Stitch by stitch, Halcyon Lakeside homeowner Lynn Whybrow is helping make a difference for kids in need.

Lynn is the convenor of the Stitcher’s Hub in the Bli Bli community, a group which began as a sewing get-together and has grown into a volunteer workforce of tailors giving new life to old clothes. 

"It started when Halcyon Lakeside first opened, which is nearly five years ago,” Lynn said. 

"It started in somebody's house and then we got bigger and moved down to a craft room within the recreation club, then that got too small after a while.

"There was another room being used for something else and Halcyon turned it into the Stitcher’s Hub, which is quite a large room, but we use every inch of it.” 

The Stitcher’s Hub are using their sewing expertise to support the work of Uniform 4 Kids, a charity that repurposes old government, police and fire uniforms into clothes for disadvantaged children around Australia. 

“My main forte is dressmaking, that’s one of my loves,” Lynn said. 

“I heard about Uniforms 4 Kids and thought it was something we could do and now we get a load of old uniforms which we unpick and turn into kids clothing."

"They're usually quite fun clothes but they’re also quite practical clothes. Mainly skirts, shorts and little tops ... the organisers have given us some really good ideas and it’s just limited by your imagination.” 

Lynn and her husband David came to Halcyon Lakeside as one of the first homeowners, only six weeks after it opened. A retired accountant, Lynn said they enjoy the idyllic coastal setting and the casual, go-at-your-own-pace lifestyle of the community, which has won two national awards.

“We like the outlook here, it’s absolutely beautiful,” she said.

“We really enjoy the community spirit here and I think if you lived in a house in the suburbs now, it would be really lonely.”