“WHAT the blazes!”

That was what Diana Wood exclaimed when she found six suitcases full of her husband’s old school clothes when she cleared out their loft.

But the enterprising sewer knew exactly what she wanted to do with all the blazers and sports kit – turn them into cushions and blankets.

Diana comes from South Africa and explains that she grew up in a strong ‘make do and mend’ culture.

She had already set up a charity, Knitting for Africa, which encourages people to knit squares to be turned into blankets for impoverished children in South Africa, as well as a business upcycling remnants of fabric, turning what would otherwise be waste into vibrant cushions, blankets, throws and scarves.

Diana’s husband wasn’t keen on letting her turn his clothes into cushions – “he had a misplaced idea that he might be able to fit into them again,” laughs the 51-year-old. But she decided to set up a new business, What the Blazers, and found that while her husband might not have been keen to have his old clothes upcycled into beautiful home furnishings, lots and lots of people were.

In the 18 months since she set up this side of the business she has had more than 100 customers, who have asked her to work with old baby clothes, wedding fabric, clothes of a deceased love one, sports kit, school uniform and other items of old clothing.

“I did some work for a lady whose husband passed away last year and she had been hanging onto his clothes,” says Diana, who lives in Boldre in the New Forest.

“She gave me 29 of his shirts and all of his ties and I made about 18 cushions for her. She was really overwhelmed and emotional when I gave them to her.”

However, most of Diana’s work comes from upcycling old school uniform.

“My customers normally say ‘phew, thank goodness, I’ve found something useful to do with it!’” she laughs.

“For one client I did two cushions for their children at Christmas and they’ve subsequently sent me practically their whole wardrobe!

“I think it’s good to have a relationship with things. A school uniform cushion is going to be something you have a really good relationship with.”

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Diana set up the more general side of her sewing and upcycling business, D W Design, when her youngest daughter Sally, who is now 13, was four.

She came to the UK when she was 25 and initially lived in London, working in PR, but the family moved to the New Forest for her husband’s job and she gave up work to look after her four children, now aged 26, 25, 16 and 13.

When Sally started school Diana decided to start her own business, which she could fit around family life.

“I’d been out of official work for such a long time it was going to be very hard to go back and do what I’d done before so it was just ‘OK, I can sew I like being creative, I love colour, textiles and textures, so do something with that.’ and that’s how it started.”

Diana was surprised at how well her business took off and now employs six local people to sew her designs together for her and works full-time hours on a flexible basis across the day.

She is delighted that as well as turning people’s old clothes into much loved items she is also inspiring people to think about how they can upcycle themselves.

Diana has to be organised – as well as her sewing business she also puts in several hours a week sorting out knitted blankets and squares to send to South Africa for the charity she founded and runs, Knitting for Charity.

When she was at school her class had to knit squares to make blankets for underprivileged children and she brought that idea to the UK, starting two knitting groups in local schools.

This grew into the charity and now people from across the country knit squares and blankets for her to pass onto underprivileged children in South Africa.

“We send more than 300 blankets a year and countless squares. I get two or three bags a week of donations, which is lovely. I wash them all before they go and put them on the spreadsheet. It is quite busy so you get into a rhythm with it. I never let things back up or it’s a pile and takes ages.”

Daily Echo:

Diana was involved with the anti-apartheid movement before she left South Africa and it’s clear that she has a strong belief in helping those who are less fortunate as well as making the most of what you have.

“I’ve always been a firm believer in recycling,” she says.

“It goes back to South Africa. We didn’t have water or electricity so everything was saved. It’s part of who I am.

“At school when there was a drought we had literally a bucket of water a day and we had to do everything with that – wash, drink etc so you get quite clever about how you’re going to use it. I suppose I had early programming.”