Janice Hanlon can turn out 5 dresses in a day.
She makes up to 700 garments a year. Since 2012, she has sewed, knitted and whipped up 4581 separate items of clothing, all for charity.
The talented Taupō seamstress and knitter donates all her efforts to Operation Cover Up, a project which began in 2002 after Taupō woman Liz Clarke, who sponsored a child in a Moldova orphanage, heard that the children had no warm blankets in temperatures of below -20C in winter.
Operation Cover Up's knitters and sewers produce clothing and blankets for orphaned children and needy families in the freezing temperatures of Eastern Europe. Every year jerseys, blankets, hats, scarves, clothes and toiletries are packed into two 40-foot shipping containers and sent to Mission Without Borders HQ in The Netherlands for distribution. Now, 18 years later, 130,00 blankets and 2 million other items have been sent.
Janice first heard about Operation Cover Up after moving to Taupō.
"I came back from Australia in 2011 and I had some broderie anglaise dresses and little matinée sets that went with them and I said to a friend 'I don't want money for them' and she put me onto Liz and it went from there."
The 80 year old has always knitted and sewn clothes for herself, her five children and her foster children.
"I was told I had the best-dressed children in the school."
Janice produces huge quantities of children's clothing for Operation Cover Up, mainly girls' dresses or pinafores and blouses, as well as boys' shirts and trousers and some women's outfits. She also knits jumpers, cardigans and hats.
"I sew by day and knit by night," says Janice. "I just love sewing and I think 'well, there's a need and the fact that I'm clothing children that are needy'."
Her neatly-organised sewing room holds three sewing machines and an overlocker and her threads, elastics, ribbons, laces and buttons are all colour-coded and stored in labelled containers. Her garage is full of bins of material and also serves as her cutting out room.
Much of her fabric is donated through word of mouth. She never has to buy buttons, and people give her materials such as wool for knitting and lace, ribbons and zips.
She also loves embellishing the dresses with pretty things.
"Because [the children] have got nothing, I like to make them as pretty as I can, although the boys' clothes are a lot plainer."
Through Liz, Janice also met Northland knitter and sewer Glenice Blumhardt who produces tracksuits, sweatshirts and pyjamas and has made over 2000 items. The pair, although separated by a huge distance, have become bosom buddies, speak almost every day and send each other materials.
Liz says she's astounded by both women's output.
"They [Janice and Glenice] are in contact all the time and they call themselves partners in crime and they both say they have never enjoyed anything so much," says Liz.
"I just feel like crying sometimes because I prayed a prayer and it started, and people say it's their life, so I'm so grateful, very grateful."
Liz doesn't knit or sew herself but she recognises that besides producing clothes or blankets, Operation Cover Up gives its volunteers a purpose and social connection, with many friendships forged.