‘I’m up until two in the morning sewing masks’: the craft shop making lockdown work'

Really Maria, London

Maria Sammur of south London independent craft shop Really Maria explains what lockdown has meant to her, how she has kept her business open and helped the community around her

In March, he was forced to close his beloved shop and put his two part-time staff on furlough. Stuck at home like everyone else, Whitehouse started experimenting with streaming his classes online direct from his dining room via closed Facebook groups. The camera was trained on his easel and he offered step-by-step instructions just as he did in the real-life classes.

“Those first few weeks were about getting my older students used to new technology,” he says. “For some, my classes were the only outside contact they got all week. It became a special time where they could connect and switch off from the stress of Covid-19 for a couple of hours.”