CASTOFFS have been transformed into coveted home accessories by fashion students to raise money for Teesside Hospice.

Instead of selling for scrap the clothing too badly damaged to hang in its charity shops, denim jeans are being turned into unique peg bags and aprons by fashion and textile students at Cleveland College of Art & Design (CCAD).

Tracey ‘O’Donnell, retail area manager for Teesside Hospice, which is based in Middlesbrough, said: “It may be that there is a button missing or the item has been damaged, if it then fails to sell in one of our £1 outlets it would normally end up going to the rag man.

“The charity makes £100,000 a year from such items, but recently we have been looking at other ways in which we could use the unwanted material to see if we could get more money for the hospice by upcycling it.”

The 50 first and second year students will be divided into teams and will each create peg bags and aprons from the jeans which the charity will deliver to the college each week.

The 'new' products will then be collected and distributed to the 14 hospice shops across the region, before being labelled with individual tags with the student maker’s name and put up for sale.

CCAD tutor, Diane Watson, added: “Many of our staff members and students have been personally touched by the work that the hospice does and we are really please that they invited us to be part of their project.”

Student Katrin Campbell, 16, of Ingleby Barwick added: “My mum had cancer last year. She is alright now but lots of other people still need help and the hospice does an incredible job.”