At HMP Downview, a women's prison in Sutton, inmate Suzanne is steaming the darts on a skirt. She's been employed in the prison's fashion workshop since September. She says every day is different.

"We could be repairing garments that have got damaged for either the officers or prisoners themselves, or we could be in the middle of a production."

The women here recently filled an order of 4,000 hessian tote bags made of coffee bean sacks. Dotted around the room are sample dresses, skirts, rolls of material and on one wall, a proud row of certificates showing off the qualifications they've earned.

They're being taught by Winston Rose, a former London College of Fashion professor.

"It's all about trying to give the women tools that they can use outside," says Winston.

"We try to promote good working practices, professionalism, punctuality, everything that you need for society when you're going back out to work.

"These women have been sentenced, judged and juried. There's got to be a time when you stop that and allow them to actually start contributing to society.

"I just think it's the godly thing to do."

Godly or not, these workshops could help an industry in need. In fact, standardised training is being rolled out across 73 workshops in prisons, which will teach inmates the speed, precision and quality control you need to work in textile production.

"We had huge redundancies in the '70s, 80's and 90's as the industry went offshore," says Celia Thornton, who is in charge of skills and training at the UK Fashion and Textiles Association.

"Now brands are looking to come back and realising there's an ageing workforce, and most of the workers they used to have are retired."

The situation is at odds with what we often hear - that our clothes and textiles are made in far-flung places and British manufacturing is long gone.

In fact, there are 75,000 textile manufacturing jobs in the UK, bringing in about £15bn, according to the UK Fashion and Textiles Association.

So how likely is it that employers will take on ex-convicts in their factories?

Jenny Holloway runs Fashion Enter, a social enterprise and garment factory in north London. She's been in the industry for decades, and also runs a prison programme training inmates.

"The skill shortage is so bad within our industry.

"When you think there are about 3,200 women in the prison system at the moment, that is a lot of people that could be brought into the industry. This is an untapped market."

As well as training prisoners, she's hiring them when they're released, and also offering apprenticeships.

"Once they've got those core skills they can really finesse and develop them further. So there's lots of opportunity."

According to Celia from the UK Fashion and Textiles Association, once you're in garment production, it can be a job for life.

"As in most industries, you have to start from the bottom and work your way up. It takes a while to become an industrial sewing machinist but once you've reached those levels, you're like hen's teeth. You're precious to the industry.

"We're trying to get rid of this perception that you'll go in and be made redundant the week after. That isn't true anymore."