Three Yorkshire businesswomen are fulfilling their dream of opening an Ilkley shop selling vintage hand-made accessories.

Fran Jordan, from Ilkley, Emma Straw, from Burley-in-Wharfedale, and Helen Cotterill, from Settle, will be opening a shop on Railway Road in November.

Emma and Helen make bags from recycled materials such as saris and suspenders and Fran handcrafts beaded jewellery and felt scarves.

The three are joined by their shared love of unusual, one-off pieces, said Emma: "Each piece we make is unique. It's a backlash to the mass market.

"We really like the aspect of finding stuff and recycling it. It means that every item has a story behind it.

"Sometimes the most humble of things, like suspender belts, we can transform them into beautiful new things."

She tells the story of how she was rummaging in a friend's attic and found a ballet dress made by her friend's mother for her in the 1950s - Emma used the material to make a bag that her friend then gave to her daughter.

"People prefer to give me materials that I can do something different with. It is much better than throwing it away or handing the same thing down," she says.

Fran added: "People will often come to me with a broken string of beads and ask me to make them into something new, as well."

Emma, a former mental health nurse, and Helen, a retired shepherdess, met five years ago when they were studying Art degrees at Leeds Metropolitan University.

The pair set up a mobile flea market, selling their bags alongside cakes on a specially decorated tea trolley. Ever since then they have dreamed of opening their own shop.

The pair met Fran, a former book illustrator and part-time tutor, at the beginning of the year when they were all picked as finalists in the Bradford Enterprise Island competition. The entrepreneurs were chosen from more than 100 competitors pitching to a Dragons' Den-style panel of business experts.

In April, the trio were spotted by the landlord of the Railway Road shop exhibiting at the House of Rose and Brown boutique in Saltaire.

The landlord was looking to handpick artisans making vintage pieces for a boutique, sited above the Emporio Italia café, which will be fitted with wooden floors and chandeliers.

Emma, Fran and Helen will be the first shop in the boutique of five. They are hoping to be joined by at least one clothes designer and a milliner too.

They visited the shop three weeks ago, signed the contract last week and should be open for business in time for Christmas shoppers.