Diane Olsen prepares for another facemask stitching session. Photo / Supplied
A Napier resident has taken it upon herself to spread some neighbourly needlecraft during lockdown.
Diane Olsen, 69, from Taradale has past experience in spreading cheer during lockdown, so when the country went into lockdown this week, she decided to take a proactive approach to help people out.
"Last time, before we went into lockdown, I was volunteering at the Taradale Opshop and I made some face masks for the staff there," Olsen said.
"My husband also put out his vintage tractor at the end of our driveway with teddy bears sitting on it, in the last lockdown, and it would make children and families stop and explore."
This year Olsen decided to re-visit the face masks, but for the wider community.
"I can't stop buying fabric, when I see something pretty I buy it. I have a cupboard full of fabric," she said.
"So I decided to make a mask for myself, and then decided to make more and hang them out at our fence so people could help themselves, for free," for people who didn't have any.
On the first and second day of lockdown, Olsen made stitched 20 masks, and they "went like hotcakes".
"They were all gone, I try and make them special. I have some floral ones, some patterned ones," she said.
"I make them in batches, and then I cut and sew them in batches.
"It takes me a quarter of an hour to make one."
She said people have been responding to her free face masks in kind.
"A gentleman up the road left us a bottle of apple juice, with a thank you note," she said.
"Another person left us a thank you note with a smiley face."
On Sunday, Olsen intended to stitch 18 masks for the community.
"They are popular and they help to keep the community safe."
Mandatory mask wearing is here to stay, a top epidemiologist says, as New Zealanders mask up in the country's first outbreak of the Delta variant.
University of Otago, Wellington, epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said when mask wearing was made mandatory at businesses open to the public in alert level 4, it was a historic moment for the country.