DRESSMAKER Christine Connell’s passion for sewing has been blighted in recent years due to painful arthritis in her hands.

But creative Christine, who lives in Blackburn, may have found the solution as she discovered making dresses from paper to be a relatively pain-free endeavour.

And now she’s using her skills to make wedding dresses from wallpaper produced by Graham and Brown in Blackburn.

She said: “I’ve always made dresses as a hobby and made things for family and friends but I had to cut back because of my arthritis.

“My son works at Graham and Brown and they had an idea to launch a new line of wallpaper by turning them into dresses and I thought I’d give it a try.

“What I found was that working with paper was much easier than working with material.

“The scissors just glide right through it and it so it’s kinder on the hands!”

65-year-old Christine, who has worked as a managing director at Ivy Street Community Centre since 2011, said she was ‘more than pleased’ with the results of her creations which she made without the aid of patterns.

Married Christine said: “I just made it up in my head as I went along. They’re being used to launch a new product and will be on display in Liverpool.

“I didn’t get paid for it but I did ask if Graham and Brown would donate raffle prizes to help with the centre’s fundraising which they’ve agreed to do.

“The centre is now run purely by volunteers and are trying to raise enough money to buy our own coach for trips out with the children so it’s really good that they’ve offered to help.”