A Dundee woman is looking on the lighter side of lockdown life after making a bra facemask for her husband.
Vivien Scott, 71, Broughty Ferry, has been making facemasks for people to wear when on essential trips to the supermarket.
She has also pressed a 100-year-old piece of wedding linen from a Great Aunt into active service in the battle against coronavirus.
She said: “My husband Alastair is a good sport.
“The bra one I have worn many times over the last few weeks and simply causes people to smile.
“The first time I had the bra one on I was in the Co-op and I asked a young man do you know what it is.
“He said, yes, a bra. When I was young, a man would have been mortified by that.”
Strangers had approached her asking for the napkin masks and she has made three for others so far.
“The napkin one is one I inherited in a set from my Great Aunt Eva, who if alive would be 126,” she said. “They were wedding linen so this must be at least 100 years old.
“Nobody, apart from me, is brave enough to wear the bra one outside the house.”
She said the idea came when listening to first minister Nicola Sturgeon talking about a shortage of masks during a media briefing.
“I had this bra on. The shape of it is just the same. I just cut the straps off and made them earpieces. It was very simple.”
Not content with her original mask designs, Vivien – a retired writer on the now defunct comics Bimbo and Twinkle – has captured the experience in verse.
“I have always written these poems. I do everything in verse and I have been writing about the lockdown.
“That was my basic training back when I worked for DC Thomson.”
She remains undaunted by official advice in the UK remaining that wearing masks in public is not necessary.
“It is just a bit of light hearted fun and it often leads into a conversation.
“They can’t make up their minds about the masks and I don’t blame them. We have never been through this before and it will do no harm to wear a mask.
“They don’t really know if they are working or not,” she added.
A shortage of masks
Is big news now,
Surely I could make one?
Yes, I know how
For a brainwave came over me
I have a bra size 36D
Pale pink, comfy and soft
But firm enough to stay aloft
I know I can make it,
I have the verve
To wear it in public,
Yes, I have the nerve!
