AS finances are getting ever tighter, turning to designer wear is not the obvious choice.

But when that designer is you, and fabrics cost as little as £1 a metre, unique stylish clothing is just a few weeks away.

Carrie-Ann Kay, the designer behind label Rene K, says her basic sewing skills and garment-making classes are becoming increasingly popular as women make do and mend their way to looking fabulous.

Inspired by TV shows and the rising vintage movement, women are pulling out sewing machines and threading their needles to make homewares and clothes.

“There's definitely a boom in interest in making and mending at the moment,” said Carrie-Ann.

“People have been inspired by Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home series, but at the same time they don't really want to make little hearts that she's using £10 a metre fabric for — they want something real.

“I get my fabric for £1 a metre from Immanuels in Burnley.”

Over three weeks, women learn sewing skills such as pleating, darting, fitting zips and buttons. And on the fourth and final week at Carrie-Ann's studio, above ARTisan Tea Rooms, in Standish Street, Burnley, they bring all the items from their wardrobe which need a facelift.

“On the fourth week, they all bring in black bags of items to put their darts in, or to add volume with pleats and other alterations,” she said.

“People really come along totally clueless, starting from absolute scratch.”

Carrie-Ann learned to sew with her grandma Rene — who inspired the brand name — and admits she had a 'von Trapp' phase when she was given her first sewing machine, aged 15 or 16.

“Everything I could find I was cutting up and sewing it — curtains, table clothes, the works,” she said.

The Northern spirit, says Carrie-Ann, and Burnley's heritage as a textile town make it an ideal place to learn the craft.

And she hopes Mary Portas’s latest TV project — returning fashion manufacturing to the UK — will take off.

“Making something that's British through and through, that’s something I have been trying to do with my label for the past 10 years and now Mary Portas is tackling that on TV,” said Carrie-Ann.

“Burnley is a textile town. To really bring the industry back would be amazing. It’s also a hugely creative place.”