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A cashmere shawl woven from unravelled and dyed thrift store sweaters. A jacket from a blanket. Dresses from Hawaiian shirts. Slim jeans from an enormous man's nearly new Levi's.

Sharon McNary's wardrobe is full of creatively repurposed thrift store finds.

In this workshop, she'll share her techniques and teach you the tricks for finding your own quality materials: where to buy, what to look for, when to buy, and what's not worth your time and money.

See how she turned three classic 100% cotton Hawaiian shirts into a dress—and how you, too, can transform thrift store garments using commercial sewing patterns.

Learn how to efficiently unravel a thrift store sweater to reuse the yarn. (Sweater included, or bring your own.)

A sweater can be dyed as a blank, then unravelled to get a nice long gradient yarn. Or it can be unravelled first, dyed, and transformed into something new—a knitted cowl, perhaps, or woven dishtowels.

Sharon will show how to go from a ball of yarn to tying up a skein for dyeing and demonstrate how little is required to dye animal fibers like cashmere and wool. After this workshop, you'll never look at a thrift store rack, or your own castoffs, the same way again.

MATERIALS INCLUDED IN $50 fee: Each student will receive a thrift store sweater to unravel and a small kit for doing the work.

ABOUT THE TEACHER: Sharon McNary is a life-long maker. She started sewing doll clothes on a tiny chain stitch sewing machine in first grade, learned to knit in high school and came later in life to weaving. But one constant throughout. She’s frugal. She gets much of her raw materials from thrift stores and transforms them into things for her own wardrobe. She’s also an endurance athlete and recently retired as a reporter at NPR member station KPCC.

FREE WEFF ADMISSION with workshop registration.

Maximum number of students: 8