A textiles student who didn't want to throw away her late grandfather's clothes has upcycled them into fashionable garments.<br /><br />Issy Spurway, 21, has hand-made the pieces from a bag of her late granddad's clothing tops.<br /><br />The old bloke clobber was transformed into cool designs and garments expected to be worn by youngsters.<br /><br />So far, Issy has upcycled over 100 garments, many of them her late grandfather's. <br /><br />Issy, a student at Loughborough University, said: "When my grandad died I didn’t want to throw his clothes away and I didn’t want to wear them.<br /><br />"So I made them into something I could wear and take a piece of him with me.<br /><br />"I actually think helped with the grieving process as I know he would have loved it."<br /><br />Issy documents her upcycling process on the social media app TikTok. <br /><br />Videos show her cropping, hemming, gathering and draping garments. <br /><br />Issy's grandfather passed away suddenly in November 2020 of a stroke and the following January she started upcycling his clothes.<br /><br />Issy said: "I find that upcycling is all about looking at the already existing features of a garment and working with these to suit a personal style or to make a certain outcome.<br /><br />"So each time it would be different depending on the garment."<br /><br />Issy thinks that her videos have been so popular because they resonate with people.<br /><br />She said: "The videos about upcycling my grandparents' clothes in particular did really well. <br /><br />"I think because a lot of people love their grandparents and keep their clothes as sentimental pieces after they’ve passed."<br /><br />Issy, who's from near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, honed in her sewing skills during the pandemic in her spare time.<br /><br />She started upcycling clothes to practise her sewing skills but also because it was cheap and shops were closed.<br /><br />She said: "I wasn’t particularly good at sewing but over the months I improved and before I knew it had quite a following."<br /><br />Issy gained traction online in the 2020 lockdowns and even made tutorial videos for one of TikTok's own campaigns. <br /> <br />She said: "TikTok UK reached out to me and I worked on a few campaigns with them, doing sewing and upcycling tutorials.<br /><br />"Once I got to university I had a lot to focus on so I stopped sewing for a couple of years. <br /><br />"Although I was still learning lots of techniques as part of my course so my sewing was still improving."<br /> <br />Issy has now taken up employment with an upholstery company in Oxford - while finishing her degree.
