Children's clothes designer from Daviot near Inverness turns her hand to making free face masks during Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic
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A Daviot mum-of-two made 100 face masks during a marathon weekend sewing session to try and combat the spread of coronavirus.
Claire Mackintosh (31) even recruited her husband Gavin to help her thread through the elastic of the face masks to get the job done at breakneck speed.
She wants to give away the masks to anyone who needs them.
She said: "I make children's clothes as part of my business, Rory Macaroni.
"A couple of people had recently asked me to make face masks to sell them. I didn't want to do that – this is not a time to make money from such a dreadful situation.
"But I did decide that I would make them for people in Inverness, and people back home in Lochinver.
"So, I just found a pattern and started to make them. They are fairly simple to make, but are quite involved to get them right."
Mrs Mackintosh's face masks are made in eye-catching colours in a range of patterns.
She has even had some requests for the masks from NHS workers.
"I set myself a challenge of making 100 face masks over the weekend," she said. "When I made the first one, I realised it would take me 15 minutes per face mask, and three-and-a-half-minutes to thread through the elastic.
"I decided to recruit my husband Gavin to help me get them finished. He was very good at the job – I might even get him to help more often."
Mrs Mackintosh made the masks over the Easter weekend.
She said: "I have made them for anyone who has asked me for them.
"Face masks give people the comfort of knowing that they themselves have a good bit of protection. I just want everybody to stay safe."
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