The ideas are new, but the clothing is not.

As Yukon College's reclaimed clothing construct course ends, Lea-Ann Dorval, the instructor and local clothing designer, says she's confident her eight students will be able to take what they've learned and move on to more complicated projects of their own.

Next week will mark the last day of the class, which saw eight students learn how to take old garments and turn them into new pieces.

"It's essentially how I learned to design,” Dorval said this morning of why she wanted to offer the class.

While Dorval has a degree in fine arts, her work with clothing is entirely self-taught and, as she described, starting out with recycled clothing allows for a bit of "back-door” way in to learning design.

It's much less intimidating to start with a piece of clothing than a bolt of fabric in creating something new, she said. In this case, she pointed out, the designer already has an idea presented to start with.

Over the last seven weeks on each Tuesday, the eight students would gather from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. to work on projects, beginning with a coat. Each student could either take it apart to make a new top and skirt or change the design.

From there, they advanced to more complex pieces like creating new mittens out of old sweaters. There were many weeks where Dorval saw her students working into their lunch breaks or past the 5 p.m. finish time.

"There is a lot of interest,” Dorval said of that and other hands-on courses at the college.

Two years ago, when she started teaching sewing, the class quickly filled with the 10 students it had seats for – and then there was a waiting list of 120 students.

In this case, the spaces for eight students were also quickly filled with a few also on a waiting list if any spots opened up.

Also a cooking instructor at the school, Dorval said she's seeing a resurgence of people wanting to learn more of the domestic arts.

"There's clearly a huge interest,” she said, adding she's had several calls from people wondering if the course will be offered again in the fall.

Indeed it will, she said, noting she's also hoping to teach an introduction to sewing and fundamentals of design class as well.

As she explained, while students in the reclaimed clothing class were expected to have some knowledge of sewing, a few would have benefited from a prior course. She already knows of two students who said they would have likely taken both if they'd been offered.

Others, she noted, may prefer to take a basic class one semester, followed by the reclaimed clothing course in the following semester.

She's also heard others say they would like a follow-up class or drop-in opportunities to work on their own projects.

"Definitely, everyone (is leaving) inspired,” she said.

At next week's final class for this semester's course, students will be asked to fill out an evaluation form and let officials know their thoughts on the course.