Karlene's Workshop

I’ve been wanting to have a go at dyeing with tea for a while now. I had an old white cotton skirt with a broderie anglaise hem that I wanted to incorporate into my current project (using up the pant legs from the green jeans) and needed to be less, well, white! I also wanted […]

I started with a pair of slightly faded green jeans, then made them into a skirt like this. It was a bit plain so I decided to add some patchwork applique and lace My favourite so far! If you look at the back of the waistband you can see the original colour where I’ve pulled […]

Not far from where I live is a thrift shop that has a regular clothing sale once a month where everything is $1 each. I’ve only been twice, and come home each time with a huge bag full of clothes to be refashioned. I’ve promised myself to stay away until all the work has been […]

Remember all those frilly girly things I made for my nieces for Christmas? Well, I finally got some pictures of them all wearing the outfits. At Easter! The sun was very bright which is why some of the expressions are not very fairy princess like 🙂 Here is Alyssa who is wearing a beaded necklace […]

I had some comments recently from Cathy McGregor from Napier who sent me some lovely pictures of the fairy skirts she has made for her granddaughters from old scarves. The gold coloured organza fabric which is used in both skirts is from a wrap/stole she made for a wedding, and the spotted lemon scarf was […]

We’ve been very busy this week, today was the first I have been able to get any sewing done. I was very pleased to get this fairy skirt finished this morning. It’s to go with the fairy wings in my last post. I have used lots of layers of different fabrics cut into triangle or […]

The post about my jeans skirt has had a lot of interest so I decided to do a basic tutorial for the jeans to skirt transformation. This idea is not a new one and there are plenty of tuts and varying methods, this is the way I do it. Take an old pair of old […]

For my next “princess” skirt for the nieces I made this ruffled one from a Barbie print curtain that my mother-in-law gave me. The curtain looked brand new, it was from the in-laws new house in the bedroom that our boys sleep in when we stay, and has now been replaced. I just knew it […]

My Mum gave me this dress when she was clearing out her wardrobe. It has two layers, the top is a lovely lace patterned tulle with a bordered hem. I decided to make it into a princess/dress-up style skirt for my niece. In the spirit of wardrobe refashion and anti consumption we are trying to […]

This is how I recycled an old dressing gown into a swirly dancing skirt. The easy option here would have been to make a straight skirt, or a paneled skirt with flare at the hem, but I really like the way checks look cut on the bias in a circular skirt. And it’s going to […]