While many eco clothes designers are focusing on organic materials and low-impact production processes, Katy Robbins is rummaging through her grandma’s cupboard for old blouses and floral skirts.

The Brighton-based seamstress has combined her passion for reusing old fabrics with her love of vintage clothes to create Bobbins And Robbins, a handmade, made-to-measure clothing range. She says, “I always found ways of redesigning and restyling the old clothes in my wardrobe to turn them into something new, so I started recycling and reusing materials from a young age.”

Sewing had been a hobby up until last September, when Katy received a dressmakers dummy for her birthday and at the same time discovered a huge batch of vintage fabrics during a trip to the Lewes Antiques Centre. “I thought I could turn them into classic vintage pieces and realised I could offer a made-to-measure service,” she says. “Often the problem with vintage, or any clothing for that matter, is it’s hard to find something that fits perfectly.”

Katy’s latest range is called Project Judy, named after her grandma, who had a cupboard full of old clothes that weren’t being worn any more. “She said I could take what I wanted,” says Katy. “I’m restyling them all and it’s so much fun to create a new life out of this old clothing that would otherwise go in the bin.

“There’s so much fabric out there that’s just being laid to waste and forgotten about and that’s really sad. There’s so much that you can do with it.”

Visit www.bobbinsandrobbins.co.uk