Ms Jakob creates new clothes from 100 per cent recycled fabrics, alters clothing to customers needs and creates custom made garments through her business Bethany Alice Fashion Design, with an aim to increase the life of items and reduce the impact of fashion on the environment.

"I want to inspire people and teach people all the different ways you can up-cycle your own clothes. It is about knowing how to be more critical about your clothing," she said.

Cutting the skirt off a dress to make it into a shirt, adding sleeves to a dress and replacing stained or damaged sections of a garment bold, contrasting fabrics are some of Ms Jakob's 45 up-cycling tips that will be shared at her public workshop during the Ballarat Ethical Fashion Festival on August 20.

See Bethany Jakob's full list of 45 ideas to bring new life to old clothes below.

The Ballarat Ethical Fashion Festival aims to raise awareness of the ethical and environmental cost of a throwaway textile culture, while providing inspiration and ideas on a re-style, re-use and repair approach.

Workshops will run from August 17 to August 24 in Ballarat, featuring talks to help you find your op shop style, be introduced to SAORI weaving and learn how to do visible mending.

Ms Jakob's focus on sustainability in fashion began around two years ago, two years into her business, after watching ABC's television program War On Waste.

She said she was inspired to incorporate a sustainable approach into her own business after realising how approachable and easy it could be.

"I wanted to find a creative way to make fashion sustainable without it being daggy," she said.

"I love to not only create my own pieces, but educate people that by altering your own clothes and working with what you already have is sustainable and doesn't have to be expensive, time consuming or hard to do.

"People realise it can be easy and they can save money along the way because they are not spending money on new clothes."

See how Bethany Jakob transformed an old fleece jumper and an a-line skirt below.

One way Ms Jakob strives for clothes to have a longer life is to encourage women to alter clothes to suit their body rather than feeling they must change their body to fit the clothes.

She also encourages consumers to consider if they will wear an item more than 30 times before they purchase an item, whether new or second hand, and consider altering items that are not often worn.

Data shows the average person in Australia buys 27 kilograms of clothing every year and only wears an item seven times before throwing it away.

Visit recyclingrevolution.com.au/ethicalfashion/ for the full program of Ballarat Ethical Fashion Festival events and to book tickets to workshops, including Ms Jakob's held at Sebastopol Salvos on August 20.

Sign up to Bethany Alice Fashion Design's newsletter at bethanyalice.com.au/ for more sustainable fashion tips and tricks.

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