'I turn rags into riches for children's hospice'

A fashion graduate is transforming a charity shop's unwanted rags set for landfill into bespoke clothing that are being snapped up by savvy customers.

Victoria Ford has upcycled old items from Derian House Children's Hospice shop in Chorley into unique skirts, tops, and accessories, including handbags crafted from old blow-up beds.

The 23-year-old, who is passionate about sustainable fashion, said there was an "eye-watering" amount of donations the shop was unable to sell, so she had the idea to give them "a new life".

She said she was shocked at the scale of stained or broken items which are donated, adding: "It's unfair... as people are treating it like a bin."

Victoria has always been into fashion and making her own clothes, getting her first sewing machine at the age of 10.

Most of her clothes are either homemade or bought from charity shops.

She said she and her friend often went to Chorley or Manchester to "do a little charity shop crawl... and find proper good gems".

After graduating with a Fashion and Design degree from Manchester Metropolitan University, she told BBC Radio Lancashire she approached the children's hospice with her idea last year.

"Rather than letting things go to waste, I wanted to help Derian House to give their unsellable clothing a new life, and to turn them into something others can enjoy," she said.

Victoria went to the shop's warehouse and left armed with two bags of rags and has now transformed them into one-off designs, with the collection now available to buy in Derian House's shop.

She turned a worn dressing gown into a satin top.

"I love being so creative and it is exciting because every piece is going to be different," she said.

"It is such a good cause as well but also sustainable at the same time."

Mick Croskery from Derian House said Victoria's collection was attracting a new crowd to the shop.

He said the charity's shops already had "super tight margins" and had recently become "inundated with rags" - with up to half of its clothing being too worn or with holes, stains or burnt to sell on.

He said: "It is that kind of stuff that Victoria has repurposed for us that we couldn't sell."

She had found a creative way to make them valuable again and help reduce waste, he said.

He added: "It helps us massively.

"Three years ago we were getting paid something like 70p for a kilogram of unwanted clothes but now it is like 10p so it is next to nothing.

"It is becoming a problem of how you get rid of it."

He said the charity could throw 50 bags of rags a week so it was "really satisfying to see just some of it getting reused".

Mick urged people to think twice before handing over unwanted items.

"We appreciate donations but unless you would buy it please don't give it us."

He said they were given "all kinds of stuff", even bags of used nappies.

"It costs us money to actually dispose of that," he added.

Derian House cares for more than 400 babies, children, young people and their families and costs more than £6m to run annually.

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