First year Blossom Multani, of Trowbridge said she is enjoying the challenge of finding items to make a skirt for their project to create Marie Antoinette-inspired high street fashion. “It’s supposed to be an asymmetric skirt and I’ve ripped up loads of things and I’ve got kind of like a patchwork vibe going on,” she said.

“I like the project because I feel like its raising awareness about sustainability and also how bad fast fashion is. People don’t have to throw things out but if they do I think it’s important that they also buy second hand.”

Fellow first year Phoebe Elms, of Melksham, is turning a damaged patterned tablecloth into a full circle skirt with pleats and will be adding lace to it. “It was a bit difficult because I needed to get to a specific size so I needed to do the maths to work out how much material needs to be taken away,” she said. “I’ve liked drawing out my designs and having to look at what material I’ve chosen to see what I can do from my designs.

“I love that someone could end up buying it,” that’s  really cool.”

Second year Sienna Snook, of Chapmanslade, began with an unwanted bra and an old skirt and is well on the way to creating a full length gown for the fashion show after dying the skirt with coffee and sewing beads and pearls to the top.

“I’ve learnt how to sew from the inside while attaching the shirt to the bra and how to bead as well,” she said. “The dress has taken on a bit of life of its own because I didn’t do any drawings to start with, I just chose the bra and then went with it.”

Eleanor Lee, of Bath, began with an old waistcoat and a pair of trousers and has ended up with a bold sleeveless wrap-around top decorated with flowers she sewed herself, complemented by a flowing skirt made from the trousers. She’ll be modelling it at the fashion show.

“I’d seen some cool videos on how to make flowers using ribbons and I ended up putting them across the lapel,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot from the project about working with actual clients and not just to a brief.

“I started with a very typical thing but it has evolved into something else and I’ve learned that it’s okay not to have one concrete idea, you can just run with what’s going on.”

Siobahn Conway of Market Lavington said her love of creative writing inspired the jacket she’ll be wearing on the catwalk. It is adorned with pages from a racy Jilly Cooper novel. She said she chose the book for the size of the type, not the content. “The hardest part was the sleeves,” she said. “I took nine pages from the book, sewed them into a square, made that into a tube and then sewed it on to the sleeve.

“The jacket had some rips in so I’ve taken a pair of scissors to it and distressed it some more. It is really enjoyable to take something no one wants and make it into something new.”