A TALENTED student with a passion for fashion has been using her skills to support a worthy cause.

Budmouth College pupil Zoe Boyce has produced an Oxfam-inspired dress created from recycled plastic bags as part of a Design Technology Textiles GCSE project.

The impressive piece has now taken pride of place in the window of the charity’s shop in Dorchester to catch the attention of customers and raise awareness.

Zoe, 16, spent her textiles classes from October last year to February working on the piece as part of her assessment task focusing on recycling and sustainability.

The process involved using biodegradable bags and printing the shop logo on to un-bleached cotton using a computer design programme and a laser cutter.

Zoe said she was pleased with the finished product after her months of hard work and was looking forward to having it on show for shoppers in the county town to admire as they walk past.

She said: “I’m quite proud of it. It was quite fiddly to do but hopefully people will stop and look at it.”

The Year 11 student from Chickerell said she hoped her achievement proved to be just one step on a career path.

Zoe said: “I want to go into the fashion industry and do all of it really.”

Manager of the Oxfam store in Dorchester’s South Street Angela Allen said she was thrilled to have Zoe’s work on display.

She said: “I think it’s a fabulous promotional thing for Oxfam and it’s a massive amount of work to undertake.

“It is certainly going to raise Oxfam’s profile and get lots of people stopping to admire it.”

Textiles teacher at Budmouth Sonya Parker said: “Zoe and I would like to thank Oxfam for displaying this unique garment, so that she can fulfil her GCSE controlled assessment.”

She added: “Hopefully she’s got an A* for it.”