Ilkeston: Woman crochets 6ft soldier to mark Remembrance Day

A woman has spent about 200 hours creating a life-sized crochet soldier to mark Remembrance Day.

Jilly Crofts started working on her creation in May and kept the project a secret.

The 6ft tall tribute now stands guard outside All Saints church in Stanley Common, near Ilkeston in Derbyshire.

The majority of the structure is made out of chicken wire while the legs are broom handles and the entire body is covered in crochet.

Miss Crofts described the crotchet part of the project as a "labour of love", and said she took it with her wherever she went so she could work on it during spare moments.

She said: "Its been a nightmare to keep it to myself all these months and I'm not good at keeping secrets."

Miss Crofts learned to crochet when she was seven but did not pursue it as a hobby until she was recovering from an operation nine years ago.

The idea of creating the life-sized figure came to her when she made a soldier postbox topper that attracted more than 62,000 likes on Facebook.

The full-size soldier online has prompted a similar response and she said she "could never have dreamt that this would happen".

Photographer Colin Tomlinson, who goes by the name of A Breath Of Country Air, was among the admirers of the finished product.

He said the creation was "just absolutely stunning".

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