them with only the simple preference of male or female. In total she has made 115 masks.
The masks were made based on the DHHS guidelines and included a little pocket for individuals to add a filter if they would like to add more protection against the virus.
“Although I did not expect anything in return, I have been gifted things like hand sanitiser, gloves, chocolates, a teddy bear for my soon to arrive son, flowers and a tattoo voucher from some of the community members and everyone has let me know how very thankful they all are,” Karlee said.
“We all need to listen to the health directives given and stay safe and look after one another.”
IMAGE: Karlee Coles and her six-year-old daughter, Ella, who just had to have a Frozen mask considering her mum was making so many. (PS)
